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?

[Olivier167]

I know your team is trying to help me out but I haven't received any of your emails, I have no phone line to be reached on so the only way is for me to call you guys, but I've been on hold now for over 50 minutes and still haven't gotten a hold of someone. I had to spend 130$ in calling cards so far and I'm still stuck in the middle of no where without a solution..

please please help me and answer me here as non of your emails are coming in and I'm desperate.

its dark 

[Olivier167]

Outside, I'm alone on this island, and I need your help to find a solution 

thanks

[Kathryn75]

Oliver, did you ever receive any support? Are you ok now?

[Thor5]

 Absolutely terrible! Most recently we submitted photos, correspondence and even an invoice by a licensed contractor for work that needed to be done to replace a blind and a curtain rod that was clearly broken by a guest .  It was $123. They refused to pay it stating we had  to use a registered company rather than a licensed contractor for the work. I have all the documentation proving this if anyone needs to see it. We kept replying that we did not see anything in terms and conditions that said the company had to be registered and that having the work done by a licensed contractor would not be sufficient 

[Kathryn75]

That's awful! It's not even worth filing a claim anymore, and it sounds like your claim was valid! At what point do guests and hosts get heard, when AirBnB is fined or even worse when a class action lawsuit against AirBnB for this kind of treatment wins?
In the end, we as hosts are hurt the most, as our guests are going elsewhere. As recently as today I had a guest cancel due to her shock at the high AirBnB fees. I couldn't blame her, why pay the high fees when the service and support is no longer given by AirBnB?

[Thor5]

In the past 6 to 8 months I have had excessive weight times of 45 minutes on the short side and an hour and 54 minutes on the long side. I've been repeatedly disconnected, I have been told Airbnb  case managers do not return phone calls, but will only reply by email. Each time I got an email on the most recent claim it would ask for more and more documentation, each time I provided it it would ask for even more and is now saying they will decline the clean because I have not used a registered company.  I asked why they give an option of finding a similar item online if it is not an acceptable option. I then supply the invoice from the licensed contractor along with all the photos and they still refuse the claim. This is just one of many problems I have had over the past six months. 

[Kathryn75]

Yup, that sounds about right. Exactly the same kind of icky treatment I have been experiencing. 

It's as if customer service is trained to now give us the run around, and they WILL NOT support you when needed.

[Thor5]

The sad part is at this time last year I was so pleased with airbnb that I was interviewed for a news segment to alleviate concerns in our community about airbnb and promote it. I did so with rave reviews. How did a company go from a Stellar standing to one of the absolute worst faceless corporations ever? I feel like a hypocrite telling the community how great it was. These are not isolated incidents either...it seems that every time I get a rep, I run into the same thing. Two of them actually told me they just grew too fast. Well I don't want to hear about their growing pains because quite frankly my definition of "growth" is measured in a completely different fashion. The size has grown but the performance has severely declined!!!

[Kathryn75]

I so relate to you. I wasn't in the news, however I had touted AirBnB to anyone and everyone who would listen and signed up at least 10 new hosts. Here it is a year later and I, and the people who signed up thanks to me, are all experiencing the decline in service and changes in quality of care towards what was once considered a high valued community thus commodity.  One hosts comment to me, "AirBnB's customer service is just worthless".

AirBnB must know that this decline is happening, as I, like you have had consistantly bad service, and ask the customer service reps what's happening. At first they too wanted to try to make it better, now they have clearly given up as their hands are tied. I wonder if any are quitting?
I digress, it is embarassing to know it's because of me that people are hosting, and now are facing problem after problem. Many I know have had much better success, at least with customer service, on VRBO.  I'd guess, that more and more of us will move over to other platforms, as AirBnB is just not listening, and at some point you have to give up.

For me, it effects my bottom line, making money, so I have not yet given up.  One idea, how about reaching out to the people who interviewed you last year and telling them what's happening now? I am happy to speak up too if it will help?
Do you think this could help? Maybe public shaming in the news and on social media will kick em in the butt enough to switch directions towards being good again? Think United Airlines video of the man being drug off the plane earlier this week. What if all victims of AirBnB negligence was shown in pictures and video with examples of what damage, or other horror has occured, and then posted it on their social meida outlets?

Do you think this would help?
I can tell you tweeting to them has been worthless, at least for me. They aren't listening. Yet.

[Thor5]

No... every time I have spoken to a customer service rep they have informed me that their only job is to report it to a case manager and they can do nothing for me. I keep getting messages from case manager name Lena saying she cannot verify the invoice because the company is not registered. I spoke to Kathi i'll review the case and said she would let Lena know that it looked very open and shut to her with all the photographic evidence, and the correspondence, and finally a very valid and verifiable invoice from a licensed contractor who did the work. Further I have another home that sleeps 12 comfortably with four bedrooms and two living rooms and overlooks the ocean and they had that place listed for $129 a night. My minimum stays, my rates, any up charges, etc. are constantly being changed every time the app is updated or sometimes just when we look. We also took a woman in our home at the request of an airbnb rep ... when we looked, they put her in for $48 per night. It is a room that goes for 129 minimum. We never take a monthly guest in there and they gave her a 45% discount on an $89 rate and a monthly stay. We graciously gave this woman a place to stay as she was sitting outside of a Nother place that didn't work out. We said we would never leave anybody without a place to stay. We were on hold for over an hour before we finally just decided to except the reservation to help the woman out. Airbnb knew that we had been with them since 2012 and we have never rented the room out for more than two day intervals as it is our private residence. We got a message from someone telling us that they would figure out a trip credit to compensate us. This was three weeks ago and nothing… The list goes on. Are used to have 11 listings of my own and five that I managed with someone else. I now have six of my own and only one of the other persons as I will not have to keep doing this day after day with so many listings.
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[Mike294]

Yes I have been hosting since August 16'. Air B and B customer service sucks to put it mildly. I have stricked cancelation policy and when a guest arrives in town and finds another place they want to stay and starts an argument then calls Air B and B They end up crediting it back to guest and I eat the reservation. During that time it is like talking to a rock- they do not listen and know everything. I try to send pics and respond to their e-mails -they say they do not recieve  any of them ... -I am telling you this companys customer service is unbelievable and unfortunate because the mentality is how they want it. Lack there of.  Will not be using their service much longer.

[Katie191]

Omg, this was what exactly happen to me recently. I had a guest who wanted to cancel, so he dugged whatever reason he could find, as soon as one got rejected as I could fix it really quick, he went and snowballed another issue. 

In the end Airbnb refunded his entire reservation back with me eating the cost. Even at the very end of the conversation with the case manager, he admitted the guest was snowballing the reasons to get his refund back and he made a mistake with how he handled the case, I still had to eat  the cost of that reservation that was refunded. 

Horrible Airbnb customer service. As a host, I can't trust airbnb anymore to handle  conflicts anymore. There is no protection at all with airbnb, I don't know why I bother to pay such expensive fees for cancellation fees that has absolutely no teeth. 

[Liz121]

So scary!  Even scarier, I posted about problems with customer service and they sent me an email telling me they deleted my post and threatened to ban me from Airbnb!!  I will try not to post complaints here anymore due to their reaction - they don't want to hear it and am checking out another site called House Trip or something like that in case they do decide to ban me - although I hope they don't, but whatever, I can't control them.  Clearly posting here does not have any affect on how they run their business.  I am also thinking I can just rent my place out furnished for more $ than empty.  There is another one called VRBO but I don't know how good they are.  Until Airbnb gets serious competition I don't think there will be any changes to their lack of proper customer service.

[Katie191]

VBRO is actually really good. I use that too and now I think I am going to slowly give priority to VBRO booking than airbnb bookings. 

[Liz121]

Wow, thanks for letting me know!  I just didn't like that they charge upfront as opposed to taking 3% of bookings.  House Trip is the name of the one that bills like Airbnb, taking 3%.  Maybe if we did both House Trip and VRBO we could make up for the fact that they may be smaller than Airbnb.  VRBO also has a stumbling block where they will only accept certain sized pics which is why thus far I have not posted there.  Perhaps I will get those sized pics though.  I dont' like being scared that Airbnb will terminate me merely because I voiced a problem (albeit vociferiously) on their website.  They should not invite criticism if they don't want to hear it.