What has happened to customer support!

[Robin4]

Are we becoming too demanding? Are we as hosts expecting too much in the way of support from Airbnb?

A search of the CC pages from October back in 2015 to March 2016 revealed three threads that complained of host support rejection by Airbnb.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Communicating-with-airbnb/m-p/3099#M489

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/CASE-CLOSED/td-p/15827

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Need-help-with-a-Resolution-ticket/m-p/2748#M26857

There were many complaints about payouts, booking blocked dates, listing visibility, guest behaviour but, in those days things got resolved! 

Just the first 18 days of March this year on the 'Hosting board' alone has seen this lot of threads from hosts claiming rejected company assistance. We are now averaging more than one complaint per day....and we must surely be just the tip of the iceberg!

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Claims-for-guest-damage/td-p/1398224

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/A-lying-guest-with-malicious-intent-is-allowed-to-leave-...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Damage-Dispute-Denied-Due-to-5-Hours-of-New-Guest-Arriva...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Don-t-expect-any-support-from-AirBnb-for-damages-nor-rev...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Frustrated-with-customer-service/m-p/1418098#M337115

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/lost-keys-security-deposit-resolution-centre/td-p/142135...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/ANYONE-IS-INTERESTED-IN-STARTING-A-CLASS-ACTION-LAWSUIT-...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Guest-left-damages-airbnb-not-repsonsive/m-p/506912#M115...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/HOST-GUARANTEE-REQUEST-MONEY-BAD-GUEST/td-p/1420689

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Fraudulant-credit-card-use-3972-10-in-NY/td-p/673851

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Resolution-center-refused-to-refund-damages-caused-by-1s...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/guests-threw-a-party-in-flagrant-violation-of-house-rule...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Problem-with-Airbnb-Host-Guarantee-hosts-beware/td-p/558...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Resolution-Center-Fail-Heading-to-small-claims/m-p/89929...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Airbnb-cancelled-a-reservation-the-day-of-and-gave-guest...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Airbnb-case-manager-refund-guest-without-my-approval/m-p...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Decline-of-AirBnB-host-support/m-p/1415121#M336456

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Beware-of-AirBnB-quot-security-deposit-quot-does-not-exi...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Host-Guarantee-Inconsistent-Guidance/m-p/1415368#M336507

We are still hosting guests the same as we did back then. If anything we have learned a bit more about what we do since then, we should be better informed. Why is it that the satisfaction rate in dealing with customer support has slumped to the point where every 6th post now is a complaint about customer support!

We are here to help each other but what help can we offer if Airbnb are going to continue to reject any form of assistance to hosts who are simply trying to comply with Airbnb's ever restricting guidelines!

This has got to stop! We had thought the introduction of a new global head of hosting would bring about some welcome changes but, here we are a year down the track and things have simply gone from bad to worse!

It is frustrating to log onto the CC now and be confronted with one problem after another, thread after thread.

I have said I am going to give it to the end of this year, if Airbnb cannot resolve this continual host abuse which is becoming more prevalent by the day I will move on to other hosting avenues. Maybe Airbnb don't care about losing their 'bread and butter' superhosts but I don't want to continue to feather their pockets at the expense of the general hosting community!

Cheers........Rob

[Fred13]

    I do think that your list @Robin4 could be broken down into three main categories:

1. The Host Guarantee issue.

2.Airbnb pandering to guest abusive/scam behavior.

3. The 'Get a refund for the guests' by any means necessary company line.

   It all suggests to me a certain mentality and really Airbnb is much different than many of the other young tech companies like them of the last 20-25 years. They appear to belong to a generation that is very different people then the previous one and definitely the 2 generations before them.

    In my lifetime, the population of the world has doubled, and now they are communicating through a whole new mean (aka the Internet);  perhaps this last generation feels they have enough numbers not to have to adhere to an old set of values which the 3 issues above would have been definitely considered absurd.

   Just a thought. Personally, at this point I am just 'playing out the string'.

[Fred13]

meant to say: "and really Airbnb is not much different..."

[Elaine701]

Airbnb used to be a very different company. It was a great idea borne from a rather grassroots beginning, largely sculpted from the view of a host. 

Then, it took off. Wildly. And Airbnb became the biggest player in the business. 

Then, the IPO.

And that's the point when all the high ideals of its roots get tossed out in favour of sales and profits. Airbnb established it's name as a really cool, grassroots startup, and can still proliferate that perception.

But its primary responsibility is no longer to its hosts or even guests. It's firstly responsible to it's shareholders. And that means the bottom line on the P/L analysis. 

Today, Airbnb's sheer size and the rather captive position where successful hosts who've long invested in building their ratings enables Airbnb to minimize or eliminate the burden of host support, since hosts are very unlikely to give up all they've invested just to start all over again on page 87 of booking.com or VRBO searches.

And I have little doubt Airbnb's market research sends reports to the board which clearly illustrate this.

Host support is an expensive non-necessity that doesn't add anything to the bottom line. It only costs money. So, what else would you expect? 

[JR1]

I could not be more disappointed with Airbnb's customer service (or lack thereof). Despite their taglines and advertising, they clearly care little about their hosts (or superhosts). 

Outsourcing customer service overseas may save a couple dollars, but it also creates a multitude of issues that have impacted me and my listings in a very real way.

I recently had an anonymous guest claim there may be a recording device in one of my properties (there wasn't--there was a touchscreen device to control music and the thermostat). Instead of contacting me to inquire (I have 5-star rating with 300+ reviews), ALL of my listings were disabled at 4 am, and no one with Airbnb would help me reactivate them. I would wake up to a missed call from Airbnb CS at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. After 5 days, my listings were finally reactivated and bookings could continue, but not until I had missed out on several bookings costing me thousands in lost revenue. Since when are superhosts treated as criminals, guilty until proven innocent?

Airbnb's processes and policies are deeply flawed, and their platform seems to have become a commodity, just like all the others. Having now posted my listings on other sites (I could no longer trust Airbnb to do the right thing), I have lost any affinity or allegiance I had to this company. If you haven't already cross-listed your propert(y/ies) on other platforms, I would encourage you to do so ASAP.

I can't imagine this is what Brian Chesky and his friends had in mind when they started Airbnb. I kept telling the autobots I would message when I was trying to get my account unsuspended, "C'mon Airbnb, you're better than this!!!" Clearly they are not.

Until their bottom line is impacted and hosts take their listings elsewhere, we can't expect anything to change.

[Mike-And-Amy3]

Are there other hosts that are annoyed about getting upcoming reminder texts in the middle of the night? Example: John is checking in in 8 days. 
I get lots of texts at 2am in the morning. I never turn my phone off and these are really upsetting

[Robin4]

@Mike-And-Amy3 

Unfortunately that is what happens when we live in a global society.......while some play, others sleep!

Being in Australia, almost all my notifications come in the middle of the night. 

Mike, or Amy, almost all current smartphones have a scheduled 'do not disturb' setting where the phone will automatically run silent for certain hours of the day that you might set. 

This feature is available on both iOS and Android. I am only familiar with Android but the protocol is similar with iOS I believe....

Open 'Settings' > 'Sound' > 'Do Not Disturb' and then 'Schedules' and set the quiet hours you want the phone to regularly adhere too!

I have done this because I have set my sms tone as loud as possible so I can hear the phone no matter where I might have put it down around the house. At 11.00 pm it automatically goes silent and gives me an sms alert at the end of the set quiet time next morning! 

If you do this guys I guarantee you will get a peaceful nights sleep, John's reminder will still be there in the morning!!

Cheers........Rob

[Ann72]

There was a separate post about this recently, @Mike-And-Amy3. https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/You-have-a-guest-arriving-notification/m-p/1417591#M3369...

If you can't do as @Robin4 suggests and put your phone on "Do Not Disturb" (which has functions like "allow messages from favorite contacts"), you can try to turn off notifications in your account and limit these reminders to emails.  Turning texts off here does not turn texts off when bookings come in.

[Ann72]

Oh dear, @Robin4, I was just telling @Mary996 that it's not as bad as it appears.  😂😂😂

This really is a crescendo of complaints, @Tara-Bunch!  I didn't realize, Rob, that the community center wasn't always like this.  I guess I just assumed people always came here to complain!  But you've pointed out a huge difference in posts.

[Robin4]

@Ann72 

Ann, since the CC was re- launched back in Oct 2015  you can go straight back to the 3,625th page on this hosting board and you can work your way forward. By doing so makes you realise after a while what a happy bunch we were back then. Sure we had problems, hosting has never been sailing on a smooth pond.

But the thing that strikes you is, back then, if we couldn't solve a user issue, with some of the wonderful contributors here we had then like @Dave-and-Deb0   @Clare0  @Helga0. @Lilian20 @Bruce43  @Linda-And-Richard0  @Deborah0 @Andrea9 @Linda0 and of course, David from Como........customer support could....and did!

Very rarely would a question or post need more than 2 or 3 replies before the issue was resolved.

What has happened to those days Ann? As I said we were all a relatively happy bunch back then....apart from a 'nameless' Italian host from Kuala Lumpur who made it his goal to screw every cent out of every guest, and he got stuck into any of us who didn't agree with him!. There were some like @Momi from Hawaii  who's unbridled self faith gave us some wonderful humour!

There just seemed to be a fairness in the system Ann that has disappeared now. 

My feeling is, the more you have got, the more you want, and those lovely euphoric days when what came Airbnb's way was met with gratitude and surprise at the top level is now just figures on a balance sheet, and unless those figures keep on heading up and up, heads will roll. This well is truly seen to be bottomless. The nice eye to eye, hand to hand days that were the hallmark of Airbnb are gone....we are continually being pushed into uncharted territory! 

Cheers.........Rob

[Mary996]

Hi @Ann72  how lovely to get a mention from you. I really appreciate it. I am of course a great admirer....!!!

I did not receive your tag alas... otherwise I would have been in here much sooner. But here I am now at your service and ready to apply some thinking to the efforts that you and Rob have initiated. I wonder if others may not have received notice of this post either? It is such a good one. xxxxxxxxxxx

[Max1761]

What is going on,  now resolution center only says Sorry we couldn't find the guest, case will be close.   really?  where is the partnership here ?  where is the support ?   

[Mary996]

Thank you so much @Robin4  for this diligent and informative post. I really appreciate the leadership you are taking here and would like to come in with a perspective that might (hopefully) uplift you and dear @Ann72 and @Fred13 and well everyone  who like your good self takes such a huge amount of responsibility and is equally diligent.

Perhaps the time has come for the 'next phase' .... Da da da da daaaa     .... are we going to become more of a 'self-help' entity....??? And in exchange for that are we going to get more operational flexibilty??? So more freedom, more participation but also more sharing and greater expectation of other Hosts to participate ??? So there would be a requirement to attend the CC on a rotating basis on all Hosts and we would all take a turn in the duties here. Accompanying this might be greater quality of Customer Service personnel who are well trained in all issues offering a higher standard of response and satisfaction at all levels.

I think we should start now. Every time someone comes in via the CC we answer their queries to the best of our abilities and the collective effort is so helpful in this endeavour and we invite them to join us in taking a turn as well and in learning the ropes here which in turn will empower them as better, more  informed Hosts. What do you think?

We have to make the income stretch. Lets look at all possible strategies for continued success and renewed improvement. xxxxxxxxxxx

[Will2356]

I currently am a Superhost and have a property in Seattle and can tell you my experience with Airbnb support every time I have needed them has been horrible.  Due to my short term rental license expiring (totally my oversight) my listing was blocked.  Airbnb notified me the day this was happening and Seattle city didn't notify me about the expiration.  I immediately renewed my city license that day.  Airbnb customer support after multiple calls, emails and a whole lot of frustration said it would take 30 days to resolve!  30 days during our high booking season in Seattle is just not acceptable.  We rely on May - August to carry us through lower bookings in the winter here in Seattle so this will have significant impact on our business.  As a result I checked out the fast start option and in 20 minutes set up a new account on VRBO.  The fees are a bit higher but the Customer Service was fantastic!  Results will tell if it's worth it, but as far as support and ease of use VRBO is far superior.

If anyone has suggestions on how to resolve my other issue I am open.  Am very disappointed in Airbnb.  Even a year ago the service was so much better.