Airbnb refuses to fix problem they created affecti...

Rob-and-Bob0 · ‎22-02-2020

I've reported this 50 times or so and many others I know in my area have done the same with exactly ZERO resolution or way to contact those who can actually fix it.

If one searches for "Pahoa" which is the city we're in, it changes it to say "Hawaiian Beaches" which is 20 miles away and about 1% of the Pahoa area. It did not do this until 2-3 months ago. Our bookings and those over everyone in our area are way down while Hawaii actually has record tourism right now. It defaults to a map which shows as much of a separate town and zip code even further away. It would be like searching for a stay on Staten Island and it changing that to say Harlem while centering the map on a few block within Harlem. Or searching for NYC and it changing to Newark, although NYC and Newark are far closer to each other than is our location compared to the other town a search for my town shows.

I've provided everything and every agent I've spoken to or message confirms indeed the site is incorrect and failing to show the vast majority of rentals in Pahoa. Airbnb has Pahoa spelled 2 different ways, one with a line over the first "a" and another without that. The 2 spellings show completely different results when they should show the same. All listings should spell Pahoa the same way, without the "ā" since nobody outside of Pahoa would know to spell it that way. In 12 years living here I've not once spelled it that way, nor has anyone I know unless they are getting a degree in Hawaiian language or studies. It would be like no longer listing "Manhattan" and instead showing the original native American name, "Mana Hatta".

Does anyone know ANY way to actually reach someone who can help? Yes, I've submitted feedback repeatedly for months to no avail. We have contacted the Airbnb reps for our island and state and still nothing.

I don't know another option other than switching platforms.

Lizzie · ‎24-02-2020

Hello @Rob-and-Bob0,

Great to meet you. I've just carried out a few searches based on what you mention here and it does perform in a little quirky way. At first I wondered if it was just defaulting to a wider search area to incorporate more listings, but when you mention the spelling, it does appear to be acting differently.

I'll flag this as well to the search team and see if we can get some movement on it.

Thanks,

Lizzie

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Rob-and-Bob0 · ‎25-02-2020

Thank you so much Lizzie!

So far it has cost us thousands of dollars in lost income. Dozens have reported this repeatedly to no avail.

It also now lists our rental as "Stay in Hawaiian Paradise Park" which is NOT the neighborhood we're in. That neighborhood is 20-30 miles away! It would be like having a rental in Manhattan and it said "Stay in Stamford, CT"!

Yesterday the supervisor who I've been messaging said she was going to close out the case knowing that nothing has been done to fix anything.

Here is the full message I've submitted several times both as feedback as bug report and service feedback.

"

See case ID 78706979 for endless messages repeatedly explaining the problem in great detail.

The most important ones are pasted below, however they lack the screen shots which are necessary.

Please do the following: Search for "Pahoa" and hit enter. It will change it to "Hawaiian Beaches" and will only show that one tiny neighborhood and part of a completely different city called Keaau. It does not show the hundreds of listings south of the center of Pahoa. Recently Airbnb changed everything so that some are listed as "Pahoa" and others are listed as "Pāhoa" with that line over the first a. All listings in the 96778 zip code should be shown regardless of how the name is spelled and ALL listings should spell Pahoa the same, without the line over the a. Nobody in the world would know the never used Hawaiian spelling of Pahoa with the line over the a. We used to be on page 1 in Pahoa searches. Now we're on page 13 despite being one of the only full 5.0 star rentals with a superhost for years. This is happening to ALL the vacation rentals in our area of Pahoa. It worked normally and correctly for 4 years until this recent change.

Google maps will also change the spelling of Pahoa to have the line over the a and only show one tiny census district in the center of Pahoa. Pahoa is a massive area, larger than several islands in Hawaii. Google maps is incorrect.

This page shows correctly where 96778 is. https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/96778/

When one searches for our rental by name, "Bananarama cottage" it wrongly states "Stay in Hawaiian Paradise Park" which is 20 miles from our location and in the 96749 zip code in another city!

So basically every way one would find our listing fails to work properly. It's why instead of being booked solid in March like every other year, we have only 5 days booked. Many others in our area are having the same massive declines in bookings and inquiries because of this even though tourism here is at an all time high.

I and many others have reported this repeatedly for months and nothing is ever done. The supervisor I spoke to this morning lied to me and said this is the first they have ever heard of the problem, despite it being repeatedly stated in her notes and messages with Airbnb support.

Please have someone who can actually explain and resolve this problem ASAP at either 808-769-2999 or 808-965-7569! Thank you. Messages below:

Airbnb Support

10:53 AM

Hi Rob. Thank you for reaching out to us. This is Ali from Airbnb's community support team.

After a thorough search for your listing, I confirmed that I was unable to find it through the site. What I ended up doing was refreshing the listing through administrative routes. Your listing is now turning up on searches for Pahoa. These results may take several hours to show up on your end, but don't despair! It will happen, and sooner rather than later.

If you'd like a follow-up call, I'd be happy to check back with you tomorrow. Kindly just let me know when and how to contact you.

Cheers,

Rob & Bob

11:09 AM

Hi Ali, Thanks and I will check again tomorrow. For me it still changes it to Hawaiian Beaches when I put in Pahoa. I don't just want ours to show up in a Pahoa search, but all the Pahoa listings. This is clearly a problem affecting hundreds of listings and whomever made this programming change needs to fix it/undo it so that ALL of Pahoa shows in a Pahoa Search. Pahoa, Hawaiian Beaches should be eliminated. This is less than 1% of the Pahoa area. Please confirm that the problem has been fixed for all Pahoa searches, and not just our 1 listing. Thanks! Rob

Airbnb Support

12:31 PM

Hi Robert,

I'm sorry for the inconvenience this is causing you, sincerely. We take feedback very seriously here at Airbnb. It is why our platform has grown so much over the years. Please take some time to leave some feedback through the link below:

www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

Dec 28, 2019

Rob & Bob

10:33 AM

I have now spent 2 hours on the phone and 3 calls and it is still not fixed. See the pic for the Pahoa area, 96778. Search for Pahoa and it only shows about 1% of the area, particularly in Hawaiian Beaches and Hawaiian Paradise Park which is NOT in Pahoa and is in Keaau, 96749. Please fix this immediately and I would like a call from a supervisor who is going to actually fix the problem. The last phone rep tried to say that searching as "Pāhoa" ours will come up. It does not and nobody searches for it with that spelling with the line over the a.

Dec 29, 2019

Rob & Bob

12:14 PM

Still not fixed. It shows our listing as being in a different city and zip code, a 40 minute drive from our location. Search for "Bananarama" and the 2nd selection states that ours is in Hawaiian Paradise Park. Please fix this!

Rob & Bob

12:26 PM

It will actually show up when someone searches for "Hawaiian Paradise Park" but the map shows it's nowhere near there, despite showing up in those search results. Our listing should show in searches for Pahoa, Pāhoa, Kehena, Kalapana, and Kalapana Sea View Estates, Hawaii County, HI, United States--all of those are in the town of Pahoa, 96778.

Airbnb Support

12:31 PM

Hi Rob & Kirk,

I still haven't heard back from my colleagues regarding your issue. As soon as I do, I will relay that information to you. Thanks for the update.

Best Regards,

-Victor

Feb 7, 2020

Airbnb Support

3:53 PM

Hi Rob,

Thanks for reaching out to us regarding this issue. I've forwarded your inquiry to a member of my team who can better assist you. They'll be getting in touch with you soon.

In the meantime, please feel free to respond to this message with any further questions or concerns.

Best regards,

Rob & Bob

4:22 PM

Is this the person I spoke to when my phone cut out?

Rob & Bob

7:12 PM

I have been told by several customer service agents in the past 2 months that they would get back to me and none have. Instead they closed the case so I could no longer message. What is it going to take. We and several others have called, emailed the Hawaii and Big Island reps and others and Airbnb. Over a month ago I was told they were aware that the problem was Pahoa is spelled two ways. But apparently nobody cares and nobody has any plan to fix it. We are losing money. Every year March has been basically filled up and it's 3 weeks away and we have 5 days booked. This is not acceptable! Fix it!

Feb 10, 2020

Airbnb Support

3:09 PM

Hi,

Sorry this call got disconnected, we will call back to you soon.

Thanks.

Rob & Bob

3:12 PM

Thanks I am on hold again now. This is very frustrating and has so far wasted another hour of my time. A call back should have been immediate. I got cut off a couple times a few days ago too and nobody ever called back.

8087692999

Rob & Bob

3:23 PM

Now you just called and the agent can't hear me!!!!

Call my hom enumber 8089657569

OMG after 20 minutes on hold I got cut off again!

PLEASE CALL ME IMMEDIATELY. IF YOU CAN'T HEAR ME THE PROBLEM IS ON YOUR END. I'VE NOW BEEN CUT OFF 3 TIMES IN THE PAST HOUR!!!!!!

Rob & Bob

3:52 PM

Now on hold another 27 minutes! Why hasn't the supervisor I spoke to earlier called me back with a functional phone on your end? Even though their call went through and I answered, they didn't even try again. Just nuts!

Feb 11, 2020

󱜄

This support case is closed. Still need help? Visit our Help Center. https://www.airbnb.com/help9:32 AM

Feb 19, 2020

Rob & Bob

2:23 PM

Address for my listing got changed without my permission. It is in the town of Pahoa but you have it spelled wrong. Please fix it ASAP!

󹀁

Please wait while we are routing your case.

2:23 PM

󹀁

Thanks for your message - Airbnb Support is connecting you to a chat agent. Your chat session will begin in 1 - 2 minutes.

2:24 PM

Airbnb Support

2:24 PM

Hi Rob, my name is Michael C and I'm with Airbnb support. I'll be helping you today. I know how important for you to have assurance that your listing has the correct address.

If I may ask, would you please provide me the correct format/spelling of your address?

Rob & Bob

2:25 PM

12-159 Mapuana Avenue, Pahoa HI 96778

I have spent an hour trying to cal AirBnB and get cut off every time. Last time after 40 minutes!

Airbnb Support

2:26 PM

We apologize for the inconvenience. I'll make sure to correct the address of your listing. Please allow me 2 minutes.

Rob & Bob

2:26 PM

Your company changed the name of my city to Pāhoa which has never been correct

Also my case ID is 78706979 and I need to speak to a supervisor. The last one, a woman named Will promised after 90 minutes on the phone a few days ago that she would call me back. She didn’t. None of the dozens of reps who told me that did either. And the last supervisor I was on the phone with today didn’t bother to call back after my phone got disconnected. I’m using a land line so my phone is not the provlem

Airbnb Support

2:29 PM

I'll be able to connect you over to my Super visor. Do you mind talking to her thourh chat?

Rob & Bob

2:30 PM

Ok. But did you correct the address?

Airbnb Support

2:32 PM

Almost done.

Airbnb Support

2:37 PM

Thank you for waiting, I appreciate your patience. We already corrected the address of your listing. Would you please refresh your account and check it?

Rob & Bob

2:37 PM

Ok

Airbnb Support

2:39 PM

Do you still wish to talk to my supervisor?

Rob & Bob

2:39 PM

Thanks the line over the a is gone. However the problem is that when searching for “Pahoa” it changes it to say Hawaiian Beaches

Yes please

Andrew was helping me and has an open case

He didn’t call back when I was cut off

78706979 is the case

Airbnb Support

2:40 PM

Oh, the ticket ID is handled by our case manager.

One moment please and I'll further check.

Rob & Bob

2:41 PM

Ok, can I speak on the phone with the case manager then?

Airbnb Support

2:41 PM

Yes. I'll escalate this ticket and wait for a case manager to get in touch with you.

Rob & Bob

2:42 PM

I e been told that dozens of times in the past 2 months and no one has ever called back even supervisors who have promised to

Airbnb Support

2:42 PM

I've determined that your concern is supported by a different team, so I am forwarding your case to them now. While response times may vary, they will do their best to respond within 24 hours. You may now close the Airbnb app, but please make sure notifications are enabled so that you're alerted when they reply. If you're unsure of how to enable notifications we have a great Help Center article here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/14

Rob & Bob

2:43 PM

So basically they may never call

Feb 21, 2020

Airbnb Support

6:54 AM

Hi Rob & Bob

Thank you for reaching out to us. This is Christine from Airbnb's a case manager. I'm happy to assist. Please accept mu sincere apology for the inconvenience you are experiencing in regard to your listing address. In order for us to further assist you and make sure the address we will be putting is correct please provide us the information we needed. Just fill up all the information below.

Formatted address:

Address Line 1:

Address Line 2:

City:

State / Province / Region:

ZIP / Postal Code:

Country:

Latitude:

Longitude:

Once we receive the information we will go ahead and change the address.

Kind regards,

Rob & Bob

8:07 AM

I need to speak to a manager. I was told it would be another guy who took my case and would call me. After being on the phone 45 minutes, the line cut off and he failed to call me back. That's not acceptable. There is not and has never been any problem with my address. I'd requested the City be written properly because for mine and hundreds of other listings it says "Pāhoa" when it should be "Pahoa". Your company made a changed recently which changes all searches for "Pahoa" to "Hawaiian Beaches" which is one small neighborhood representing about 1% of the land area of Pahoa. It would be like one searching for Wall St. and your system changing it to Harlem and only showing results there. Except of course those places are only a few miles apart, while Hawaiian Beaches is 20 miles from our location in the same city. Pahoa is massive, and IS NOT only tiny sliver which shows on Google Maps, which is simply the census tract named Pahoa. Pahoa is 96778. When searching for Pahoa, everything within 96778 should show up. Instead it shows that one neighborhood and then another area in a completely different city called Keaau! So again, it's like searching for Wall St and only seeing results in Harlem and maybe parts of New Jersey. Because of this, our bookings have dropped dramatically. March should be filled as it is every year by January, and we have about 5 days booked. All of our neighbors are affected by this and have the same huge drop offs while Hawaii is experiencing all time records for tourism. I have spoken to probably 50 different reps since December, and many have promised they will call back, giving me a name and case number even, even supervisors, and not a single person has EVER called back. I have spent probably 50 hours now dealing with this and nobody ever helps. I need to speak to someone at Airbnb who is part of the technical team. They created this problem and they need to fix it. First I spoke to Will (a woman) who gave me case ID 78706979. Andrew is the next supervisor who never called back after cut off. The problem is on the Airbnb end and the cut off calls have happened maybe 10 times in the past week, because I am using a land line which has never cut anyone off.

Rob & Bob

8:17 AM

Please do the following. Type "Pahoa" into the Search area and hit enter. You will see what it does. Please look through my previous emails where I sent screen shots of what it shows vs. what it should show and used to show for 4 years. We used to be in the top 5 when searching for Pahoa because we are Superhosts with full 5.0 star ratings. Now we may not show up until about page 13! Hawaiian Beaches is an unsafe area dominated by meth addicts and other criminals. Airbnb SHOULD NOT be sending customers to only that area when they search for Pahoa. "Pāhoa" is never used unless one is writing in the Hawaiian language. In 12 years here I have never once encountered that spelling that anyone wrote. Google maps shows it spelled this way because technically that is the way it is spelled. However, nobody actually spells it that way. It would like Airbnb or Google spelling Manhattan as "Manna-hata" because that's the correct, original Native American name and anglicized spelling. Please do something and put me in touch with someone at Airbnb who can actually help with this problem. Despite dozens of calls by me and many others in this area, Airbnb refuses to help or fix the problem they recently created.

Airbnb Support

8:49 AM

Hi, Rob & Bob

I do apologized for the inconvenience. I wanted to confirm if the address that is showing on your listing location is correct. Please see attach photo.

Rob & Bob

8:50 AM

Yes. As I said, it's correct.

This isn't an "inconvenience." It's a total and complete failure on the part of Airbnb and its customer service representatives who never understand anything and do nothing to help. Please have a supervisor call me and explain how they are going to fix this problem.

Feb 22, 2020

Airbnb Support

10:13 AM

HI Rob & Bob, here's the link in where you can send your feedback.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

Thanks,"

Rob-and-Bob0 · ‎02-03-2020

Please help! Now if someone searches "Pahoa" and enter it still changes it to "Hawaiian Beaches" and below that where it says "Explore Hawaiian Beaches", if you click on "Stays" it then changes it to Waimea. which is 2 hours away! This is impacting several hundred listings including ours. It never did this until recently.

Also if one searches for "Pāhoa" we don't show up for many, many pages. We are one of the only rentals with a full 5.00 star rating and superhosts. For years we showed up either first or on the first page. Now we effectively don't show up at all.

Finally, it took 5 calls tonight to even talk to someone. If I confirmed who I was, it said the call may be recorded stuff, and cuts off entirely using a land line or cell phone. I tried not confirming and it actually connected me to someone.

We are desperate here, as are hundreds of others in my area where the ONLY economic activity is vacation rentals.

ANYTHING you can do to help is greatly appreciated!

Lizzie · ‎27-02-2020

Hello @Rob-and-Bob0,

The good news is that I can see that the Support agents you have spoken with have been working on getting this issue sorted. I'm trying to get more movement on it as well, unfortunately I don't have any timeframe on this, but I will continue to do so.

I am sorry you are experiencing this and we try my best to help.

Speak to you soon.

Lizzie

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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.

Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Rob-and-Bob0 · ‎14-12-2020

Hi Lizzie,

It's been a year and this still is not fixed for my area in any way.

Rob-and-Bob0 · ‎02-03-2020

Thank you so much! The Waimea issue is a separate issue which I have only reported to a rep today.

John-and-Deb1 · ‎24-09-2020

I too am having this same issue. I’m a super host with great 5 Star reviews. I’ve been booked all summer long, back to to back on Airbnb. Now in the last 3 to 4 weeks I’m no where to be found on the Pawleys Island webpage. Out of 300 hundred listings of the Pawleys Island site only 60 are showing up for Pawleys Island they are now Listings for Myrtle Beach, which is 35 miles north of Pawleys island. I’ve worked every day for 10 days with Airbnb. I get the canned response that I’m sure every one gets about algorithms . They tell me they have closed my case. I’ve call them on the phone and they will admit they can find my listing on the site for my community. I’ve sent them coordinates, that doesn’t help I’ve been told I’m not verified I don’t know what that means. They won’t fix it or give me any suggestions to rectify my listing. Basically they tell me there is nothing more that they can do. I can’t understand why for the last three and a half years this has never been a problem and now it is.

The only way you can find my listing is to go the to the resort in which my condo is in. I do show up there along with all the other Pawleys Island listings that aren’t located in the resort. So miss leading to the public. My problem is that people that aren’t familiar with the community and the golf resorts that reside in the community won’t know to look for these. That’s why it’s so import for my listing to be on the Pawleys Island Search site where my condo resides. So basically people can find my listing. I don’t understand why Airbnb won’t put all the listings in the community that they reside in. It makes no sense for the general public. If they want to go to a particular community they should see the listings for that community. Not ones that are 35 miles away. So in the end I’m losing income and zero bookings. Airbnb is a difficult site for hosts to navigate with little to no help resolving issues. In the end if they can’t fix the problems, they tell you the case is closed with no resolution. A very poor way to deal with people you rely on to support your business and the whole reason that you have a business.
Deb Curtis, Southern Charm in Pawleys Island, SC

Marjorie29 · ‎14-10-2020

@Rob-and-Bob0

i have only just discovered this problem. At some point Airbnb added Nearby Points of Interest, provided by a Google, where formerly there was just the map. These are in our case just wrong and Airbnb after many messages has done nothing. I want to opt out of these inaccurate points of interest. I live in New York in Manhattan a few blocks from the East River. Two samples of the problem: Google says my listings are 1.5 miles from Astoria Park but google doesnt

recognize that we are on an Island (Manhattan) and the East River is between us and Queens with no nearby bridge. Swimming or walking on water are the only options to span the 1.5 miles. Driving takes 19 minutes and travels 4.5 miles through city traffic. Public transportation takes 47 minutes ( mapquest). Central Park is .75 miles from here. Google says 1.7 miles. Central Park is 2 1/2 miles long. We measure to the nearest point, to East 110 and Fifth avenue. Airbnb needs to let hosts have the final word on accurate points of interest

Peter3329 · ‎11-03-2022

A similar problem. I live in Australia Country Code +61

For the last

5-6 months, each time I log in it flicks from +61 to +1 (USA)

Then you have to scroll down the list to find +61

It never used to do that. I've contacted support 5-6 times without success FRUSTRATING

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