I am a big fan of Airbnb and its technology, but today I have a terrible guest & Customer Service experience.
A guest purchased a stay at my flat, with a strict refund policy. This means, they don't have the flexibility for changing their dates or canceling their stay after 48hr of booking. This seemingly normal reservation from a guest came in late 2020. After a few weeks, I was asked if we can move it from March to May, so they can get vaccinated before travelling. Although I had other guests in my flat, I re-arranged everything and moved the booking. This week, I was asked for another change of the date. The reason for this change was that there were some new traveling guidelines from the UK government which would prevent them from traveling. Although Airbnb UK confirmed it's compliant and legal to continue operating and welcoming guests, I decided to be flexible again. I was not able to accommodate for the June date but offered two more dates or offered a cancellation with just a 50% penalty (which I believe was fair; as one could claim that the guests should have selected a flexible accommodation if they valued flexibility). The client preferred to keep their other Airbnb stays, which were not available on the dates I offered and decided to threaten me and among other things say:
- "Businesses and venues that breach restrictions will potentially be subject to a:
Fixed Penalty Notice (fine) starting at £1,000 for the first offence and rising to £10,000 upon repeat offence"s --> no breaches, as confirmed by Airbnb and I offered more future dates to the visitor - "So you know my next steps are going to be contacting the MP in charge of your district as well as the senator in charge of my district in the United States. (I happen to live in the same state as the global headquarters for Airbnb so my senator is also the senator for their global headquarters)" --> really??
I explicitly said to Airbnb CS that I feel harassed by this bully visitor and that I would like to be protected and cancel my reservation as I started being afraid of this guest, and get a 50% refund. Result? Airbnb CS canceled the reservation and told me that as I can't honour the reservation anymore, I won't be getting paid the cancelation fee. I lost 1k but my Airbnb host status won't be affected (really? that's what I get for being a super host for the last couple of years)
Moral of the story: Airbnb is supporting bully visitors, gaming the system versus Super hosts that are trying to create delightful experience.
