We've been hosting our Airbnb home for just over 3 years, we live in San Diego and have a 4 hour turn around so our place is fairly busy; its a private home. Last month we had a family checkout and said "their stay was GREAT" and they gave a glowing review. We next had a guest checkin and her complaints started immediately.... they were at the beach and didn't have the beach toys we claimed we had because they couldn't find them . We explained that all of the beach boogie boards, balls, beach chairs, coolers, etc. were kept in the backyard because of the sand that gets on them and we don't want the sand in the house, they complained about our electronic lock that worked great, they complained about the city's required recycling policy, they complained about the pictures of our space, and so forth - they had 12 complaints in 10 hours. The last was a complaint of a natural gas leak and they checked out abruptly. We had the gas company onsite within one hour - they said "we do not smell gas but you have two issues that are non-threatening to life or property one is a valve that is copper but you should change it to brass and you have a .001% leak at the stove - neither of these are a threat we don't smell gas and we needed our meter to detect the leak - just eventually get these things repaired." Airbnb said "you need to get these items fixed right now and send us the paperwork from the gas company" the gas company said "have Airbnb call us because these items aren't an emergency." Airbnb shut us down and the gas company said "sorry we're busy you don't have an emergency take a number" Airbnb acted in authority over the gas company and we were stuck in the middle - so we dealt with the issues immediately, but it cost us two listings. The problem is Airbnb refused to call the gas company to get clarity and understanding of the situation, the Airbnb agent told us "we don't make 3rd party phone calls." Thus we were stuck in the middle and had to wait for SDG&E, we lost two listings and a lot of money. The problem is Airbnb needs to put in the effort and learn to work with those in authorities. We immediately called the gas company they were the expert here and they immediately responded and assessed it - they told us had it been an issue they would've shut the house down and made us work with a licensed technician - we were able to replace the parts ourselves but we had to wait to get an appointment with the gas company to satisfy Airbnb. Airbnb needs to stay in their lane and do short term rentals and let the gas company handle gas issues. The guest should've been refunded one night stay, and Airbnb should've called the gas company and understood the situation. This was all pretty frustrating and it could've been avoided had Airbnb made the call to SDG&E, the gas company in authority in our situation.
