I thought it was worthwhile sharing a horror guest story with the Airbnb community. Having read many similar stories on community I know this sort of thing thing happens alot, but my concern is that the Airbnb feedback system actually leads to hosts not appropriately "outing" poorly behaved guests for fear of retibution feedback, which is the exact opposite of the stated intentions of the feedback system. Grab yourself a coffee and have a read!
We have a lovely little cottage in the Blue Mountains in NSW, Australia. It is in Blackheath, the highest suburb in the mountains at about 1050m above sea level and experiences a very cool climate, similar to mid the northern UK. Winters are cold, and the absolute worst it gets in mid summer is about 30 deg c. Thus houses are designed and built for the cold weather, similar to the UK, with very few (if any) with air conditioning for cooling or fans (ours doesn't - or didn't!).
In January we had a guest stay for 3 nights who on the surface looked like a model guest - 6 references, no problems. We've since leant that because she had 7 reviews one host had previously given her a thumbs down (you live and learn!), with no comments written.
At the time she stayed nearly all of Australia experinced record heatwave conditions. It was 46 plus in Adelaide (highest temperature ever recorded) and 40 plus in nearly all capital cities. The heatwave made worldwide news - my parents in the UK got wall to wall coverage of it for a few days. The moutains in NSW only got to about 31-32.
On the day this guest was to arrive my co-host and I had a discussion, and we agreed it would be good customer relations to go out and buy a fan for the living area of our cottage (addmittedly in the long term it would get very liuttle use). Nights would be fine as it ALWAYS cools in the evenings in the Blue Mountains. She rushed out got the fan, got it back and set it up in time for the early check-in we had granted the guest of 1PM (check-in at our Coittage is normally 3PM) . We all felt good that we had done a nice gesture for what was an extrordinary situation that clearly was not our doing. It sent the guest a note telling her what we had done......no reply, that's strange.
The guest checked in at 1PM as we had allowed and all seemed fine, until at 6PM (yes 5 hours later), our co-host received a phone call from the guest. Instead of thanking us for buying a fan just for her 3 day stay, she unleashed a vitriolic tirade saying this was not good enough and demanding that we IMMEDIATELY purchased more 2 more fans for the house. The temperature at that time was just under 30 deg c. Her tirade of demands and abuse was so damaging it almost reduced our co-host to tears (she was really shaky when I spoke to her on the phone), and was left thinking that if we didnt meet her demands we would receive very nasty vitriolic feedback (our cottage has 96% 5 star rating). We were lucky she didnt resign on the spot. NOTE THERE IS NO MENTION OF FANS BEING PROVIDED ON OUR LISTING, AS THEY ARE NOT GENERALLY NEEDED, AND LONG TERM SIMPLY CLUTTER THE HOUSE. Our co-host rang us and we immediately called Airbnb for advice (bad move). They couldnt care less and when we discussed the feedback issue with them they were clear that adverse feedback for this would not be removed from our listing. It didnt seem to matter at all that our listing was correct, that she clearly hadnt read it, and the demand was somewhat unreasonable. So we were copping abuse and being held to ransom because of an unprecdidented record breaking weather event that was making worldwide news! The nice gesture of that morning (without being asked) had reverted to ancient history at this point.
So I called the guest and copped the same tirade that our co-host had suffered. Never once was there a thanks that we had purcahse and installed one fan that morning - it simply was not good enough and more had to be purchased immediately. I explained to the guest that the department stores where we would purchase the fan had closed for the night (remember she took 5 hours to call us) and that we would go our first thing the next day and purchase two more fans. I was left in no doubt that if I didn't we would be getting really bad feedback, and that even if I did purchase them we still may get bad feedback. So much for our dream of helping in a small way to showcase Australia's Blue Mountains to Aussiies and the rest of the world - that dream, after 12 months of dealing with Airbnb is a bit of a nightmare. We struck an agreement with her that we would purchase them and bring them over first thing in the morning, and explained that the mountains would cool to under 20 overnight, and explained that all doors and windows have screens and a lovely breeze comes through the house when they are opened (that is the design for cooling the house and in 15 years of ownership we have never had a problem previously). All seemed OK at the end of the call.
About 2 hours later we received another call from her husband (presumably because they had realised she was incapable of talking to people in a civil and courtesour manner). He announced that they had broken our previous agreement and gone to a supermarket and bought the first cheap, crappy fans they could find. Certainly not what we would have purchased. He was seeking agreement for compentation. We had been stood over and knew we had to agree to this. We asked could they provide us with the reciepts and we would certainly compensate, to which he agreed. We followed this with a text later wishing them a great trip and hoping they settled in OK, and with an email the next day which confirmed our agreement, and providing some tips for good things to see and do during thier stay.....no reply, and certainly no word of thank you.
Still no replies and certainly no receipts (they are required for tax purposes) three days after they have left, so we are now wondering what to do regarding the compensation. We are now in a quandry, again they have not stuck to our agreement and we are wondering if we continue to wait for them to provide what was agreed (writing to them is no use as they have not replied to anything) we run the risk of them leaving bad feedback to the effect that they "had" to go out and buy fans and were not compensated (don't let the truth get in the way of a good story - and we know from lenghty discussions with Airbnb this feedback would not be removed). So again we call Airbnb (bad move). Talk about a "maybe', "maybe not" attitude. Initially they said just wait, and when I put to them the theory about feedback, they then said just compensate them without the receipts. Which we did, based on a verbal cost we had been given on the night of purchase. Our conscience was clear.
Now the mexican standoff over feedback begins. We were itching to warn other hosts but we knew from the discussions that vitriolic feedback (which we would have bucklies of getting removed) was only a click away. And as they days went on and no feedback was posted we knew they were keeping it up their sleeve in case we told the story via feedback (and they knew what their behaviour had been). No feedback, no emails nothing. Throught the 14 day period we decided that it wasn't worth risking our good reputation, and knowing THAT AIRBNB DID NOT HAVE OUR BACKS we decided not to leave feedback, and simply prevent her from ever coming near us again. It pained us to do this because no other host should have to put up with this abhorent behaviour, but AIrbnb's feedback system and attitude omongst its staff simply encourages this.
17 days after our evening discussion with her husband (yes just outside the 14 day review period) we "suddenly", out of the blue get a note from her saying sorry for the late reply and she would send through the receipt. So now we oficially know we are dealing with a "player" who was waiting for the period to end before she contacted us. We replied saying we didn't need it any longer, we'd worked around it, and then proceeded to block her, which was the only course of action left open to us to get her out of our lives.
And you know what, Airbnb's whole feedback system actually encourages and rewards this disgusting behaviour. The fact is that "players" like this know the system and its gross flaws, exploit them, and can ruin your business and you have absolutely no comeback - in fact the attitude from Airbnb consistently is "too bad, so sad". Having read many community threads I know this is happening worldwide - owners need to be telling their stories like this more and more to Airbnb.
And until Airbnb start showing some respect and support to owners who have 100's of thousands of dollars at stake in this game, they are going to get people walking away and using their money for more productive, and less risky ventures (note the risk here is being amplified by Airbnb's policies and attitude). I have not seen one ounce of care factor, support or undertanding for an owners plight in the 12 months I have been with Airbnb. In fact we have experienced in that 12 months 4 major software failings that have all cost us bookings (the latest is Airbnb have turned off our instant book) that have cost us significant income. Again "too bad, so sad" and if you get any meaningful action out of them inside 4 phone calls you deserve a medal!
Hope you enjoyed your coffee!!
