Airbnb reps covering up cases!

[Kimberley59]

I recently had a really bad situation with a guest (theft, damage, physical threats, police involved, etc).  I've been contacting for 3 weeks to get support!  They have been giving me the run around.  Dropping my calls, not calling back when they say they will, supposedly no case ever opened, etc.  A few times support messages I received from Airbnb in the app went missing.  Well, today someone closed it looks like all of the cases that were opened up, and removed lots of support messages, and blocked me from replying then to those messages possibly since the case was closed?  There were different teams involved for each aspect - they said separate cases had to be opened for damages than for other parts of the case.  Well, now those reps who reached out to me are not contactable and their messages to me are removed!

What is going on??!!

Another host is going through similar thing from same guest and they are also not helping her.  This must be a cover up.  This is not acceptable!

[Dawn162]

Go Tweet.  You get a fast response through that media.  I would like to know how you dealt with the guest?  I have one that has been a nightmare.  

[Kimberley59]

Airbnb and I both asked him to leave but he refused. Airbnb told me to call the police. I did. I informed  he stguest butill refused to leave. I went there and waited outside for the police and for them to leave. I was worried they might be armed so I didn't go to my unit directly. It was scary. I knew there were more people in the unit that the just one who booked but I didn't know how many until they left. I could just see more arriving and going in. There were 10-15 people. They threatened to hurt me when leaving. They trashed my place, stole, smoked, etc. They were only there a few hours before I got them out. 

Air bnb let them book another host for the following night and they did worse to her.  The air bnb reps are avoiding us. 

[Kenneth12]

Sounds like a nightmare.

Were there any yellow or red flags with the guest,  when booking?

[David4145]

Fortunately I haven’t experienced anything as extreme as you describe. I’m sorry that this happened, it must have been really distressing for you. However, I have had a few experiences where guests have attempted to bring in additional individuals who were not on the booking. Both occasions I managed to eventually get the guests to leave. Unfortunately Air BnB were quite slow to assist, reluctant to act to protect me and also allowed the affected guests to leave negative, fictional and slanderous reviews. It took weeks of continually battling with Air BnB to have them removed. It’s clear air Bnb don’t want to act unless they absolutely have to, even then they want to keep it to an absolute minimum. I really feel this on the fence attitude only encourages negative behaviour by guests as there are no ramifications for their actions. When a guest used my room to have sex with a man I refused entry to the flat (only for her to smuggle him in behind my back) Air BnB eventually assisted me in making her leave. However, they then gave her a voucher in order for her to find another room for free elsewhere. This seems to simply encourage behaviour that is in clear breech of air Bnb terms and conditions. 

[Craig361]

Hi David. I am glad you have raised this issue regarding Airbnb Help. A month or so ago I had a situation similar to yours where a guest left our property in a disgusting state and damaged furniture etc. We sent photographs through the Airbnb Help and we received the usual auto message. I had to follow them up every day after a week of no response as I was concerned we would not be able to charge the guest for damages. As it turned out we were not able to charge the guest and they are still able to book through Airbnb. Eventually we had a response after my persistent calling. I have since had another experience where Airbnb cancelled a booking  a week out from a guest arriving, claiming they (Airbnb) had identified some suspicious activity by the guest. Airbnb wrote to myself and the guest informing us that they had cancelled the booking, but they left didn't block this guest from re-booking. The guest simply re-booked. I contact Airbnb several times to find out what I should do as I did not want to risk losing my superhost status by cancelling the booking. I have still not heard anything back from Airbnb and the guest has come and gone - with no issues at all. I was left in a very precarious situation as I wasn't sure if the guest was trustworthy, and they were going to be in my home (well next to it in the studio), but nevertheless, there was no follow through or care from Airbnb at all. I have found since they have outsourced their help services to a third party (you may notice the small print in the auto message you get from Airbnb Help saying that they have outsourced some of their enquiries to a third party). It is disappointing and is causing us to re-think using Airbnb as there other high profile options that we can use in place of Airbnb with better rates!

[Dallas1]

Sad to say that after 3 years of relatively hassle free hosting, I am now extremely loath to allow just anybody into my place. My main area of concern is that Airbnb are useless at resolving issues relating to damage and bad guests.

They hide behind their corporate "face" and what I have experienced recently is that they will even go so far as to delete messages posted to the community if you dare to speak out against their lack of support. In fact I have even noticed that as a result of a recent incident that they were most unhelpful with, they removed from my account a $100 travel coupon I had earned earlier this year for being a Superhost. Incredible. 

To be quite frank, I am considering abandoning the idea of hosting, because sooner or later this might happen and then they will hide away again: https://youtu.be/dC1zsobX_LI 

[Kenneth12]

Sorry to hear this.

Generally I soak this up to ABB incompetence,   but all the replies above ring true to some extent.   I am surprised that there is no legal firm specializing in ABB litigation -- 

in general,  it seems ABB support threads auto-close in 48 hours if you don't bump them with some kind of response.   This makes it hard if you have other things to do.

I would take images or screenshots of all correspondence that doesn't copy to email,  "just in case,"  so you have some evidence.

Becuase of tales like these,  I am *very* careful in vetting guests.  (YMMV).

Good luck and please update us on how this goes.

A bit of an update:  it does look like your guest's account has been suspended,  FWIW.   Getting rid of the negative feedback is probably impossible,  alas;    as a note to all,  always write feedback responses to future guests,  not as argumentation to the bad guest-- it's usually best to compose them offline then let sit for a bit to consider.

[Lisa1616]

Wow! ...just WOW! With these comments coming in from Super Hosts and FYI...no one in my neighborhood has ever had a claim resolved with Airbnb, I’m going down the street, CORRECTION: I am going to Run down the street and secure a property management company to list my property!

[Leah212]

Had a guest who smoked in the room, snuck people in and were caught red handed with our items in their trunk. It went nowhere with Airbnb. We had consistant 5 star reviews until that guest gave us a one star and brought our average down to 4.7.  All we asked is that Airbnb deal with the unwarranted review. Nothing happened. Case closed.

[Micheala0]

Hi  i h`ve been a superhost for 3 years i have had over 300gusst and 200 5 star reviews on adverage i have 88-89 5 stars i have revived a 2 starair bnb are refusing to remove it anothr guest stayed at same time and in contrast gave mr 5 stars on privite feed back the guest called me a bitch let as the public feed back which is a complete lie but is there opnion and d theredore there allowed to keepit public this os so unfair

[Dallas1]

Airbnb is now just like Uber. They don't care about the providers they use to operate their business (that's us, the hosts). Instead they are trying to be all things to the guests. Forcing us to lower prices, accept whoever they send our way and if you don't toe their line you find yourself wayyy back in the search results. That's what's happening to my listing right now. Can't be found unless you actually know where I am on a map. It's quite sad that greed has turned what was once a caring company into such a faceless monster.