I lost a last minute booking a few weeks ago when a woman couldn't get the app to work. She lives a few blocks away and had a plumbing emergency that required her to move out while major repairs were made to her home. I "Pre-approved" her inquiry, and went to work cleaning and preparing an apartment for her. I kept getting messages from her that she was having difficulty with the app, each one more frantic and frustrated than the last. And whenever I went to my computer to reply, I'd find the "Pre-approve or Decline this inquiry" banner lit up, as if I had failed to do so earlier in the day. BUT... looking through the message thread I could see three different times during the day that the notation "You Pre-Approved this inquiry at ____am" with the time that I made each subsequent pre-approval showing up as another line in the thread... "You Pre-Approved this inquiry at ___pm". I tried to get assistance for her throught the help desk, but could only send them a "Message" and wait hours on end for a reply, while cleaning and preparing an apartment at the same time. It was maddening. The guest, not fully understanding the AirBnB message system function, kept asking me to call her, or email her directly to help her get the app to work. She didn't understand that (Phone Number Hidden) or (Sensitive Content Hidden) shows up when ever that information is entered into a message. At one point she actually drove to my location and tried to find me (If you're from the neighborhood, you recognize my building immediately from the photographs) She didn't find me, but wanted to pay me in cash because the app wouldn't work.
I've been doing this since 2004. Guests always booked directly with us, and paid in Cash, Cashiers Check, or Money Order (That wording is still in our written Rental Agreement, though we've added an on-line PayPal option, and I'll accept a personal check when I feel comfortable with the guest). A direct booking is not at all unusual, and I'll accept a reservation I'm comfortable with no matter where it comes from. The one thing I won't do however is accept cash from a potential guest who made first contact with me through AirBnB. We added AirBnB to our marketing about seven years ago, and they've done a great job for us. Some years they've been our best source of guests, other years they've performed the worst. Even at their worst performing year they contributed to our bottom line, and brought us guests we probably wouldn't have reached any other way. I'm not going to jeopardize our relationship with AirBnB and have my listings removed from the platform to save a potential guest a sizeable booking fee. If I lose the reservation, I lose the reservation.
AirBnB's Customer Service was absolutely worthless in helping this guest book. It was truly maddening. You just can't pick up the phone and reach someone anymore. It's become a series of long time delayed message exchanges, with a Customer Service Representative not even understanding the problem, or denying the problem exists alltogether. I worry about the future of AirBnB. Explosive growth doesn't seem to be helping them in the Customer Service Department.
In the case of my guest, it turns out that even though she'd been a member since 2013, she'd not used the service in years. All of her "Verifications" had expired, and "The App" was rejecting her credit card without telling her what the problem was. It took more than 24 hours to get to the bottom of the problem, and by that time it was too late. She ended up staying in a local hotel that didn't have a problem taking her credit card and and handing her a room key in one seamless transaction that took a matter of minutes.
If your potential guest is having trouble with the app, have them contact AirBnB to resolve the issue. Your "gut" might be right... but it could be expired information in your guests account that needs to be updated. Don't jeopardize your relationship with AirBnB for the convenience of a guest. You could ultimately be making a reservation that costs you hundreds more.
