Airbnb ghosting me?

[Lynn1329]

Hi everyone 

I need some advice please. I have had a great relationship with Airbnb over the past 5 years and many (100+ 5 Stars)

I have a bush beach property in NSW Australia 

Like most countries our borders are closed and we have a lot more people 'staycationining' who would normally be travelling overseas.

A few weeks ago, a guest stayed at our property and saw a spider in the house. This is Australia. Our place is sparkling  clean with fresh linen, but we are in the bush and spiders occasionally get into houses. The guest called the spider 'vermin' which is an incorrect term (means mice). She gave us 4 stars

This week we have had our account de-activated despite YEARS of great service, guests and reviews

Nothing we can say to the Airbnb staff in Singapore to explain our situation is listened to, just promised to be looked into within 7 days - if we send them a form for appeal, but we cannot get them to actually send the form. It's over! and we are completely shocked. We had an incredibly positive experience, guests and reviews all disappear overnight. It feels like being ghosted by a long term boyfriend - smoke bomb and gone!

Surely a business cannot treat people like this - its an algorithm AI gone mad! Like HAL from Space Oddyssey 2001 - 'sorry we cannot help you Dave. Have a nice day' Any advice on what to do here? Surely Airbnb has to offer some kind of human decision making service to help with these issues?  

[Robin4]

@Lynn1329 

Lynn, what can I tell you.....Airbnb will always side with the guest, I am afraid that is a fact of life we have to put up with. Hosting is a tough enough gig as it is, but don't count on Airbnb being in your corner. 

You have to be a bit proactive here. I host in a cottage in the rear garden of our property. There is over 1,000 square metres of garden around our listing.....and with garden comes,  'critters'.

I tell incoming guests, 'You  have come into a garden environment, if you leave the door open you might get the odd mosquito or two, although we do a pretty good check between guests an occasional spider might set up home in here, heaven forbid, I have even seen the odd cockroach. Please remember this is not the tenth floor of the inner city Park Royal or the Pitt street Mall ....you have booked to come into our  country home, if you find an undesirable insect please, just give it a whack and cut us a bit of slack, we try our best to keep them out'! .....and I have only had one guest who felt he needed to mark me down and make mention in the review!

Cheers........Rob 

[J-Renato0]

@Lynn1329 

If the guest has the possibility to find some spider (and some other creature) in the house, it is necessary to writte it in the listing description, and also to explain on how to avoid it.

As a last resort to revert your situation, I suggest contacting some Community Manager here and ask them to pass your allegations along.

I wish your appeal succed and have your property listed again.

[Lawrene0]

Wow, yes, your listing has disappeared, @Lynn1329 . Clicking on it takes you to the Airbnb home page. 

All is not lost -- I've heard of hosts being reinstated after similar guest complaints, but it takes a lot of perseverance. Keep at them about getting that form. Try Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter account, it is free, and worth setting one up just for this. You will want to contact AirbnbHelp once you do. 

Will you let us know what happens?

[Christine615]

I agree - reach out to one of the community managers and ask for help. Lately customer service has been horrible. Find the thread where Catherine Powell is updating hosts and tag her, asking for help. Supposedly she is trying to fix the host experience issues we are having.

[Michelle53]

@Lynn1329   I had a spider issue one time, several years back, resulting in a guest cancellation, and a stern lecture from the case manager. 

After that, I put this "bug disclaimer" in my listing :-

"Since my space is a Certified Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation, all kinds of wildlife may visit my property. I do not use chemical sprays or treatments of any kind in the garden. I am conscientious about manually removing bugs that may gain entry to the house. If you happen to be visited by a bug, let me know, and I will humanely remove it as soon as possible."

[Louise0]

That's just awful.  You are justifiably angry.  I don't usually advocate going to the media but given you've exhausted all other avenues, it's justified.   

It's a great story and one that would likely get traction.  Complaining about spiders in a Australia is like whining about the cold in Siberia.  Spiders are not 'vermin'.  They are not symptomatic of an unclean, unsafe environment (in fact, the opposite) and are a vital part of the local ecology. 

Airbnb, how dare you ping a host for this.  It's outrageous!