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

[Kelly149]

Thanks @Inna22 !!

not sure @Laura2592 will want to relinquish the crown but you may be right. 

[Patrick568]

Airbnb CS is hot garbage. My wife and I just had a horrible experience with a scamming guest that CS sided with, I'm so tired of Airbnb screwing hosts.

[Sharon683]

That is awful and scary! Apparently everything worked out.  You never mentioned if he was removed or did he stay the the entire reservation. Was he a good guest? 

[Kelly149]

@Sharon683  There was no reservation to stay for. He had no reservation. Therefore he was trespassing. Therefore he was removed by law enforcement. I’m supposed to get a call this afternoon from Airbnb customer service to tell me what happened from their end. 
and no, he was not a good guest. In the five hours he was there he did more mess and damage than most normal guests would do in a much longer stay

[Sharon683]

OMG 😲 

[Sammy-L-0]

Was he charged with burglary? Where I live, entering and remaining unlawfully in a dwelling or any other building is a felony.

[Kelly149]

@Sammy-L-0  He did leave on his own instead of with law enforcement. Unfortunately for him (& us) his convo w abb CS made him think he had a real reservation. If he’d have been an actual criminal they were quite prepared to take him off with them. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Kelly149  so, did you get a call from the Airbnb security CS team as promised? Did it offer at least some compensation for your time, work and stress?

[Kelly149]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 thanks for asking, they did call

- asked me to give them the timeline of what happened

-refused to tell me what they do know from their side about what the rep said to the guest

-offered me up to $500 to replace locks

-many, many assurances: uh huh, ok ok ok, we're here to help, we support you, etc

-said we are investigating thoroughly

-had no timeline on when or how they will resolve that investigation

-said that I could be transferred to claims after the investigation wraps up to see how they will take care of the "guest" sleeping in a whole bowl of french onion dip on our couch

Takeaways: ABB "Support" is an after-the-fact help. It's been 5 days since this "guest" arrived and was removed from my space, so hosts must have their own plans and means for dealing with problems. If I had been expecting ABB to participate in rectifying guest trespassing, that would have been a long wait. They're following a script and this may or may not fit your situation. (offering to replace my locks when this "guest" never had a key) One of the primary things I want from this is for ABB to admit what went wrong and tell me how they'll be improving their systems to protect hosts going forward. I will, however, be very very surprised if this happens. Oh, and don't we think that "guest" should be removed from the platform and the CS should have some pretty serious consequences/retraining??

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Kelly149thank you for sharing, these are very important information for all hosts.

As far as I can tell you dealt with this whole situation very professionally and calmly even though, I am sure, most hosts would be totally lost and freak out. So, congratulations, you are a real pro girl! 🙂

I believe Airbnb will admit their CS rep made a mistake and I hope you will be reimbursed for damages, work, time, and stress. I am also pretty sure this rep will be fired but of course, they will not share that info with you and us.

[Kelly149]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 hopefully someone benefits from this... I'm sure there will be a variety of ways how that happens.

We'll all wait now to see how "the investigation" wraps up...

[Debra300]

@Kelly149,

I think the offer to pay for locks was a workaround to compensate you for the non-existent reservation.

[Kelly149]

@Debra300 except I'd be required to buy the locks first and be reimbursed... so it's yet more work.

I really do think there is somewhere on the workflow that says "guest breaks into house --> offer Host new locks"

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Kelly149   Great investigation squad they've got there. Makes Ace Ventura look like Sherlock Holmes. Imagine a real investigator waiting for 5 days after an incident to finally contact the primary witness and still not having a single relevant question prepared or a working understanding of the basic facts that were already provided to them. 

@Catherine-Powell  Is this Superhost's experience representative of your vision for Airbnb's relationship with its hosts? I mean no disrespect here, but as an employer who typically partners with business clients to provide services to end users, I want to put myself in your company's position here to imagine what I would do. Let's see:

-  One of my employees screws up massively and gives a valued client's personal home address to a customer.

- That customer proceeds to forcefully break into the client's home with no booking or authorization to be there. By sheer luck it doesn't end violently, but the client still must deal with law enforcement, absorb unexpected cleaning expenses, and seriously doubt whether their sensitive personal data are safe with my staff.

Honestly, I can't imagine a situation where I wasn't on the phone with that client within hours (NOT FIVE DAYS), treating the incident with the kind of urgency that you usually reserve for problems that go viral in the media (which of course, this one still can).  I'd transfer the full value of that booking and cleaning fee to the client immediately,  and prepare an open claim through which they could receive expedited compensation for any additional expenses without further hassle. I'd remain discreet about the identity and employment status of the staffer who made the dumb mistake, but I'd be offering every possible assurance that I'd refine the training process to make sure this kind of disaster couldn't happen again, and I'd back up those assurances with tangible actions.

And of course, I'd block the customer's access to the service, in the manner that you usually reserve for truly dangerous Airbnb members like @Sarah977 .

If you were head of hosting, what would you do?

[Kelly149]

@Anonymous I wasn't going to get too nitpicky but the CS called, confirmed I understood that all was being recorded and then said ~ please tell me the timing of this booking~

To which I said, "excuse me, but to be clear, there was no booking...." Oh. Well. Yes. Of course, no confusion, I understand, but still can you tell me the timing of what happened?

To which I said, don't you have all the records? My chat history with the request, the CS chat log with the guest? Aren't these things written, recorded and known??

So she says "oh, of course we know things, but I cannot tell you anything about what we do or don't know. So, what can you tell me about what happened?"

Let's just say that I didn't feel any better about the "team" that I'd been passed to than any of you have on your most frustrating CS call. I'm not sure how much the "team" knows about owning and STR-ing a guesthouse and I'm positive they know nothing about what's involved in calling a US law enforcement agency to remove a trespasser from your home.

And PS "they'll be working very hard" but have no idea when they'll wrap up their investigation.

And what happened to @sarah977?!?!?