This site just gets more messy by the day!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

This site just gets more messy by the day!

I say to guests when they leave, if they enjoyed their stay and wish to return in the future send a new enquiry via the Airbnb search page, put in the required stay dates and I will send a special offer for the new booking.

In the past it has worked, a new enquiry has come with the option to send a special offer.....not any more! The Airbnb bot recognises that this guest has stayed at this listing before and the enquiry option is removed from the mix and simply goes straight into our existing message stream. The guest is then taken directly to the 'Book and Pay' page, they are not given the option to make an enquiry.

My reaction was, ok proceed with the booking and I do have the option to refund you money, I will refund 15% of the amount I will be paid for the stay.

 

Another brick wall, the guest books at the full price and when I hit the send money tab it asks me for the date change for the booking as the only option to send money.....I can't proceed with a refund unless I manipulate the dates.....and on a two night stay that doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room!.

 

This platform is becoming entirely unworkable, it has now got to the point where I can no longer reward past guests for their loyalty to me and to Airbnb.

In future I won't let this happen again, this is robotic madness.....all I want to do is reward a past guest for their loyalty an yet still involve Airbnb!

 

What this is doing is encouraging hosts to do deals outside the platform....can't this company realise how they are shooting themselves in the foot!

 

I have to say, I have had a great relationship with Airbnb but, over the past year they are severely testing my patience and my loyalty.

 

Cheers........Rob

20 Replies 20
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Emilia42 

 

Hahaha, yes Em,  there was a glass or two of red involved but  I was definitely trying to work through the Change Reservation section. I have done it a number of times before. I am familiar with the way it works.....even with a glass of red involved.

Here is the appropriate section of the message stream.....

Change reservation amount 2.png

 

When that would not work and there was no 'Send Request' tab offered, the only tab visible was a 'Reset' tab, my reaction was, they have made an alteration to the programming. I then went to the 'Send or Request money' section but could get no joy there either.

However, this morning things are back working again, I should have waited til this morning before starting this thread but, I was just so frustrated that I could not achieve what I wanted to do that I felt I needed to say something.

 

Cheers........Rob

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Robin4  I have to say, that while I could understand your loyalty to the platform for many years, in light of all the grousing about their tech, their attitude and their bad CS you've been posting and agreeing with lately, I find it bamboozling why you would still feel that loyalty, which Airbnb certainly doesn't feel towards you.

 

From the day my first guest checked out, I have told every guest that if they ever want to come back, to just email me directly. Never felt the slightest pang of guilt about that.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Sarah977 

Sarah, I know, sounds stupid, bitc*ing on one hand and trying to be best of buddies on the other but, I found in business, loyalty amongst staff and customers was always well received and respected. I have had no where near the success of Airbnb's founders but, I did take a mechanical services company from 3 employees to 27 in the space of half a decade and my partner took that on to employ 45 staff over the remainder of the decade following the loyalty principals we started out with.

We never did anything unethical and we were trusted in this city because of that philosophy. 

 

Sure I will sound off about what I feel are shortcomings in the Airbnb operation, but I sound off because I hope to improve something I feel is wrong. That doesn't mean I am not thankful for the 1,000 + strangers Airbnb have introduced into my life over the past 6 years.

Maybe I would have had just as much success on another platform, who knows. But I have trusted this platform........ and it hasn't let me down, it has challenged me at times but, it hasn't let me down.

 

To me, an Airbnb guest is always an Airbnb guest, same as Ade is always my wife, always has been and always will.....it's a matter of loyalty! 

 

Cheers.......Rob 

@Robin4 I have no objection to loyalty- I have a lot of loyalty to some businesses I deal with. That's because they have provided consistently good service, make things right if they go sideways, and make it evident that they value my business. Airbnb does none of those things.

 

They may have once, but a business can't rest on the reputation from its past performance, that no longer exists.

 

 

 

@Robin4 

I agree. Whoever is changing the user interface is either sabotaging Airbnb or has a god complex. I logged on today and the UI is insane.  I've told returning guests to just book as regular and I would alter the reservation to refund the difference. I just did that with a guest - changed the reservation after they checked in and put in a new, lower price. They accepted the change and it worked like a charm.

Hoping that's still there but from day to day I scratch my head over what Airbnb is thinking. I feel like we're all inside some weird psychological experiment.

@Christine615  Not only does it seem that every change results in a more and more difficult site to navigate, set up in a less and less intuitive way, they seem to change our hosting pages every 6 months. I just don't get it. It really is like someone is trying to sabotage the ability of hosts to run their business smoothly and efficiently.

 

They have so many ongoing tech glitches, not just for hosts, but for guests. The number of guests, (and they are by no means all newbies, some are long-time Airbnbers) reporting that they can't make a booking, that it keeps glitching out, is ridiculous. And of course Airbnb wants bookings, so why are the techies wasting time redesigning our interface every 6 months, instead of dealing with their glitchy software? It makes no sense at all.