When is airbnb going out of business? ie zero customer service

Jamie206
Level 10
Pooler, GA

When is airbnb going out of business? ie zero customer service

Airbnb's new policy of refusing to offer any type of customer service to Guests or Hosts is now costing me bookings. Just lost $700 yesterday when their system stole the money for the booking from the guests bank account and at the same time did an auto cancel on them for a same day booking. When they called airbnb, they were promised to be called back. That is a joke! I've waited up to two months for a call back! I called a couple times myself and got the same run around about how they're incapable of doing literally anything. Absolutely useless customer service, it's currently just a sham phone answering group. So, the guest was never able to complete the booking and we lost a guest, probably forever.

They've spent some millions upgrading the app, why not train some customer service folks instead? Will VRBO be able to pick up the slack when airbnb folds up?

10 Replies 10
Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

@Jamie206 Airbnb isn't allowing short notice bookings from locals who are 25 and under and trying to book a whole property listing: could that be why? They're trying to discourage parties.

 

I agree that Airbnb customer service absolutely sucks at the moment to the point of being non-existent, but there could be a legit reason for having an account or booking go poof. 

 

@Alexandra316  If that's the case though, the booking is blocked from even happening. @Jamie206  suggests the booking happened, guest was charged and Airbnb immediately cancelled. @Jamie206  did the guest get refunded?

No, the guest was not been refunded. They had used their debit card and the funds were removed from their bank account. I'm sure airbnb will hang on to the funds for a week or so, like normal.

They were promised a call back which will likely never happen. It's quite a shame.

@Jamie206   That the guest did not receive an immediate refund along with the immediate 'cancellation by Airbnb' is concerning, and appalling. Yes, while there could be a legitimate reason for Airbnb cancelling the booking, what excuse could there possibly be for the lack of accompanying refund?

@Colleen253 Just an idea... maybe they said they were an age and their ID said different: who knows? Last-minute bookings always seem to get a little sketchy. 

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Quincy  @Lizzie @Katie @Liv @Nick  could you help @Jamie206 ?! Thanks 🙏🏻 

Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Yadira22 thanks for the tag. 

 

@Jamie206 apologies for the delay, I've been off for a few days. I'm really sorry to hear you've had this issue. I have just received an update from Support about your case, so I will send you a DM with more info now.

 

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Thank you @Katie and hope you enjoyed your days off 🙂

Whatever are you talking about? There isn't any customer service. NONE! That system is gone. Not sure what is happening,  maybe trying to stretch the budget a bit more to look good for ipo? In any case, I refuse to lose anymore guests to airbnb's uselessness. Where you fail me, I will take the booking myself. It's what I and thousands of others have to do to survive. Airbnb clearly doesn't  care about the people that support their business. 

Jamie206
Level 10
Pooler, GA

Just as a follow up. This guest never got a response from airbnb. My guests are getting really upset and probably won't return to the platform because of the lack of support. I already had another incident where the bot decided that it needed to verify a guest that has been using the platform for years. It took the system three days to figure it out. If I hadn't booked the guest using my merchant account, I would have lost the booking. They were disgusted by the lack of support from airbnb, as am I.