Is anyone else receiving awful customer service? ( this poor service is new)

[Kathryn75]

Hi all,

Unfortunately, as a host,  I have had to reach out to customer service 4 different times in the last three months, and each time I have had horrible support via email and phone calls.

Emails bounce back. Claims are closed without review. Support is not immediate, I had to wait for two months for assistance with one claim.

I have been a full time host and occasional guest with AirBnB since 2009. Over this time span, when something comes up, I receive immediate, top notch support and resolution. Now, perhaps in the last 6 months, I am experiencing a serious decline in service.

Are other people experiencing this? 

To me, if I don't have great customer service, or reimbursement support for claims ( mine was a proven theft with police report) then why pay fees to AirBnB? Why stay with AirBnB?  I am quite perplexed, as this has been a nice business for me, and I feel it may be time to leave AirBnB. Are others feeling this way too?

[Andrea1839]

I just had a horrible experience over the past 3 weeks with guest that customer support has entirely no help at all.  I hope all host take heed and find another place for their home.

Guest cancelled the night before but didn't have to pay and I never was notified. Just happen to be on the app and saw that he canceled at 1:30 and I was on site at 10:30.

[Kathryn75]

That's awful Andrea!
I'm using VRBO and Trip Advisor these days with better results.....

[Chris-And-Matthew0]

I’ve been through the same issue. We have 5 homes active with Air BnB. As landlords, you expect to have problems at times. this was a tenant that claimed serious problems but wouldn’t let us in to check things out. Worse, he didn’t want to leave right away and Air BnB wouldn’t make him leave (even with a refund). The “case manager” only cares about clearing out her “ticket”. It will take a while, but we are distancing outprselves from AiR BnB. We’re to old to take it on, but I wish some one would give them some competition.

[Sophie393]

Hello Chris, we have few situations with AIRBNB that also "only cares about clearing out her the ticket". Good luck! I'm now on a 6 tickets for the same topic and no AIRBNB support have been helping us yet. 

[Sophie393]

Situation:

The guess never came actually. Our check-in is up to 22:00. Guess never communicated, or even replied to our numerous attempts to reach her. Eventually we received a text super late saying they would show up in the middle of the night. We would have waited until 23:00...but not this late. We called Airbnb right away so they could reassign her a place to stay.

We have to argue with AIRBNB because they said we were cancelling her stay and we will lose our SUPERHOST status if we do not let her come in the middle of the night. Everything is writing in our listing, rules, guide and welcome message. We provide a room in a family house with young kids.We can't receive guess in the night. After a long conversation (1.5 hours), manager decide to cancel on airbnb name.

Few days after that event, another case manager call to apologize for the agent. He refund us and told us the guess could not give a review.

10 days after the event, we add a really bad review on our name, affecting my AIRBNB superhost status. AIRBNB support do not want to remove it even the manager and case manager told us that she could not leave a review since they cancel her reservation. I created 6 tickets and all were close without a follow-up!

We hosted a lot of AIRBNB guess in the pass year and each time we have a issue, it's always a nightmare to get AIRBNB support.

[Liz121]

I completely agree.  It's so infuriating how Airbnb just truly doesn't care about SO MANY custoemr service isses!!!  I keep promising myself I will og to VRBO and the other platforms.  I think I just need to do it.  It also helps that i have lowered my expectations from the customer service people.

[Sophie393]

Hello Liz, 

What I'm saying is that a year ago we have good support. The AIRBNB agent saw the ridiculous situation and settled quickly. Now, we common sense is no longer present. You should hear the AIRBNB support nonsense.

[Liz121]

Well what I'm saying Sophie is there is now and was a year ago and ever since I started with Aribinb, serious customer service issues.  I'm glad you wer happy with them a year ago.  I wasn't, although admittedly they do do certain things well, but there is a lot to be desired in terms of their customer service.

[Natasha194]

AIRBNB has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with in my life. It’s disgusting how the customer service does absolutely NOTHING. They have got to by far the most rudest, obnoxious individuals I have ever met. Their policies are **bleep**en vague and when asking questions point blank they lie.  There are major customer service issues however AIRBNB will fight until they are blue in the god **bleep** face. They don’t give a **bleep** about customers or solving issues. They are all about their service fees and that is basically about it. 

[Natasha194]

I’ve been using Airbnb for years and just recently I’ve noticed the change and shift in their customer service. Employees over the phone sound miserable and angry. They really don’t help everything is a ticket. Once their support contacts you it gets you literally no where. Honestly I hope someone comes up with a site that is better than Airbnb. I’m just so disturbed at how a company can just ignore customer service issues and not fix matters that are required to be fixed. They point blank do not care 

[Sophie393]

My tip: create a new ticket everyday until someone care and follow up with you. Be patient, can take more 14 days 😞

[Donald28]

I recently had a guest want to book our airbnb because she was visiting friends and family in our area. As part of our airbnb, we offer our guests access to our huge private freeplay arcade. This lady thought it was OK to book for herself and then invite her friends and family to play all day in our acrade! She only told me this AFTER I accepted her booking and after she had booked. 

I called airbnb and explained the situation. They agreed and said THEY would cancel her reservation. 6 hours later and they hadn't cancelled it. The lady was still peppering me with nasty messages and I finally just cancelled her booking myself.

I called airbnb again and the first level CSR told me that they weren't sure why they didn't cancel the booking as they said they would BUT that since I had cancelled it, I was now liable for all the "dings" that go along with a host who cancels a booking. 

I'm a super host for 7 quarters in a row and work hard for that designation. I feel like customer service people don't care enough about the hosts. It's almost like ebay not caring about its sellers. How's that going for ebay now?! NOT WELL!

Airbnb needs to realize that it's not the guests who are paying their bills and making them millionairs... it's us hosts.

[Amy38]

@Donald28  Who but a teenage boy would want to play arcade games alone?

If the arcade is offered it should be free for the guests and a fee ...say $10.... for their guests.

You dont mention any mess or damage to your property, so what is the big deal? Not knowing the situation, it sounds a bit churlish of you to present a room full of games, but not allowing full use of it. It sounds likke a potential money maker to me.

[Donald28]

We're not in the arcade business. We're in the airbnb business. The arcade is just a bonus for our PAYING guests to use when they are staying with us. It's not for their friends and family who they are visiting, that live local. And, you'd be surprised who loves an arcade!? The only people who haven't used it in 250+ rentals have been a 60 year old couple. People come here just to play in the arcade. 

If you read my post you'd know there was no possibility of a mess or damage because I declined this guest. 

But I do appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to shat on my post. 

[Liz121]

Donald, did you get anything in email from teh rep who said she would cancel the guest?  If so you should take that email, call Airbnb and tell them not to penalize you because you cancelled it and that you only cancelled it because the rep failed to do what she said she was gonig to do.  If you didn't get it in email from her you could have them pull the call and listen to it  I always write down the date and time of the call, what the rep said and I get them to put it in writing to me WHILE I AM STILL ON THE PHONE WITH THEM otherwise they don't do it.  Also get them to put in the subject line what the issue is to separate it out from all teh other Airbnb emails.  I know this is after the fact, but this process has helped me hold the reps to account when they don't follow through on what they say they will do in a timely manner or at all.  For future I would follow this protocal but for now I would stay on this and ask them to escalate your situation to a higher rep to allow you to not be penalized.  I hope that helps.  Oh yes, and in future I would also perhaps be clear that your guests can't just invite 10 people over to play arcades all day, or yes you can have a fee per extra person or however you want to do that.  Best of luck with this.  Liz