Terrible customer service, host left out of pocket for damage and bills

[Tom86]

Hi everyone 

I would very much appreciate some advice on a brick wall I seem to have hit with Airbnb as a host. The problem is that I’ve taken this to Airbnb directly and the response I’ve had had been nothing short of useless through the trust and safety team via resultion centre, customer services by telephony and contact us / send us feedback on the website. I’m at a loss of what to do and have been left £100’s out of pocket by a guest who left damage, ran up huge utility bills and hours of additional cleaning

A few weeks a ago I had some guests stay for 3 months. I made two visits to the property to attend an issue and noted the poor state of cleanliness, and that the gas boiler was up full power  and on 24/7. I reminded the guests that they needed to keep the place clean, and go easy on the utilities. All was well until checkout - I was left with several damaged good, a filthy property and huge energy bills - over 3 times what they would would normally be

I opened a case on the resolution centre. Joe sent me a reply but it went downhill from there. I provided a picture of most items (accepting it was my bad some had not been photographed and binned), and a receipt for repurchased goods I claimed for. I asked about all the additional cleaning and energy too and was told outright we don’t deal with that no explanation, call customer services maybe they can help. Several emails back and forth, I’m told the same thing. I provided my receipts but still no refund. I get cut and pasted Email stock responses that either don’t answer my question, completely irrelevant to the issue or grammatically make no sense. I asked to escalate as a complaint as I wasn’t getting an answer, and was told no I am your case manager. Your case will be closed as I hadn’t provided "documentations". I called customer services, person I spoke to offered no help but told me to log feedback online in  jovial mannor and said they couldn’t help sorry. Completely ridiculous. I did this and was told via feedback form to leave feedback to ask for a quality team to look at my case or ask for another advisor?? No help again. Asked to escalate, request from all parties for a complaints department or address to write too simply ignored

I’m now angry at how I’ve been treated, after using Airbnb for years as a host paying all their service fees, and ocassionally as a guest as well

This guest abused my property and shouldn’t be getting away for it, they could potentially be doing the same to another unfortunate person who hosts them. Airbnb's customer service literally couldnt care less it seems I'm shocked at how such a reputable company treats its hosts

Can anyone who has been in a similar situation please shed any light on what they would suggest I do next?

I have another long term guest to stay soon and don’t want the same again; considering capping energy costs and staying damage is to be paid for a check out if need be. I asked for advice on this from Airbnb, nope nothing still waiting for an answer!

Many thanks for your help

Tom

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Tom86

Hi - I think you need to review your longer term letting arrangement. Why not include an additional mandatory price for a weekly clean to keep the place up to standard. Look into systems like Nest which means you can see things like energy used etc and you can set on/off times remotely etc- or be very clear that there is a surcharge for units over xx. You have to be very specific on this point. Exactly how much energy can they use - what is the cosg per unit over and above that - and how can they see how much they are using (smart meter?).

while longer term stays may seem appealing they do come with added risks and costs. For that reason we only now take guests for a maximum of 7 nights

Good luck

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Tom86

ABB is not the best platform for hosting long-term, especially for private home listings. @Gerry-And-Rashid0 made great suggestions and if you do a search on the CC for "long term" and "temperature" there will be a lot of posts talking about more or less the same problems you experienced that I think will help you come up with ideas on how to handle your upcoming long-term guest.

Also, you should make sure expecations are clearly explained and additional charges (if any) must be presented in advance to the guest. All relevant communication should stay on the ABB messenger for it to be accepted as evidence by ABB. Unfortunately, ABB cannot and will not "police" guest behavior and actions so it is really up to the host to make sure guests abide our rules. Good luck~

[Tom86]

Thanks both, really appreciate your advice here. I have one more long term guest staying for 3 months, then I'm done with the platform unfortunately, I see your point about not being suitable for long term. This isnt the first time I've provided evidence of damage, photos and receipts, to Airbnb and they've refused to reimburse me. Not comfortable that my property is protected. Any ideas on how I escalate on the customer service side? Their trust & safety team have decided to stop talking, last time I queried why despite providing documentation I still had no refund, I got the exact same stock email sent to me again! Is there some way of writing to their head of CX or management team to look at the service issues?

Thanks again

Tom