Instant Book Hosting nightmare

[Justin131]

I’ve hosted over 2,000 times & have over 1,000 reviews. Yesterday & this morning has made me seriously rethink my relationship with Airbnb.

 Last night a guest instant booked one of my properties representing 1 guest. (7) 19-22 year olds showed up with full coolers.

I kept my cool, I explained to them that 6 was the max & we charge $60 per additional guest after the first 2 ($480 extra for a 2 night stay). 

1) you can’t change the # of guests through the app past checkin time. Why is Airbnb continuing to tighten its control over simple modifications to reservations. Guests wish to add guests all the time - get out of our way Airbnb! The guests still has to accept the change so why are you making simple changes difficult?!

After requesting the $480 through resolution center I waited a while, then reminded the guest he needs to make this right to stay. Still no response, then a “I’ll do it right away”. An hour later, still no response. So, I had enough & went to cancel the reservation due to breaking house rules. I had reached my 3-times limit so I was informed I need to call customer service.

2)If I host 10 times a year in 1 listing I can cancel instant book reservations penalty free 3 times through the app. So I can cancel 30% of my reservations no problem. If I host 1,000+ times a year in 9 different listings (like me) I can cancel instant book reservations 3 times penalty free through the app. WTH?! Use percentages not hard #s Airbnb!

So, I was informed I need to call which I did & I WAS ON HOLD FOR OVER AN HOUR then shifted around until finally someone could help me. I called at 8:30, it wasn’t until 10:40 that Airbnb took action. To all Airbnb executives, what’s 2 hours of your time worth to execute a simple task.

I challenge all hosts to turn off instant book & look at the message Airbnb displays.

“Are you sure? We have peace of mind guarantee if anyone breaks your rules or you’re uncomfortable you can cancel.”

A total & complete lie.

I called again this morning to cancel the reservation & after over 30 minutes of re-verifying who I am, asking mindless questions, & being shifted around I just hung up & handled it myself.

This experience has made me re-think my relationship with Airbnb. I no longer trust that I can have control over my home or rental properties.

I went 100% Airbnb last year & stopped using other booking sites. This would have never happened on VRBO. On so many levels I’m disappointed & feel Airbnb does not have our backs as hosts.

So, dear Airbnb, If a guest shows up with 6 friends, only pays for 1, & refuses to pay the extra charge should I, as a host, be able to efficiently & easily cancel that reservation as a guest is clearly in violation?  If your answer is “yes” then your actions don’t match your words. Remove these crazy controls like “only 3 times” for active hosts and have our back already so we can manage our own business without your terrible customer service bottleneck.

[Pete28]

 All good, but Airbnb should also make sure they don't leave you a wonderful 1* review. What a mess this whole business is becoming.

[Anne10908]

Unfortunately Airbnb doesn't do that.  Had a recent rule violation, waiting on my 1* when it was clear violation of so many rules and I even provided Airbnb with proof, but according to Airbnb, they are entitled to leave a review.  Thanks Airbnb, there goes my 5 star rating.

[Patti45]

I have a perfect excuse to call all guest before they arrive as we offer a dock as well...find a reason to check in with your future guests!

[Justin131]

@ Amanda - That’s reasonable if I had 1 listing instead of 9 & met everyone at the door. I don’t.  

Like most active hosts with as many listing as I have it’s a self-checkin process. I just happen to see them checkin as I was still on the dock (these are boats). They were already in the boat by the time I approached them.  They didn’t outright refuse to pay, they simply skirted it continuously & I couldn’t even cancel the reservation as a punishment without being on the phone for over 2 hours with 2 different Airbnb reps.

So, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. SInce you want to hold my feet to the fire, I made the decisions I did based on the baseline assumption that Airbnb was reasonable. It’s not. It’s not reasonable to take 2 hours to cancel a reservation clearly in violation. If I had known that’s how Airbnb conducts itself in these matters I would have handled it different.

What is reasonable? Allowing hosts to cancel a reservation from the app due to rule violations. Heck, even Pentalize me (but give me the opportunity to contest the penalty via messaging support).

Making hosts wait on hold for over an hour & then taking another hour to simply cancel a reservation that’s in blatant violation is not only unreasonable & wrong, but totally unexpected. Moving forward, i’ll conduct things very differently void of Airbnb. More importantly, I’m reverting back to taking bookings from other sites so I’m not tied to the new Airbnb way of doing things, which is arbitrary controls, no support infrastructure, and bottlenecks that treat hosts like hourly employees instead of allowing us to manage our own businesses. Airbnb forgets that they are a platform, not a retail operation.  Get out of our way, Airbnb. We are adults and can make decisions without your handholding. Don’t think so? Fine, then treat those with sub 100 reviews differently but remove the controls from hosts like me with over 1,000 reviews & 5 years of hosting under us. 

[Debi1]

Unfortunately, Airbnb doesn't make the guests state the number of people in their party.  Certainly the option for input is there, but it defaults to one.  I think a lot of guests simply don't see it or bypass it because they can.  When I see "1 guest" I always assume it's more.

[Deb125]

Its always more, people know they'll get declined if they tell the truth, because they've already tried it.  Homeaway is very supportive, its worth the money, and you're not penalized if you cancel, you set your cancellation policy.  No one gets their money back if they check in then leave, thats crazy.    Justin  I am not sure why you would cancel a booking if someone showed up, canceling a booking won't remove a guest from your place, only you can tell them to leave or call the cops.  

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

I too always message the guest to clarify the number of people in their party if I see the reservation is for only one person.... "How many adults, children and infants are in your group?"  I do this on the Airbnb platform so it is clearly there for Airbnb support to see in case there's a discrepancy later. Ours is a three bedroom whole house rental, so it would be quite unusual to be reserved for only one person. But occasionally we do have a legitimate booking for only one person.

Occasionally someone tries to book for a number that exceeds our maximum too. Then wer'e talking. We not only use IB, but we have the ability for guests to checkin on their own with a lockbox. Fortunately, we live only a mile away and make it a point to try to be there when the guests arrive to greet them or we stop by later. Our assistant lives across the street and we have good neighbors next door who also keep an eye out. Even so, the experience of hosts who have had bad apples keeps us on guard. Extremely disappointed to hear how often Airbnb fails to support hosts adequately.

[Mikki0]

This is inaccuate. As the host, you set the maximum number of guests allowed in your place. If you're guest shows up with more than they requested, you can refuse them entry. 

[David126]

Easy, no pay no stay.

[Matthew285]

@Justin131 I'm sorry you had to deal with this band of jerks.

(BTW, your listings look really neat! Are they all houseboats?)

I do agree somewhat with @Amanda225 though. In this situation I would hope the host would stop the group right at the door. They booked for one person... only one person (the booking guest) is allowed on the property. If the situation needs to be fixed, then the *guest* needs to fix it.

You are already doing your job by providing the accomodations at the agreed upon price for the specified number of guests. If a change needs to be done, that is the guest's problem, not yours.

You already have enough work to do.

Host: Hey! Welcome! So... which of you made the booking?

Guest: Me.

Host: Great. Please remember that no unregistered guests are allowed on the property at any time.

Guest: Well, we all want to stay.

Host: Hm. Well, the reservation only says one person. If you want them to go on the property, you need to change the reservation.

Guest: Um.... I don't know how to do that.

Host: Contact Airbnb. They'll help you.

Guest: Uh... can you do it for me?

Host: I can't, sorry. 

Guest: Can... they just go inside anyway?

Host: No. It doesn't work that way.

Guest: But we really want everyone together!

Host: Then you'd better call Airbnb now. I can't do it for you. I really wish I could help you, but I can't.

[Davina11]

Great suggestion dialoige - super calm and shifts the blame/unease away from you, and towards Airbnb to sort out, which is what they are supposed to do.

Some guests really try to take you on a ride - so sorry for the expierance you're having Justin 😞

/Davina 

[Pete28]

Bleh. So they are sitting out front of your property with a pile of bags trying to talk to Airbnb for 2+ hours. Not a win with neighbours etc. 

A hotel would simply take the money off your credit card if you violated their policy.

The reality is that a lot of these people hope to sneak in without the host catching them. I try to make sure I visit atleast once - I've even collected cash from extra guests. It was cheaper for them to pay up than leave and try and find somewhere else. But it is a concern that guest quality continues to collapse. I wouldn't want to host multiple properties...

[Stephanie712]

Boy, you guys are scaring me. I've only been at this for a month and a half  and really not prepared for this kind of problem. I hope all you out there will be my support if needed.

[Matthew285]

@Stephanie712 the vast majority of guests are terrific people that you will be happy to meet.

(This is assuming that your listing is not in the "super-low-budget" category.)

Things are nerve-wracking in the beginning because the host is rightly worried about getting a bad rating. When you only have 2 or 3 reviews, every guest review seems like a bottle of nitro glycerine.

You are right to look to the community here for support though. The collective wisdom and experience here is nothing short of amazing. I think the only thing that got us through our first few months was the knowledge and advice we received here.

The stories here *are* scary. But remember people only come here to share stories when something has gone wrong. It is very rare when we get a posting that says "another month went by without incident!"

There are over 600,000 hosts, over 4 million listings, over 100 milion guest check-ins each year.

There will be bad things happening. But subtract the bad things that happen from the total trips taken, and you get a sense of how many trips went well, and what your odds are of having a blessedly uneventful time hosting.

[San-Diego-Alfred-Stay0]

The major issue here is with Airbnb policies that have been but in place not by efficiency minded industrial engineers but lawyers to protect itself and nothing but itself, and Airbnb APP and AI software that pushes down prices constantly and the subjective behavior that changes with each agent at customer service.  A PISS POOR JOB SO FAR and it is getting worse at Airbnb by the day.  

As a Super Host for 3 years on at first one property then 2 and 3, the ratings (not our hosting service and hospitality) started to adversely affect us and with the increased volume Airbnb is not able to handle the customer service well for the hosts.  It SUCKS to be at Airbnb nowadays as a host and I am being extremely honest. Rules are also not favorable and only thing left will be a class action law suit coming its way and then activost investors once they go public.  Airbnb needs professional management too to bottom

I had guests break thick metal frame couches which we requested money for and involved Airbnb and our submittal disappeared into thin air on the site and special Airbnb department got back to us about a month later requesting us to submit as if it was the first time, had guests  show up with extra people, guests who threaten to talk to the HOA Offices becauze they demanded refumd because they wanted to leave early, and heck we even had one Texan take off with keys and remote and later threatened to contact the city, BBB and the condo management telling them bad business practices because we were about to charge them for these losses.. 

So @Matthew0 in San Francisco please come back down to Earth. I am sorry to be blunt. What you are portraying is far from reality and not a pragmatic one. 

And @Stephanie0 in Kailua I would use caution for sure.  Just try to filter who is coming and request to see ID's from all who are coming prior to arrival etc.   

For us another downer day at Airbnb who cannot even impose the cancellation policy properly for us.  The amount of time we have spent putting right wrong at airbnb customer service is becoming a waste of time with positive results but intenable hours.   

We have not even discussed other bad experiences here nor have talked about the security deposit that Airbnb supposedly should collect. And what a misleading joke the Airbnb Million Dollar Guarantee is. It is not even an insurance.  

It needs to grow out of this 3 boy-run startup mentality and become a professional organization run well.  You will have hosts leave by the dozens if it goes like this.