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.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

We have one listing in our home (private room) and we always greet our guests at the main gate of our apartment complex to show them in. We've had korean friends get lost in our complex trying to find the right door/elevator 🙂 And the keypad for building access is in Korean. 

We would have no trouble welcoming our single guest while leaving the unregistered guest at the gate if it really came to that. 

[William542]

I had a issue with a guest last week who was not honest about how many people were staying. It was nuanced because he was adding a guest for part of the time. He agreed to pay the difference through Airbnb, but we could not figure out how to do so.  He ended up paying cash for the difference.  We made the effort to be fair to Airbnb, but they were tight on time and it seemed like a good compromise.  I want to make sure Airbnb gets their earnings as well, and I look to them to look out for me just as they need me to do so for them.  I just had a prospective guest solicit me that they wanted to  leave after half their stay for 2 days, and come back a few days later and pay cash for the rest.  I replied back to with the 2 days knocked off as a discount through Airbnb but they didn't book.  I'm chiming in because Airbnb is leaving money on the table and putting hosts at risk because they are not creating enough structure for the guests.  Guests need to face reprecussions for misrepresentations.  I suggest guests should forfeit the security deposit if they commit such frauds.  No one can afford to litigate this and its Airbnb's job to arbitrate in a fair and efficient way.   

[Casey98]

Had a guest remove a teak rocker now I have to prove its extistance and file police reports, a nightmare all I get is cut and paste messages from resolution support will be using vrbo in the future Airbnb is a nightmare.

[Mikki0]

"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? "

No, you send them packing. There is no need to cancel the reservation. They booked your place under false pretenses. Tell them to leave. If they want their money back, have THEM go through the resolution center and then refuse to give them the money back. It will then go to airbnb arbitration and you can explain why you did what you did. 

[Justin131]

Mikki, You’re not factoring in the fact that the calendar is still blocked off. You can’t change a dysfunctional reservation without going through Airbnb’s customer service bottleneck to open the calendar up for legitimate bookings.

[Mikki0]

@Justin  This is true, and if it's a long(er) term rental, then I can see the calendar block as an issue. But if you successfully defend your side in the arbitration, then the bad guests are gone, you get the full fee and your calendar is reopened. 

In your original post you wanted to know why cancelling a misleading reservation was restrictive and punative for hosts. I was merely suggesting that instead of cancelling, you asked the guests to leave and let them deal with Airbnb's customer service for the return of their money. If they choose not to arbitrate, then you get their money, and you can call Airbnb and have them reopen your calendar and hope for a last minute booking. 

[Karim8]

I use instant book exclusively and have been burned a few times. The first time AIRBNB paid for lost night due to a prostitute needing to be booted.

Another time some pot head smoked inside making the place smell for next guest. BNB said to get professional company in to deodorize and I did they said they would take care of charges when they get reciept. I sent reciept and they said the most they could collect from guest for damage was 50 bucks. I spent 250 on ozone treatment and another 60 on lost revenue. They said they could not do anything else without proof. WTH?

Last few nights i have some meth head staying in middle of my suburban bnb. I found out she is on probation. BNB wants ME to convince HER to cancel. WTF? 

Can airbnb ask guests if they are or have been on probation? That would be eliminate most autobook problems.  If we find out they are on probation then we should be able to cancel penalty free. I have no time for those people. They always have a pit bull even with no pet policy, they always smoke inside even with no smoking policy and they destroy moral of cleaning crew.

Most of time autobook is fine but when you get a sociopath staying at your BNB then it takes a lot of time in texts and phone calls to fix.

[Justin131]

So again, Airbnb. Hosts understand that things like what @Karim0 is describing above. That’s baked into expectations. What’s not baked in is the inability to quickly course correct.

GET PUT OF OUR WAY.

Allow active hosts to cancel through the app post checkin. Even build-in a penalty that we must petition to have waived. ANYTHING OTHER THAN WAITING ON HOLD FOR AN HOUR AND HAVE TO EXPLAIN SIMPLE STUFF TO OFFSHORE CUSTOMER SERVICE. 

I’m going to do over $500k+ in bookings this year, which makes me a $50,000-$60,000 revenue generator for Airbnb per anum. If I had a client paying me $50k I wouldn’t make him wait on hold for an hour, then speak to my 1/2 English speaking secretary after the hour long wait, just to have my 1/2 English speaking secretary transfer me to someone else ALL TO EXECUTE A SIMPLE TASK that’s “guaranteed” in the Bull **bleep** “peace of mind guarantee”. Follow through on your loudly pronounced promises or stop making them. One or the other.

[Nicholas198]

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@Justin131 wrote:

I’m going to do over $500k+ in bookings this year, 

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Whoa! That's barely enough to pay for the annual maintenance on one boat! ;0)

[Justin131]

Nicholas, sometimes I happen to agree. Great business model, eh?! Costs are guaranteed to be higher than revenue. What could go wrong?! ; )

[Mikki0]

@Karim0 

There is one feature of Instant Book that will not allow a guest with negative reviews to instant book. Of course, this relies on hosts giving honest reviews, including the thumbs down. This should cut down on the riff raff booking your listing. 

Recommendation from other hosts - These guests have traveled on Airbnb, are recommended by other hosts, and have no negative reviews.

[Jennifer844]

I'm with you, Justin. Airbnb is no longer worth it for me. It started out as a fun way to share my ski house with people who apprecated a cheaper rate and enjoyed the home. The extra income I received from the bookings I chose to accept helped out with my maintenance costs without adding undue concern about how my home was being used.  Last spring when I started getting threats from Airbnb that I would lose my super host status because I wasn't accepting enough reservations ( I accept nearky 80% and only turned down groups of college students ), I turned on instant book. I had a bad experience and now lost my superhost status anyway. The whole appeal of Airbnb was that I was in control of my property. The guests at the beginning knew they were renting someone's home and were grateful and gracious. Lately guests seem to have forgotten they are staying in someone else's home.

My house is my house first and foremost. There are other avenues to rent to conscientious folks who I know will respect my home. I know more about my home and the rental market in my area than Airbnb's big brothers pretend to know. Enough. The fun is gone. 

[Sally221]

I was looking to find out the fate of Gregory who didn't allow the people who tried to bring in more folks than his listing accomodated (as per Airbnb's advice) and then got a 1* review that airbnb wouldn't, couldn't remove. That's the poison in the policy that should be easiest to fix- if there's a dispute no one gets to leave a review until after the dispute is resolved & NO review should be left by guests who violate conditions & thus aren't allowed to stay. The stated purpose of allowing guests who don't actually stay is in case a listing is misrepresented  and is actually unsafe/ disgusting. Guests who misrepresent themselves have already proved to be unreliable & should not be allowed input.

A recent guest told me that it was all over Reddit that Airbnb is slanted in favor of hosts- after I explained the veiw from my side of the fence he hazarded a guess that this view was being encouraged by airbnb as push back to the narrative on the community site here. I'm not media literate enough to have a useful opinion about that, but it was interesting.  We have had mostly exceptionally wonderful people staying with us, the worst were mildly annoying & they were but a handful & not all that trying- fingers crossed!  I rent out our downstairs as a suite with no charge for more than 1 guest and a Firm limit of 4 people and I hope that acts as sufficient filter. I 've had a few booking inquiries for larger groups, no thanks, also a few who wanted huge discounts & said nope to that too!  There's always solid advice on this forum & some (much needed) venting as well, Sally 

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

Ditto what @Sally0 in Berkely wrote!  Guests who don't arrive and cancel of the day they were supposed to checkin should not be able to leave a review and the host should not be asked to leave a review.  This happened to us recently.  I called Airbnb support and asked them to block the abililty for a guest who never stayed at our property to post a review and also to block our ability to leave a review in return. The first person I spoke with at Airbnb support agreed to do this. I was relieved. Later I got a message from the automated system reminding me to leave a review for this guest. What? I called Airbnb support again and spoke to a person who didn't know what to do, then he told me that even though it says to leave a review, if a review was left it would not be published if the guest did not stay. I don't trust that is true. The next time I got a prompt to leave a review for this guest, I decided to see how much of a review I could leave, with no intention of submitting it. It was the same process as any other review. I didn't submit it but suspect if I did it would have been published. Luckily , 14 days passed, and then  neither of us were able to leave a review. Crazy!

[Sam397]

Hey Justin, from what I understand you let these guys check in and then you called BnB wanting them to cancel the resevation. And they were still there the next morning because BnB gave you the runaround. I was wandering what would of happened if you just cancelled their reservation yourself before they came in the house, before you called BnB. I know they say to call them but there has to be situations where the host can cancel the resevation on the spot, without having to call them.  The  7 people showing up with coolers of alchahol should  be reason enough to cancel the reservation. I think its safe to say that the chance of that being a quiet gathering of friends having a few cocktails  are pretty slim, and personally I'm not letting them in the door let along let them stay until BnB get in touch with them. They are going to give you a bad review no matter what you do, and BnB at most sends you one of their " threatening but not really"  emails.

I will admit I dont know the rules as well as I should but it seems to me they can have all the rules they want, but it's still the host property, and at the end of the day the host have the final say on who will stay and who wont. And  I really doubt AirBnB is going to throw away your money because you refused to let 7 college aged kids have a party at your house.