@Mike-And-Jane0
Oh, I agree with your assessment about that guest. However, I just think -- in general - that it's way unacceptable that there is no support, literally none, unless someone already booked and their checkin is within 72 hours. There are zillions of other valid queries that warrant support.
I see Airbnb Support spending tons of wasted time on many things (want a list?) -- and then when there is a legitimate question, even from a Superhost, there is literally no one to speak with. Yes, I know they are crazy busy. Well they wouldn't be overloaded IMHO if they stopped the following time wasting practices:
1) Every time I write "please close this thread" I get a lengthy chatty message from support instead of simply closing it.
2) Airbnb actually tells guests that the cancellation fees (for bookings made during the pandemic) are negotiable(!!!) -- And so, obviously, they are deluged with lengthy daily calls from aggressive guests. If they simply stated that the policies are not negotiable (just like a non-refundable plane ticket), I am certain the load on support would decrease dramatically. Since there are so very many cancellations surrounding Covid, this is a never ending nightmare.
3) They keep baby stepping the Covid cancellation policy for stays booked before the pandemic. There is no scientist on the planet (except for a couple of wacko conspiracy theorists) who EVER predict that there will be a vaccine anytime soon. Why not simplify the process and just come out and say that ANY outstanding reservations made pre-Covid for future dates are cancellable - right now. Stop dragging out the agony, the ambiguity, the never-ending flood of calls to support. This process -- of extending the cutoff date every two weeks for just a few weeks in advance -- is causing so very much havoc for everyone.
4) When someone writes to Support, there should be an effort to actually answer the specific questions asked. (Novel approach, eh?) Instead we mostly get non-sequitur canned responses. Maddening.(It's not so hard -- count the question marks in the query and be sure to address each one.)
5) When someone contacts support regarding a problem between a host and a guest, implementing a policy of requiring the support personnel to actually read the message thread between said host and guest would actually -- I'm certain -- shorten the duration of the support investigation. Diving in blindly is not likely to solve anything. And that is the current M.O. Over and over again, it's seriously a policy. (Don't read, just copy some canned response.)
Oh, that's just a few suggestions -- in the off chance they might wind their way to someone at Airbnb who might be in a position to fix systemic problems. I have more suggestions too - but the above would really make a difference iMO.
