I am in support Hell!

Tom229
Level 2
Cherry Valley, IL

I am in support Hell!

I sent this letter to Airbnb Support:

 

Hello-

 

I would like to address the issue with canceled reservation **

 

I’ve been an Airbnb Superhost for nearly 6 years. I have a consistent record of 5-star ratings. I host 4 units (currently 2 are snoozed) all located at the same property. I recently renovated my late father’s vintage barbershop. This unit is listed as a suite as it does not have a shower, just a 1/2 bath. My intention was rent this unit in conjunction with my Large Efficiency unit which connect through an internal hallway and a shared Laundry room (as spelled out both in the Listing Description and in my Welcome Guide). 

 

12/23/20:

I was very excited when I listed the new 2 unit configuration (2 Units Combined! A Great Airbnb Experience!) in early December. They were immediately reserved by the Blank family for 10 days. The communication for the reservation was solely between me Kristen Blank, and was good all through out the process up to their arrival on Wednesday, December 23rd. She and I did a distanced walk-through, and she gave no indication that she had any problems with the place, in fact it was quite the contrary. She was very complimentary. I explained to her that the Laundry room is shared (again, this is spelled out both in the Listing Description and in my Welcome Guide) and that at some point I’d need to do laundry as I am staying in another unit on the property as well. I said I would give her plenty of advanced notice and wait until they were gone. Her response was “No problem, we’re hardly going to be here anyway. In fact, there’s 3 days that we won’t even be in town”. I then told her I would let them get settled in and to text me if there were any questions, problems or if there was anything they needed.

 

About an hour later I received this notification from the Guest via Airbnb messages:

“We had to check out after learning of the shared space we felt very uncomfortable with our children being in the other room. I hope you have a happy holiday”

 

I immediately went to see if I could talk to them, but she and her family had already left. I then reached out to her via Airbnb messaging to see if there was anything I could do. She did not respond.

 

12/23-24/20:

Later that evening I received an email from Michelle at Airbnb Community Support. She stated that an incident had been reported by the Guest and that she would like to speak with me at 5 pm on Dec. 24th (Christmas Eve) to discuss the matter. In the mean time my account access would be limited until the investigation was finalized. I waited until 5:20 on the 24th for a phone call. It wasn’t until I prompted Michelle with an email asking her if she was ever going to call me did she then call. I explained that it now wasn’t a convenient time for me as I had holiday plans. She told me we could continue through email and I told her that would be fine.

 

12/25/20:

On Christmas Day I received an email from Michelle with questions of which I responded to point by point. I directed her to my listing descriptions as well as my attached Welcome Guides… because once again, several things are spelled out there. I also attached a floor plan highlighting the Guest areas, the Shared areas and the areas that were locked off. I also offered to send a walk-through video to further illustrate the set-up. I never heard back from Michelle. 

 

12/29/20:

On Tuesday 12/29 I received an email from Alejandra of Airbnb Community Support. She stating that my Guest Kristen did not feel safe at my place and was looking for a refund and what did I think?… I responded by telling Alejandra that all of my Units have been suspended and that I would call Airbnb to talk to a live person the next day as this was not okay.

 

Later that evening I called Support and talked to Luis. I explained to him that:

 

• My Units have been suspended for nearly a week

• I have never in almost 6 years of hosting ever had a privacy violation with any of my reservations

• I have painstakingly tried to spell everything out in the descriptions of my listings and in my Welcome Guides so that things like this would never happen… and up until now, they never have

• When I created this listing, I duplicated another one of my listings. I have NEVER had a Flexible Cancellation Policy. I have always done Moderate or Strict… so it was to my surprise to find out when the Guest cancelled that this listing was booked with the Flexible policy… so to add insult to injury, I lost out on a lot of income

 

Luis was very nice and understanding and told me that my matter would be “escalated” to the Safety Team and that I will be hearing from someone within 24 hours. It’s been over 24 hrs and I’ve heard nothing.

 

In almost 6 years this is only one of 3 bad experiences I’ve had as a host. I take my role very seriously. I have restored a legacy property into 4 unique units including my Dad’s old barbershop. I take great pride in that. I get rave reviews, have repeat guests and have made friends with many. I worked very hard to get this unit ready for the Blank family and to make sure they had a cozy Christmas Airbnb experience. I even stuffed the stockings full of goodies for their 2 little boys.

 

Airbnb is my main source of income right now. While my property isn’t exactly an over the water villa in the Maldives, it is a crucial time for bookings. Rockford, IL has several visiting nurses and medical students looking for accommodations. New rotations and semesters start soon. Everyday my listings are suspended are days that I am losing potential reservations.

 

12/30/20:

It has now been 1 week that my listings have been locked. I am very dismayed at the total lack of support with my case. I still do not know what the security violation is that I allegedly committed. It’s a very different Airbnb than when I started. In the beginning you did a very good job with educating both the Host and the Traveller on what it means to build trust. I felt you were very inclusive, and I really felt like I was part of a community. Now I feel like I am just part of a bottom line.

 

12/31/20:

After no response from Support from the above message which I emailed, I contacted Support Chat. Maryjane P said that a “Support Ambassador” was on it and that I should be getting a response as soon as possible. She said she was merging this communication in to the ticket and then closed the chat.

 

 

Happy Holidays

 

**[Sensitive information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

30 Replies 30
Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Tom229 sorry for your situation. To warn others: When you duplicate a listing many things DO NOT duplicate so Instant Book will be ON and Cancellation policy will be FLEXIBLE. A bit naughty of Airbnb really.

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

@Tom229 This really is a strange situation and it's so unfortunate that it takes Airbnb so long to resolve it. One question . . . when you did the walk through were you wearing a mask? Was the guest wearing a mask?

@Emilia42   He says he did a "distanced walk-through."  So video or FaceTime?

@Ann72 You could be right. I took it as they both walked through the space 6 feet apart. There is so much new terminology now! 😀

 

 

@Emilia42  Yes!  But were you thinking they complained about contact or some such?

@Ann72 I was thinking that the guest may have been uncomfortable if approached by someone without a mask. I can picture her acting "fine" during the walk thorough but leaving after discussing it with her husband/family. It is just strange that Airbnb would suspend the listing based on a shared laundry room. I would assume there would have been some sort of safety violation. 

@Emilia42 and @Ann72 - Yes. Both of us had masks on and were at a distance of 6' the entire time. Per my request, it was just the 1 guest and I doing the walk-through. The rest of the family stayed in the car. The entire walk through took maybe 10 mins. I follow all of Airbnb's COVID cleaning protocols and provide the guests with plenty of disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer and Lysol.

Bonjour @Tom229 

 

if the listing of this case is ´a vintage barbershop’, it is listed as an ‘entire home’ not a ‘shared home ´.

So your guest is right.

To speel it in the listing description is fine but not enough because it is written in the reservation (contract) , entire home.
So host must provide an entire home.

 

Generally, travellers who rent an entire home don’t want meet with the host.

Maybe when they arrive and next they want the house for them.

 

 

@Nathalie-Et-Gilles0   thanks for your response- It has always been (at least here in the US) that the term "entire home" refers to the spaces themselves... in this case an efficiency apartment with an adjoining suite. It is not a like staying in guest room in someone's home and walking through house, using their kitchen, their bathroom, etc. The spaces are entirely theirs and private. The only shared space is the laundry room... which is labeled as such in the listing. The "sharing" would have been with me, the host. It would have been limited and at the guest's convenience while they were gone... with plenty of advanced notice. It is difficult to fully describe the set-up in words, so that is why I felt a walk-through was necessary... and again, the guest seemed to be ok with it at the time. I myself have stayed in other Airbnb's with similar set-ups, and all have been  fine... in fact great. I do wish Airbnb could figure out a way to not be so black and white with the choices the host has for classification/terminology on some things when creating a listing. I will go back in and think about how I can tweak my descriptions to make them that much more clear, but I wanted to leave them unchanged until this is resolved... I do feel like I was as up front as I could be.

Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Tom229 ugh. When she said "We had to check out after learning of the shared space we felt very uncomfortable with our children being in the other room" this sounds to me like a case of the guest not reading the listing carefully and being uncomfortable with putting their kids to bed on the other side of a potentially shared space. I don't think you are at fault here-- can't see your listing because it's blocked, but assuming the description is as clear as you report. You might try Twitter and/or Facebook for faster resolution.

@Lisa723  - I have Tweeted and did get a response and it's another day of waiting. I should also add that the guest said "I will sleep in one side with my one son, and my husband on the other with the other one"... again, not indicating there was a problem... in fact, saying "it's so cute in here!" referring to the Barbershop Suite.IMG_3882.jpegIMG_3907.jpeg

@Tom229 it is very cute-- the guest's response on the walkthrough isn't all that relevant (though of course I understand your frustration). Possibly she was being less than candid, possibly her point of view changed with further consideration, possibly it was her husband, and not she, who ultimately rejected the setup. It doesn't really matter. Getting your listing unblocked is of course your current focus. Going forward you may want to emphasize the configuration in your post-booking communication with guests to prevent any repeat.

fully agree @Lisa723 

@Tom229 

 

If the guest can be all naked in the rental with no chance to meet the host = entire home.

If the guest can possibly meet the host inside his space = shared home.

 

Your space is great for a type of travellers who like to interact with host and not good for another type of travellers who want nobody in their space.

 

On Airbnb, it is rarely a good idea to choose entire home when there is some shared space because it does not attract the travellers who will love your space.