ABB CS is not just bad but Dangerous

[Kelly149]

Last night at 1015-ish, a guest made a request to book for that same evening. (We are request only, so I don't have 'last-minute booking' barriers, bc I have to approve all stays anyway)

I was already asleep in bed, but the House Rules were sent over in the chat (the guest had a terrible review in his profile, did not answer the pre-booking questions, and at the time of his request was already outside of our stated arrival times).

At 1215 he messaged in the chat "hey, I need the address, I can't find the place". 

So, then he calls ABB CS. This is where the dangerous part comes into play.

ABB CS talks to this "guest", gives him my address and my phone number and tells him that they'll reach out to me to help. This guest DOES NOT HAVE A VALID RESERVATION. In no way shape or form should he have access to any of my information. 

So, with the new information he's been given this guest locates the barn (not hard to find a big red barn in the city even at 2 in the morning.) Funny though, since he doesn't actually have a reservation, he also does not have a door code. But he is undeterred and pushes thru a locked gate and enters the barn thru one of the doors on the back porch. 

At 7am when we get up we see this thread from the guest and the CS message I received "Hey, Kelly, please help this guest access your place" and I say "how weird that CS didn't tell this guy he doesn't have a reservation when they had the chance" and then we go to check the security cameras to find out about the tresspassing and entry.

So, this "guest" got woken up by the Sherrif's office telling him that he was trespassing and needed to vacate. Well guess what, he's really confused bc ABB CS told him our address and phone number and encouraged him to carry on as if he had a reservation when he didn't.

Bad look ABB. This is not how CS should work. This could have ended quite badly. Knowing if a guest does or does not have a reservation should be CS 101.

I dare anyone in corporate to look into the chats and try to explain to me what happened and what kind of training regimen they'll undertake to better educate CS.

@catherinepowell @Lizzie @Quincy @stefanie @Brian @nate

[Michael5689]

@Anonymous I'm hypothesizing that it's about more than just poor training. 

This particular instance is such a basic mistake by their staff that I am assuming it has to be influenced/informed by the limited training materials they are receiving being geared more towards customer support than provider support.  Admittedly it's anecdotal but within the last 2 years in very similar support situations to situations in the prior time periods, I've seen support act in a manner that they take decisions before consultation that they wouldn't have taken before without host consultation.

Maybe it really is just the luck of the draw and hitting more of those poorly trained customer support people, but I think the problem here is wider than poor training and churn.  I think there has likely been a shift of focus inside the training materials and slant of the content when onboarding staff.  The needle needs to get pushed back more toward mediation between parties from the current tilt toward customer support.

[Kelly149]

Update: community support has emailed to say that they’ll be available to discuss this on Monday. (3 days from message to call, 5 days from incident to call) The possible good news is this is a person from “a specialized team”. We’ll see. 

[Laurelle3]

@Kelly149 my question is what happens has an accident and hurts themselves? What would the outcome be for insurance? Yours or Airbnb's. 

Sad to hear that this has happened to you but it gives an "Alert" to other hosts.

[Kelly149]

@Laurelle3 right, the sending a guest to a host without the contractual protections of an active reservation is a big concern

[Helen744]

@Kelly149 I simply do not understand how this happened . Even with a booking it should not have happened unless details like lockboxes and address are released or emailed. Did maybe,the guy thought he had booked and the rep said something like 'the adress is in your emails' without checking that the booking was valid. I do not see how a rep could even check a pending booking or give an address out that was not booked?Surely there has to be a connection here. I mean out of all the places he could have broken into . There is no logic here . He must have already known the address or without the booking surely the rep is not able to release it.Makes zero sense to us who think. Glad no one was shot as is the underlying implication here . He was not a burglar technically as burglars dont complain about house keeping generally.Get him to pay for his stay . What a weird nightmare .Lucky you got some sleep . Set a nightly cut off time . I do eight in winter and nine in summer but do not ever deal with those real late nighters unless its booked a long time previous by arrangement. The rep has a lot of answering to do H

[Sandra683]

Wow… in Florida that could end REALLY badly for the “Intruder”. Besides that, it’s horrific that ABNB would disclose your personal info without a confirmed reservation. Hope you get full reimbursement and a promise of training for their staff on the safety of their hosts. 

[Kelly149]

@Sandra683 really, is there anywhere in the world where creeping around in the dark, pushing thru gates and walking into stranger's houses in the middle of the night is going to be a good decision???

[Helen744]

@ Kelly 149 that is what a lot of Airbnb people who book late at night actually do H

[Helen744]

Sneak around at night I mean . How would the gun happy neighbour know the difference between any guest arriving at night legitimate or not H

[Kelly149]

@Helen744 Nope, I don’t think so. Legitimate bookings, the porch lights are left on, the guest enters the front door with a key or code, because they are planned for and expected. 
If a guest has a real booking and they arrive to a dark house with a locked door and no access to a host then they should turn around and head for the nearest hotel, not push open a locked gate and creep around the back of an unfamiliar house jiggling windows & door handles. 
And when a guest calls CS in the middle of the night saying that they’re looking for their place to stay, then step #1 for CS is determining if that guest actually has a reservation. Because the whole flow chart changes based on that first very important question. And if CS is passing out host information to unbooked guests willynilly then there’s nothing hosts can do to protect themselves from that. 

[Helen744]

@Kelly149 I do instant book so people are always booked and credit card details collected but I could not deal with iding anyone late night, at all, but from what you said this numb skull thought he had booked, because he complained about the vac being in the house. Honestly that made me laugh. Maybe just maybe he was drunk or something.H

[Helen744]

Also he had your address so he thought he was done and booked otherwise how would he have had your address. The rep is the one who needs to explain . If you pushed a button in the night did you not realise he wanted to book for that night ?IB works differently because if he was able to book before cut off time then he could theoretically have agreed to the terms and been given the address , because it was within disclosure time, or without me turning on any lights but he would not have had any keys if I was asleep . So it could happen with IB . Never has but could . He would not have been able to get in though H

[Helen744]

Disclosure time of address is within the twelve hours before . So if its same day then he has already gotten the address, but only with the ib booking .Bookings that come in during the night I expect not to deal with because noone can book same day after 8 or nine depending on season. H

[Kelly149]

@Helen744 Really thought this was clear, “guest” had the address bc CS gave it to him. There was no reservation. Only a request. No IB. No Reservation. No Booking. 
yes, IB listings can get bookings however they setup for timing. But request only bookings have to be accepted. 
And even with sending a guest out to my listing there still wasn’t a reservation. So yes, the CS has a lot to answer for. Hopefully abb will be honest with what happened so that there will be safety measures put in place to prevent it happening again. 

[ReAnna63]

Not going to lie.....this is absolutely Terrifying 🤯😱good grief, we need to get on better training for CSR staff so we are not jeopardizing the potential safety of hosts 😬