Support....Airbnb support is a thing of the past!

[Robin4]

In the past week I have had two incredibly frustrating encounters with Airbnb support and I now feel, no matter what the problem, support are simply not worth contacting!

1/......I had a guest stay here, the reservation ending 12 days ago. They loved their stay, we got on like a house on fire and their desire was to leave a great review. They tried to submit their review and were hit with the Error 404 Ice-cream girl. I told them it was possibly a glitch in the system, wait 24 hours and try again.....same result.

At that point I contacted support and explained the situation. The support person, while being very pleasant said he could see an issue with the guests account and told me to get the guest to contact support!

Now previously that support person would have reached out to the guest and fixed the problem, not so now, the problem was thrown back on me to hassle over with the guest. The net result is, I have lost a great review all because support could not be bothered doing their job!

2/......This evening a guest who had stayed here previously sent me a message saying they would like to stay from 4th Feb to the 28th Feb, a nice reservation.

Fortunately those dates were available so I promptly sent them a 'special offer.' Next thing I get this message back.....

That's right, they want to pay, and they are directed to a South African hosts site that I have nothing to do with and did not know existed!

I get onto support and get exactly the same response as I got the other day. It took some time for support to even find the message stream  but after considerable phone hold she told me I would have to get the guest to contact support to sort this out.

I said, "Can you please  reach out to and speak to the guest and sort this out, if I get them to ring support they are not going to get you personally and they will have to go through the whole scenario again. Also I am concerned I can't block those 24 days from other bookings" She said....."I am not allowed to contact hosts guests"......I am serious, that is for real. At that point I asked to speak to a supervisor, or someone who actually had the authority to talk with both host and guest, or could I at least have a ticket reference to give to the guest that will get whoever they get onto the current state of support for this issue. She told me there was not a supervisor available and she could not tell me when would be available.....and no, she could not give me a ticket number!

The guest is now trying to sort this out, it's 1.00 am here and messages are going back and forth every few minutes. Support have asked me to send a new special offer which on their end showed the full price and I have now had to send another special offer. I am tired and I just want to give up and go to bed!

This whole Airbnb support thing is just plain comical, it does not exist any more. I will not attempt to deal with them any further, it's pointless, it has been outsourced to some crowd who have absolutely no idea how to do anything other than answer the phone. Training appears to be totally non existent and these reps fly by the seat of their pants. It has gone from being one of the worlds best company support options to being one of the worst.

To say I am disgusted is a mild understatement. We hear all these feel good statements from the top that keep on telling us how important we are, but the reality is we are completely on our own, we have no support whatsoever!

Am I angry.......Brian Joe and Nate, you bloody bet I am!

Cheers........Rob

[Bronwyn38]

I've lost a couple of bookings too, @Robin4 being down the coast from Sydney near a very popular holiday area (Jervis Bay)... one poor guest who was so very much looking forward to a family catch up here as a half way point between them (from Canberra) and mum and sister (from Sydney)... I'm not sure what the Sydney aspect issue ended up being, maybe one of them rode on one of the buses or trains specified, or attended one of the nail salons or supermarkets at the wrong time.... but she ended up moving her booking to Easter (actually told me she was in tears doing it)...Before that, it was a couple who actually live in the Northern Beaches area, so that was history! As Sydneysiders seem to be responding reasonably well to the latest requirements for the sake of having ready access to their families over Christmas, I am hoping against hope that it is under control very soon as has been suggested it should be... I didn't open up the dates freed up for my cottage, as I have other guests in my smaller unit and decided to just let them have the peace and quiet throughout their 6 night stay. It also means I have the cottage ready in good time for the people staying after that cancelled period, which is nice for me to have a more relaxed Christmas period too. It's not all about the money for me, which helps. This is my second 'ruined' Christmas here... bushfires last year.... but at least this time round isn't as traumatic for us, just sad for the guests...

[Robin4]

@Bronwyn38 

Yeah Bron we are maybe all being a bit paranoid here, this is Australia's current situation as far as Covid numbers are concerned......

8 new community transmissions in NSW, not a single transmission in any other state and 11 cases detected in foreign arrivals which don't matter as they go straight into mandatory quarantine and are not a risk to the general population.

So this entire continent of 25 million people are getting their knickers in a knot over 8 cases in one small confined locked down area. The other 138 active cases are all diagnosed and isolated. You could fit Australia's entire number of active cases into one small room. There is currently not one person in ICU in Australia, not one seriously infected Covid case throughout the entire country. There has only been 1 Covid related death in the last 6 weeks.

Jesus, the rest of the world would kill to have a Covid issue like ours, yet I have lost 4 bookings around the new year period because of Sydney's latest cluster of 103. Other state borders are totally shut or have quarantine restrictions to Greater Sydney.

Nevertheless, Victoria back in July showed us what can happen if you get too casual about dealing with this pandemic.

I agree it pays to be safe rather than sorry, I keep on getting emails from Airbnb almost daily telling me to keep abreast of the current Covid situation but, I seem to have no chance of actually getting any help from them in dealing with it!

Their lack of support is not going to cost me money, it is going to cost them money. Last night, I took the only course open to me, I directed the enquiry to another site and the booking has been achieved. The 30th December is now a re-booked night, just not an Airbnb booked night!    

Cheers......Rob

[Bronwyn38]

Indeed, @Robin4 it really is hard to know where to draw the line at times... Glad you didn't lose that booking... you do what you have to do when 'all else' fails! And fair enough! I am sick of looking at the Airbnb updates, as they apply to anywhere but here.. I am so glad we are only having to deal with the Australian version, yes.... we are very fortunate in that respect, and can still get on with welcoming guests - most of the time! My current guests didn't mind knowing they had the place to themselves for the duration of their six night stay, and it's a lot more relaxed for me too... which, compared with last Christmas, I can certainly deal with! It would be great to think that once these innoculations etc do the rounds, we can start to breathe more easily again - but as 'they' say, I guess the world will never be quite the same again... Keep up the good work, Robin and I trust your Christmas day will be great. I really should be over there celebrating with my dad at Victor Harbor, but... maybe next year.