Difficulties with Airbnb support...

[Katrin-And-Jasper0]

Can anyone help/ advise me about this one -my email correspondence with Airbnb about it is testing my sanity to put it mildly.

We recently had a long staying guest who wanted to cancel his stay midway. This was very disappointing -he was a difficult guest to say the least, his complaint was a little unusual and we had, during the time of his stay moved heaven and earth to make things better for him.

We were contacted by Airbnb at the time to let us know of the guest's wish to cancel. We were frustrated, and also put out because his cancellation left us over £1,000 out of pocket, and with only a short time to find other guests to take the space in his absence.

Nonetheless we had no desire to keep the guest here against his wishes! We told Airbnb that whilst we felt very frustrated, under the circumstances we would agree to the cancellation. Critically we were told by the Airbnb agent (in what we were told was a recorded conversation over the phone) that we would actually still receive the guest's final payment, and that this sum of money would then be deducted from the amounts due from subsequent paying guests. At the time I found this a bit unusual so I double (and triple) checked with the agent and he asssured me that this was the case. I assumed that this was perhaps because it was so close to the due date for the final payment that it was already being processed and so could not be pulled back. I checked again with the agent and he confirmed the agreement again. I have to say that this agreement was very persuasive in making us agree to the cancellation without any penalties because we felt that at least we would be able to better manage the potential cashflow issue caused by the cancellation. So we agreed to the cancellation.

Needless to say the date for payment arrived and no payment came in from our now departed guest. I queried this with Airbnb, and set out very carefully in my message the agreement as it stood between the agent and myself. Airbnb said they would look into it. There has now been four days of correspondence, and each agent that picks up the case seems to be wifully misunderstanding the complaint I am making and ignoring the fact of the conversation and agreement between myself and the Airbnb agent.  This in spite of them telling me that they needed to go away and listen to the recordings before they could provide me with a substantive answer. They seem to be intentionally avoiding the issue and simply saying that we agreed to the cancellation and therefore we get no payment.

My issue is that we placed significant reliance upon what the original agent promised and now as a consequence of this promise not being honoured we have suffered significant difficulty. But Airbnb seem to be wilfully ignoring this important part of the exchange. They are simply not even addressing it.

Someone once said that 'Hell is the impossiblity of reason', and my experience with their operatives is something akin to this feeling -no matter what I say, or however clearly I set out what has happened, no one at Airbnb seems to be responding to the pertinent facts of the case. It's bizarre!

I have now asked to speak to a senior advisor/ supervisor -if such a thing exists.

I would accept Airbnb apologising on behalf of their agent and saying perhaps that he should not have said what he said, but what I cannot accept is them fobbing me off and ducking the issue like this.

My question is what can we do, if anything? Is there a such a thing as a formal complaints procedure?

My thanks in advance.

Jasper

[Emiel1]

@Katrin-And-Jasper0,

Dealing with Airbnb CS can be very difficult. I understand you would even be happy if Airbnb apologizes for their agent's mistake. They will not ! It's a complex system of "tickets" and everytime you contact,  a new CS person is involved to your case, just handling  it from scratch and not looking into previous communication. You can sent feedback via https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/feedback, but after that i suggest:  let the  case rest and move on with your hosting. Discussions like this with Airbnb CS are a waste of time.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Katrin-And-Jasper0]

Thanks for your response Emiel -I rather suspect this will be the outcome though it is very frustrating and disappointing to be treated in this manner. I suspect it is deliberate, and in my experience a tried and tested method corporations often use to frustrate complainants and encourage them to give up.

[Cormac0]

@Katrin-And-Jasper0

I confident that in the EU we will get to grips with this appalling treatment of genuine grievances, and its only matter of time before Airbnb will be held accountable for their actions.

Customer Services my arse…

I only ever rang Airbnb customer service once and I’ll never do it again it only took me one minute to realise I was dealing with a person completely out of their depth and that if anything deviates from there previously type script they had no answers.

[Katrin-And-Jasper0]

Thanks Cormac -and I hope we in the UK are still around in Europe to see that happy day!

BW

Jasper

[Susan17]

@Katrin-And-Jasper0

You're wasting your time dealing with Airbnb CX, and it's utterly pointless sending anything to the black hole that is the "feedback" link. That will get you precisely nowhere. 

The reason Airbnb has gotten away with abusive, exploitative and in some cases, illegal, policies and practices for so long is because they can. Hosts will come to the CC, or various FB groups, and have a little rant and rave about being screwed over by the company, yet again, but that's usually as far as it goes. The general consensus is "Ah yeah, it's outrageous, and immoral, but hey, that's just the way Airbnb rolls! They're a $38 billion global corporation and we're just the little powerless minions. If Airbnb wants to sh*t on us from a great height, not a d*mn thing we can do about it"

That's not true though. In July of last year, following an investigation of Airbnb by the Consumer Protection Co-operation Network, under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Consumer Rights Directive or the Unfair Contract Terms Directive. the EU Commission ordered Airbnb to make several changes to its policies and practices, in order to comply with EU legislation, and to ensure that all  service users are treated fairly and equitably. The new legislation came into force on Jan 1st. 

B. AIRBNB'S TERMS OF SERVICE

Directive 93/13/EC on Unfair Contract Terms applies to all contracts between consumers and businesses. Article 3 of this Directive provides that standard terms which create a significant imbalance in parties' rights and obligations, to the detriment of the consumer, are unfair and therefore invalid

• Airbnb cannot decide unilaterally and without justification which terms may remain in effect in case of termination of a contract;
• Termination or suspension of a contract by Airbnb should be explained to consumers, governed by clear rules and it should not deprive the consumer from the right to adequate compensation or the right to appeal;
• Airbnb's policy on refunds, compensation and the collection of damage claims should be clearly defined and should not deprive consumers from their right to activate the available legal remedies.

Admittedly, the legislation is tedious to read through, but forewarned is forearmed, and knowing your rights, and their responsibilities, is a powerful weapon to have when fighting any battle with Airbnb. 

EU Press Release. July 29, 2018 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4453_en.htm

Common Position of National Authorities within the CPC Network Concerning the Commercial Practices and the Terms of Service of Airbnb Ireland

https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/common-position-national-authorities-within-cpc-network-commercial-p...

*** You can access the European Commission’s online dispute resolution platform here: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. 

There's little point in the EU giving us rights and protections if we don't stand up for ourselves and actually use  them.

[Katrin-And-Jasper0]

Thanks Susan

That's interesting -as a former lawyer I have thought seriously about bringing them to the small claims court here on a simple breach of contract application (offer- acceptance- breach). It's obviously a tiny claim -the damages would just be the inconveneience and frustration - but the satisfaction of making them respond (and a possible court order against them) would give me more compensation than any amount of money!

BW

Jasper