Airbnb Plus frustration

[Dan-and-Jose0]

Hello, 

We are so extremely frustrated with Airbnb right now. 

At the beginning of the year we received an invitation to join Airbnb Plus for free. We had received invitations before but we didn’t feel like doing it. But since they offered it for free we decided to finally accept the invitation. 

So the process began. We scheduled the “home inspection” and the photographer. When the day arrived we were surprised to see just one person at the door. It was the photographer. Maybe that should have been the first red flag since they made us believe that it would be at least two people. Anyways, the photographer took a few pictures to prove that we met some criteria (plates, glasses, toiletries, etc.); nothing professional.

After those first pictures he said he was going to take the actual pictures but surprisingly he asked us to turn off all the lights in the house. We were shocked by that request and tried to argue it but he said that’s the way it had to be. He said they would enhance the light digitally. So even though we didn’t like the idea (it was a very dark winter day plus we spent thousands of dollar in lighting to create an inviting atmosphere) we finally accepted the request. 

So he took a few pictures, not even all the features of the house, leaving behind the ones that we and our guests like the most. After that he left and that was it. 

After a few weeks we got some of the pictures. We were horrified. We also got a list of fixes that needed to be done. The frustration begins. They asked us to fix things that didn’t need fixing. It just seemed like there is no communication between the so called “design team” and the photographer. Everything they asked us to fix was captured by the photographer: plates, glasses, air conditioner, toiletries, teas, bottled water... It just showed so little professionalism. 

Those were the easy “fixes”. They asked us to reorganize a shelf in one of the bedrooms which we did because we saw their point. No problem there. 

Then there were just the two most frustrating ones left to fix. The first one the lock. They said we’d need a smart lock. We do have a smart lock so we sent a picture of it and we told them we do have a smart lock. So after a couple of weeks or so they responded saying that we need to get a smart lock. So again, we took some more pictures of the lock and told them again that we do have a smart lock. After another couple of weeks, the same thing. They told us we needed to get a smart lock. We couldn’t believe the situation. So we tried again. And again. It happened about five or six times. We even sent screen shots of the app used to unlock the door. Nothing would work. We sent an email that no one ever responded. We called and no one could help us. There’s no way to communicate with the “design team”. So finally after many tries they accepted that we have a smart lock. 

That leaves us with just one “fix”. The painting under the TV console. We have a smart home so you can imagine the amount of cables, routers and other devices that control the house. And all that goes under the TV. The problem is we have an open console so there’s nowhere to hide all this. So we decided to get creative and use a painting that does the trick and blends with the decor of the whole main floor. We went with reds, blues and gold for the main floor so we pick the painting accordantly. You can see their responses to our decision to go with this solution. From putting boxes in its place to get rid of the console which is an antique that we love. We wonder who is this “design team”? What kind of solutions are those? Downgrade from an antique to a plain, bulky and boring piece of furniture or just pile boxes under our console. Like that would look great! NOT! Plus as we mentioned to them that’s a fire hazard. But they don’t care about endangering us and our guests and burning the house down. They just want their pile of boxes under the TV. Very creative and a very forward design. Just so ridiculous. 

The communication with the so called “design team” has been so frustrating. They are rude, borderline insulting, saying that they have high standards, impliying we don’t. And when you try to explain they give you about 200 characters which makes it really hard. That’s the only way of communication we have and we can’t even say barely anything. They whole thing is so frustrating. We used to love Airbnb but this is making us very disenchanted with it. We work really hard in this house and go above and beyond for our guests. We have really high standards and this Plus experience is so upsetting. 

P.S.: We added pictures of the stuff we mentioned. We apologize they are not in the right order but we couldn’t figure out how to move them around. Also the quality is not the best but we took them the last night we were asked for the hundredth time to change our living room. 

Living room at night

The piece of conflict

Living room daytime

Living room daytime

Main floor decor

Main floor nook

Picture taken by Airbnb’s “professional” photographer

Picture taken by Airbnb’s “professional” photographer

Foyer

Porch

Porch

**[Private conversation removed in line with Community Center Guidelines]

[Gordon0]

Everything I've read on here about Plus has been negative. Did you not come across the same before taking up their offer, @Dan-and-Jose0. Seems like you've wasted a whole lot of energy for very little reward. 

[Dan-and-Jose0]

We actually didn’t investigate before accepting. We didn’t even know about this forum. We trusted Airbnb as we’ve been hosting for a while now and to be honest we’ve had a great experience until we tried to go for the Plus. It should be called Airbnb Less; less communication, less respect, less care... It really has been challenging to have them insulting us and not listening whatsoever but we decided after a long time thinking about it that we’d do it. We are doing it; one, to try it; two, because we really are Plus hosts. We do anything it takes to have our guests have a great experience. 

[Mark116]

It is truly amazing that a company that is so terrible at almost everything managed to become a huge global success and recognizable brand.  I can only believe it was due to the luck of being the first to identify a huge unmet need on both ends:  the need of travelers for an alternative to high priced hotels and a need of home owners to make additional money from their properties.

[Dan-and-Jose0]

We’ve been really happy with Airbnb until this. We enjoy hosting and guests are happy so we’ve never needed anything other than the platform itself. We were lucky enough we’ve never had any issues so no need to contact them. We just had a minor incident once and they were actually very good and helpful. But that was as regular super hosts. For the Plus there’s no option of communication. 

[Julie143]

The picture the photographer took of the dining table is ridiculous. How hard would it have been to turn on some lights?

[Dan-and-Jose0]

We were so upset to see the pictures. And after the fact to go on Airbnb and see other Airbnb Plus listings with all their lights on when we were told by this photographer that it was absolutely mandatory that all the lights were off according to Airbnb rules for Plus listings. 

[Sarah977]

@Dan-and-Jose0  I would advise you to stop wasting your time with this stupid Plus business. All reports here about it have been the same as yours, more or less. It became free because those who paid for it were just as frustrated and irrritated as you, as far as I can surmise. The "design team" is likely a bunch of millenials to whom "antique" just looks old and worn. They're after bland, modern, soulless-looking places with monochrome decors. Horror of horrors if it actually looks like someone lives there comfortably, quirks and all.

Opt out and go back to the successful hosting you were doing in your own style.

[Mark116]

@Sarah977  I would be interested to know how some of this stuff can actually happen, you know?  If there are photos of a smart lock, how is it possible that such an error goes on and on, never to be fixed?  Even a normal bad CS, you would only need to send it twice, and then it would be corrected, but airbnb is an endless loop, where everything resets to the beginning, like a time travel horror film. 

[Sarah977]

@Mark116  That's a good analogy, the time travel horror film. Or like that Bill Murray film Groundhog Day. It's unbelievable that these people are actually getting paid to be so incompetent. It's called the Peter Principle- "People rise to the level of their incompetency". And the "professional photography" @Dan-and-Jose0 got is like some bad joke.

[Dan-and-Jose0]

We refuse to use the words “proffesional”, “designer” or “design team” without quotations. 

[Dan-and-Jose0]

We actually forgot to upload the lock “fix” pictures to the original post but here they are just so you know we are not exaggerating. It really felt like they were mocking us. The level of stupidity was unbelievable.

Some of the pictures we submitted as prove

Original request from the “design team” to “fix” the lock

Back and forth “communication” part 1

Back and forth “communication” part 2

Back and forth “communication” part 3

[Melissa811]

I can actually see how AirBnB would get confused. I think they were looking for a keypad to unlock the door. How does that door unlock? I have a keypad style so I’m not familiar with this kind. 

I was looking into more more reviews of Plus since I just got the offer a couple days ago to “upgrade” for free. But I think I won’t. Too many bad reviews. 

But still curious about how your lock works.

[Dan-and-Jose0]

At this point is just a manner of pride. We refuse to take all this stupidity. They invited us cause we met the criteria and as they told us one of their points is that the design should have personality and all that but then when it has personal touches they say it’s not good. You use expensive antiques and that’s not high quality. Are they kidding? It’s so irritating. 

Airbnb puts a lot of pressure on hosts and this is not the way they should treat any host. If we treated our guests the same way Airbnb treat us they would be out of business a long time ago. 

[Mark116]

@Dan-and-Jose0  I'm curious, what is the purpose of the pink lights?

And for what it's worth, use of a painting to hide cords is a nice idea, and there is no reason why airbnb should for any reason prefer you simply tie them together and then stuff them in a basket, LOL.