Bad Case (manager)

[Francesco609]

Hi All,

I am a new host and my very first experience as a host turned out to be a nightmare.

So I bought a new house and for some reasons I can't move in for another 1.5 months, so I took my friend's advice and registered on airbnb. I posted a listing with a few photos and some basic information about the place before I went to sleep around midnight. When I woke up at 8am, I was surprised to find 3 requests and later 2 instant bookings during the day.

One of the instant bookings was made around 4pm and was scheduled to arrive the day after. Let's call her A.

A said they will arrive between noon and 2pm. I told them I needed to prepare the place and I will be ready 2ish, which gave me less than 20 hours preparing for their arrival. I called the internet company to move the internet to the new place right away but I was informed the earliest possibility will be done in 3 days which is the day A checked out. During this 20 hours, I bought new chairs(the previous owner didn't leave any for me), decorations, plants, paintings, new plates, pans, towels, sheets, pillows, covers, etc. And I cleaned out the place completely.

When A and A's group arrived, they were disappointed by the internet and wasn't thrilled by how vertical the traditional Dutch house was. e.x the stairs to the apartment were steep and you had to climb a ladder to the bedroom. I DID have photos of the ladders and explained the bedroom is there. But they didn't say anything, except showing a bit disppointment on their face about the internet. But they could tell I was new from my excitment and I didn't know where to suggest them to eat in the neighborhood.

During their stay, I communicated with them if everything was alright and if they had found the extra pillows and toilet papers and such and they said thanks. After they had checked out. They left me a very bad review and requested a 50% refund. For their refund they had about 10 reasons: dirty, noise, no fridge, stairs too difficult, furniture not accurate, sofabed not comfortable, etc plus no wifi.

I communicated with resolution center two times with two different people right away about all the issues A had mentioned and consulted if the guest deserved 50% of refund and they both said it was too much since it seemed like internet was the only issue. So I responded A right away and refunded them $50 for two days of use of internet. But after about 10 days, their case started again. And there came the sweet sweet case manager V.

V was on to me for the same things A complained, but I explained one by one, and since I didn't really list fridge on my listing and no other guest had complained about noise or cleaniess(even A left 4 star rating for the cleaness), and for god sake, I had more furnitures in the apartment than I had in the photos, so all other complaints were disregarded except for wifi.

V also claimed that A had photos of my appartment being dirty but V said that was disregarded and won't be an issue. The only issue I had and I admitted was the lack of wifi, for which I should refund A 50%. But excuse me, wasn't 50% for ten complaints/issues? Now down to only one issue, I still have to refund 50%?

In my response I demanded 1) to speak to V's supervisor; 2) to see the photos A provided; 3) the policy about internet worth 50% of the value of the cost. V gave me a general link of the policy where no internet was mentioned at all and she ignored my two other demands and stated that she was the case manager and she wanted to be FAIR and that's her final desicion.

From this point, I don't know what to do anymore? Deleting my airbnb account and going to bookings, homeaway?

Please let me know if you had similar experience or any idea about whatever.

Please help a new host out here.

[Bryan10]

Ciao Francesco! Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with your first guests, that's a difficult ting to experience. It sounds like you "went live" on Airbnb before you were properly ready, then you tried your best to prepare quickly (furniture, bedding, cleaning etc), and the only thing that defeated you was the wifi. If you offer wifi on your listing you need to provide it. Guests look for what they need and book a place to suit their needs. They may not know you're a first-time host. Wifi is an obvious need for many people especially if they're travelling internationally (I really needed it travelling around Italy last year). The initial refund you gave should have been enough, but I wonder the guest A was trying it on when s/he realised there's money to be had. Airbnb tends to side with the guests, and their decision is final. 

Things tend to loaded against hosts on Airbnb. We see this time and time again, with complaints, reviews, demands etc. Sadly I think you have to put it down to experience, accept the lower amount, sort out the wifi and try again. I'm sorry I can't be more positive. You can't alter your property, so the steep steps and 'high' layout just need to be described accurately. Hope it works out better with your next guests. 

[Francesco609]

Hi Bryan, your response is very comforting, it helps me to look at the positive side

[Jeff158]

@Francesco609 

Don't give up just yet, its just a minor hickup

1st turn off instant booking until you know how airbnb works, click "edit" at How guests can book.

I could book now and arrive in a few hours, give yourself a bit of notice before guests arrive by setting advance notice to 1 day, click "edit" at reservation preferences.

I think your photos are very clear about the stairs being steep, the no WiFi was unfortunate and i've seen posts on the forum where airbnb gives a full refund if its not available.

If you need help with any specific part of hosting just ask, we don't always have an answer but have lots of opinions.

[Francesco609]

Hi Jeff, thanks very much for your advices, what you said are very important and helpful!

[Fred13]

@Francesco609 Also best to start slow, not with all the whistles and bells, like Instant Booking, etc. Addedly, you are a new host and some guests can sense it, and know they can scam the system via complaining. So start ready for starters and small till learn the ways.

[Francesco609]

Great advice, very well said! thanks so much!

[Ute42]

Hi @Francesco609 , dont't get too excited on this situation, give them a 25% discount and have airbnb close the case. Everyone who starts hosting goes through a learning curve and it takes a while to understand the ABB software. Turn of instant booking if You are brandnew.

The biggest problem is: if a guest requests a refund You should sort this out BEFORE the guest leaves You a review. Now it is too late anyway.

[Ute42]

@Francesco609And forget about booking or homeaway for Your amsterdam downtown location. For this location You need aibnb. Also, with these companies You may run into a lot of other problems, read the reviews on these platforms, especially on homeaway, on trustpilot.

And put a real picture of Yours to Your profile.

[Francesco609]

Hi Ute, took your advice :]

ps. wait, my new 'real picture is not showing yet..

[Lisa1165]

My experience with some case managers is unprofessional, lack of experience and very irresponsible. I had a group of guests checked in from 5/17- 5/20. The name of the guest s Audrey House.  At the beginning I can say those guests did not follow my policy. I sent them check in information 3 times but they did not care and did not read it but kept asking me information again. The story did not stop here. When they checked out they did not return the key. As the policy on my listing guest has to pay $300 for key lost (They are programmed elevator and garage fobs which are not available in the markets to make). When I called Audrey for key refund she started swearing and complaint about the place and requested me to refund as a way to exchange for the key loss. Case manager Alexis automatically decided to refund guests $477.

After a few hours discussion with Megan, the supervisor of Alexis, she REDUCED the refund to $277 just because the microwave hand was broken on one side but the microwave still functioned very well. My concern here is that based on what policy the amount came up to $277 while the microwave still functioned properly? Did the microwave hand issue impacted guests mentally and physically? Did the microwave hand cause guest trouble to use it?

At the same time, I requested $277 refund to compensate for my time consuming, risk of my business loss (my current guests might not able to check in due to the key loss), the safety of my current guests but none of these case manager answered my questions.

My WORST experience is with The Specialist Cintia from Trust and Security team. She requested me to submit official invoices for key loss and lock change. After I spent a lot of time to acquire the invoices to submit her I was said that the invoice was unable to verify or the price was over the market. Those invoices were provided by the building management where I signed the contract with. Cintia did not explain me why she could not validate the invoice and what the price of the market fob is? ( In reality, these fobs are not available in market to sell or able to identify the price. It belongs to individual building for security purpose). After asking me tons of questions, Cintia requested me to submit her POLICE REPORT FOR key loss. I spent a whole day at police station to get POLICE REPORT and Cintia informed me that TIME IS OVER. She could not refund me for the key loss. OMG, I spent 3 weeks to collect and submit Cintia all the documents and she did not dare to answer my email after TWO DAYS until when I called Airbnb and this is her answer? “ TIME IS OVER”. Where is her professional and responsible skills as a SENIOR specialist? Cintia was supposed to request me all the documents at the beginning and noticed me her expected deadline but she did not. What she did is kept asking me with different questions and requested more different evidences day by day even POLICE REPORT for key loss. Cintia even did not care about the rule and policy that is stated on my listing “ $300 charge for key loss”.  Now Cintia cannot say that POLICE REPORT is unable “ to verify”  so she came with other excuse “ TIME IS OVER TO SOLVE THE CASE”.  Earlier, I was promised by Megan, the supervisor of Alexis that if guests were not able to refund me for the key loss, Airbnb will refund me.

My experience with the case manger like Alexis, Shannon and Specialist Cintia is unprofessional, lack of experience and irresponsible. I doubt that there is a relationship between one of them with the guest Audrey from the way they solved the case.

Unprofessional: Alexis forced host to respond her email in 24 hours and automatically took $277 away from host account in $24 hour without any real investigation.

Shannon: Instead of listening, Shannon kept talking at the same time with host on the phone. She spoke too fast and I barely not understand what she was talking about

Lack of experience and irresponsible:

CIntia is the WORST experience that I ever have with any Airbnb case manager as well as specialist. I just see CIntia like a BABY with a title of SENIOR Specialist.

Here is my experience: If you are UNLUCKY to deal with those worse case managers like Alexis, Shannon or specialist like Cintia, do not your waste time.  Airbnb system gives them too much advantage. Since your next payment is hold by Airbnb so they can withdraw your money easily without your agreement. You are better to move to other websites as VRBO, booking.com, tripadvisor where host has more power and not deal with these headaches. If you are lucky to meet with experiential and responsible case managers, everything is good to go otherwise it is not deserved to waste your time with. Cintia just made me exhausted with all of her questions day by day. After I submitted Cintia all the documents  what I heard from CIntia  was “ TIME IS OVER TO SOLVE THE CASE”. Here are what you always heard from them when you make the complaints “I am sorry the outcome is not as your expectation” or “Don’t worry your case is still open, the supervisor will contact you shortly”. Reality is that no one contacts you and you will be exhausted and leave the case. By the end no one judges their work. They still sit there and get paid from your contribution and behave as LIVE SAINTS