Airbnb customer service sucks

[Jonathan104]

Following is an actual e-mail exchange I had with Airbnb customer service:

I noticed that my house was not showing up when I did a search, even with the map was centered to the property address and search criteria was set so that only one page (less than 18) hits were coming up on the search. I tried it from Chrome and couple of other browsers but noticed the same issue. Obviously it wasn't browser specific but rather something to do with the faulty search algorithm used by the Airbnb. I called to report it and provided screen shots to support my claim. I received the following response….

On Sun, Sep 11, 2016 at 2:25 PM, <response@airbnb.com> wrote:

Airbnb Customer Experience

Bryant E, Sep 11, 11:25 PDT:
Hello,

I absolutely understand where you are coming from and apologize again for this issue. For whatever reason our system isn't handling your listing correctly and I am forwarding all of this information to the tech teams as quickly as possible so that they can try to fix it. Although we are unable to offer an estimated timeline for a fix, we’ll be investigating the cause of the issue to ensure the integrity of our site and the Airbnb community.
Because they may not follow up with you specifically about a fix, if you continue to experience complications in regards to this technical issue, rest assured that we are working hard to find a solution as soon as possible, but we're unable to provide an immediate resolution at this time.
Thank you so much for your patience and taking the time to alert us to the situation. For now, we will close your support ticket as the technical issue has been properly reported. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
Best regards,
Bryant E
www.airbnb.com/help
THIS EMAIL IS A SERVICE FROM AIRBNB CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

THIS EMAIL IS A SERVICE FROM AIRBNB CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
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My response:

I'm very disappointed with this response. I realize you are just doing your job and following the Airbnb policy when you are giving me this BS answer so I don’t fault you personally but I’m extremely frustrated with Airbnb. I hope you escalate this up the chain of command and let people above you with a decision making power realize that the company is headed in the wrong direction.

- This is not the first time I have had this type of a response from Airbnb. No issue tracking, no further responses or updates regarding the issue (or may be if I’m lucky) seriously….? Where is the accountability? No other company that I deal with treats their customers like this. If I opened a ticket with eBay, amazon, Walmart, BestBuy, Microsoft or any other large company that I deal with often, they create a ticket and provide updates and follow through. Even Comcast despite their nightmarish customer service still follow through once you get through to someone intelligent and open a support request. Not Airbnb!

- Again this is not the first time I have been given a response such as this so I’m beginning to see a pattern. I feel that Airbnb doesn’t have enough staff/resources to fix these issues and follow up and provide timely updates to customers. Why isn’t Airbnb re-investing some of the profit into R&D and hire enough IT staff to handle these support requests in a timely manner. I know Airbnb is raking it in – every time I go online I see articles touting how well Airbnb is doing.

- Let me clarify my earlier comment regarding the company heading in the wrong direction. Airbnb and its funders got rich off the backs of the people such as us but don’t expect that you will last very long if this trend continue. Airbnb business model seems to be driven by corporate greed and seems to lack the long term vision to re-invest in the company to making the company viable long run. Remember “Theranos”? They also tried to pull a fast one but that didn’t work for them.

Best regards
J

[Aizhan3]

I am shocked with Airbnb's customer service! This message was written in 2016! Its already been 4 years. The company grew and so did their profits, yet I don't see any big differences in how the handle customer service concerns or even just care about customer safety! I get that now in 2020, its COVID but all the successful companies, start-ups and business have been able to adjust to the new reality smoothly, except Airbnb as I can see. If not that many people are travelling nowadays, how come your wait lines are still so long? Airbnb created so many barriers to get instant help with your issue. If you have reserved a stay and it turn out to be dangerous for you, you won't be able to get in touch with Customer Support - good luck with it. They make you write a message, no phone call option, and I've waited for an agent to respond to me for 1.5 month. I still haven't received that I am entitled to and that I have fought for, even though they said 5-15 business days and its been 1 month already. I truly liked Airbnb before, I like the stays and I guess I was lucky with hosts. Nowadays so many sketchy places posted and greedy hosts who you never meet, offering their places illegally in condos - they don't care a **bleep** about your customer experience and neither does Airbnb. That is not the way to treat your valued customers. 

I would prefer to book via Booking, they also offer various homes hosted by people and have much more accountability that Airbnb. 

[Michelle-and-Barry0]

I know this convo is old but NOTHING has improved since then! It's gotten even worse. Closing a case before the host can even explain! They owe me $30,000 and they'd rather just not talk to me about it!