PLEASE, please change the hold music on your support line! It is driving everyone crazy. Delete the song, and use other songs on rotation. Hosts who have waited hours upon hours, have a gross pavlovian response to this hold music!!
Hi Marc, Very well stated! You are absolutely correct on several points. Allow me to comment on a couple of them. First, there is nothing wrong with being highly automated, in theory. What tends to happen, and I believe you nailed it with AirBnB is that their overall system IS so highly automated that wherever possible, and IMHO that is almost everywhere at AirBnB, they actually *have* removed the human element. Sure, if one is willing to wait on hold for quite some time, and of course listen to that music we all love so much, you will get to speak with a human. So no-name sitting somewhere who will talk to you, yet provide nothing tangible from the conversation, at least for issues not directly related to an active reservation. Two things I recently pointed out to them, which was AirBnB's infant policy and how it can violate our laws and licensing, and a new legal requirement to include a registration number in the property listing visible to the public before booking. Neither has been addressed yet. The first has been a couple of months, while the second only several days. AirBnB certainly *wants* to expand, but I believe it is going to take a disruptor to *really* get their attention. And I cannot wait! Nothing satisfies me more that to have a company failing to really work for its paying customers than to have another provider come along and provide a superior platform that really gets it done, and then takes away the business from the company refusing to help. One day that will happen to AirBnB, at least in some markets. When it does, maybe the soon to be out of work staff at AirBnB can read these posts and get ideas for their next employment gig. Cheers, Jay
Hi Chris - You are probably correct. I have experienced systems which let you wait in silence, as opposed to listening to lame music. Silence is a major improvement over this music, believe me.
I have been asking to have this changed for years. No results and no feedback except from others who post comments, pro and con. Waste of time to complain or suggest improvements.
Airbnb does some things very well. However, communication with hosts is totally robotic and it is impossible for a host to speak with or email a mid or upper level decision maker. Really a bad flaw in their otherwise very good system. I guess when you have a cash cow and are getting super rich on auto pilot, there is a perception that the worker bees that allow you to get rich don't matter.
Flaws like this will create openings for others to develop competing systems that will be better and cause a migration of hosts and guests to a better system.
@Marcus0"Flaws like this will create openings for others to develop competing systems that will be better and cause a migration of hosts and guests to a better system." Way ahead of you, my friend. 😉 At least for our little rock in the world.
This is a torture technique the US Forces used on prisoners at guantanemo bay, songs on constant loop. No joke. Maybe airbnb is trying to slowly brainwash us.
@Adam0This is what the US did to Manual Noriega back in 1989. It worked. Might have been a quicker resolution in that case if they used this lame song. 😉
