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

[Gillian166]

@Louise1073 
I have my same day reservation set to 8pm, only on my single room listings. We live in a wine region and people are often here for long lunches or dinners or events and there's often guests who decide to stay over instead of driving home (it's only about 40mins back to the city but for Adelaide people that is extreme, bless them), so we love these last minute guests who turn up, possibly a bit sozzled, have a shower, sleep and wake up refreshed in the country, and i urge them to go and try the amazing local bakery or cafe and they are gone early too, as they hadn't planned to spend half the day in the Hills.  I should put in a tube of B-vitamin fizzy drink tablets for these guests, haha. 

[Louise1073]

I fully admit I may be "losing out" on good revenue by preventing these last minute bookings. It sounds like you have your niche market pretty figured out, perhaps once we get there we may be more flexible too. So far it's been a very mixed crowd for us.

[Sherry346]

Two words jump out of your legitimate close call/horror story.

"Training Regimen"

I spend to agents average 15 times a week, by phone. 

Add to that, 15 times a week by internal email (trust and safety) or message thread. 

Since 2017 "waves" happen, lets start with 90% used to be great, and never make a dangerous mistake like this.

COVID, going public things crashed to 40% , and worse, 30% horrifying. 

I was assaulted on a recorded line - yet I got suspended. The recording, vanished.

It suddenly got good, rumors of "farmed out agents working from home"

things seem on the upswing. so with over 100 a month here is my assessment and advice

20% amazing, old levels very high of training

20% dangerous, offensive, don't listen, and if you don't agree with them quickly, look for quick messages with consequences 

ADVICE: POLITELY end a call that shows the signs of trouble, and call RIGHT BACK (be careful, agents have internal messaging and will involve each other, you will have to say you 'weren't comfortable or were disconnected".

*****EVERYONE!!! make sure and CALL FIRST BEFORE THE GUEST DOES.

It should not work that way . .  . but . . . you've been warned. 

[Suzanne302]

@Kelly149What in the actual??? As a homeshare host, that is terrifying. And as you said, it could have ended badly for you AND the guest. Had I heard a stranger trying to get into my place at 2am, it could have been a very bad scene.

Please update us when you can. No way there can't be consequences for this.

[Kelly149]

@Suzanne302  my cleaning lady was so shaken up that she locked herself out of the barn today while cleaning up this guy’s mess by obsessively locking & checking every door & window while she was there. 

I’ve actually not heard a peep out of abb

hopefully someone will have enough guts to come on here and explain what happened & what they’re changing to make sure that it doesn’t happen again

[Lenore22]

Woah.

That. Is. Terrifying.

[Paul1255]

@Kelly149  What an absolutely terrifying situation. I’m quite lost for words on this one.

Just thinking about how closely your unauthorised “guest” could have ended up as part of this new Tv show that’s being produced:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/airbnbs-secret-black-box-crime-clean-up-team-will-now-be-a-tv-series?r...

[Helen744]

@Paul1255 TV? show? Thats your main concern ?? H The tip of the iceberg H

[Emilie]

@Kelly149 Appreciate you sharing everything that happened with us here - I'm going to ping the team right away, and drop you a message to follow-up as well!

[Kelly149]

@Emilie  thanks, my msgs to support have gone unanswered so additional prodding is helpful

[Laura2592]

@Kelly149I read this last night and told my husband. He just can't stop talking about what an absolute sh*tshow it could have turned into. He is a liability and risk guy and keeps spouting off "this could have happened" and "that might have occured." In all the tales I have read on this forum, your incident is the absolute WORST and most extreme overstepping of ABB I have encountered. Its one thing to side with guests and have a very hands off approach to hosts. Its quite another to invite a STRANGER  to occupy someone else's property while they sleep! This is the stuff of nightmares and serial killer documentaries.

If this guest had no reservation, presumably:

1. He did not pay. So why on earth would ABB give out your details? THEY didn't get their cut. Who dies this help?

2. He cannot review. That is a blessing.

I can't even believe this happened. I mean, I know it did but my mind is blown. If I were you I would be on social media blasting the story everywhere I could. This is unconscionable. AIRBNB IS NOT THE PROPERTY OWNER. The insidious creep from "you can't cancel stays" to "hey weirdo calling in the middle of the night-- here is the info for this place you want to crash out in" is just so beyond okay. I can't even wrap my head around it.

[Kelly149]

@Laura2592  Right, there are some typical abb overstep scenarios that we could imagine. 

1. Request Only listing that somehow “glitches” and confirms a stay without Host approval. 

2. Guest with terrible reviews is able to book when they shouldn’t. 

3. ABB confirms a booking with a dodgy payment method. 

buuuuut this is so far beyond any of those that it really begs the question: What is wrong at ABB??

[Anonymous]

@Kelly149  so sorry this happened to you. I wish I could say I was shocked, but horrible incidents like this are the inevitable consequence of the severe incompetence we've come to expect from Airbnb's customer service operation.

@Airbnb has a lot to answer for here, but they don't seem capable of admitting when they've screwed up. Obviously they owe you some compensation big-time for the damage, cleaning, time, and stress their screw-up caused you. But is there an adult in the room who can take responsibility?

[Michael5689]

The adult lawyers and PR people in the executive rooms need to get through to the support departments about how the expanded empowerment of the support staff is exposing AirBNB to really limitless risks here.

[Anonymous]

@Michael5689 what do you mean by expanded empowerment? I'm not aware of the outsourced service operation having more powers than the previous in-house support team did.

It seems to me like the opposite problem: the staff are undertrained, know very little about the product beyond their narrow script, and might be lacking either the time or the comprehension skills to get their facts straight before taking an action. This situation illustrates just how dangerous it can be to put underqualified staff at the front line in a call for help. They probably had no clue that sending an unexpected stranger to someone's home address in Texas in the middle of the night can very easily end in gunshots.

After all the other recent shootings linked to Airbnb homes, that's the last thing they need.