Dumbfounded at case manager response

[Catherine232]

Ooooweee! I am beyond furious right now, but have complained and don't expect to be able to go any further. So I thought I'd post here to you guys to make myself feel better.

We are superhosts. We have a strict cancellation policy, but we try to be nice. We have already issued three full refunds this year, 2 to guests who were careless (seriously, can't people read?) and one to a sad situation whereby a wedding was cancelled and the parents were left holding the expensive bag of multiple bookings.

So, the most recent one involved a rather fretful guest who sent multiple messages about this and that, all of which I answered to the best of my ability. Among other things, the dude wanted two separate bookings, one of a single day, but didn't want to pay separate cleaning fees or reservation fees! I was patient, and he booked eventually, on behalf of his parents and another couple.

So yesterday I get a message from him which opened with, "I made a mistake". Basically he needed the reservation for this year, but had made it for 2019!!! How do you even do that? I use Airbnb myself and you get multiple confirmations. I had also said, at one point in our conversation something about it being a long way into the future.

I got the message at 9:00 pm last night but couldn't answer immediately because my eyes rolled back so far in my head.

But this morning I got up, put on my Superhost hat, and responded kindly but telling him he had to initiate the cancellation and get in touch with Airbnb, because I, as Superhost would be penalized if we cancelled for him. Regardless, we were happy to support his request for a full refund of his booking.

Fine. Then I get a ridiculous message from a case manager asking about the request (didn't the manager read our conversation) and going on about extenuating circumstances, that they were waiting on documentation etc.

I responded that we had already agreed to refund, but that I thought it was extremely disingenous of him to frame it as extenuating circumstances when the guest himself had admitted it was his error. I said it was my understanding that extenuating circumstances were for situations out of the guest's control, as in when we had a cancellation from a Texan family trapped by last year's floods. I mean seriously, extenuating means mitigating, not **bleep**.

Case manager wrote back telling me I was rude to tell him how to do his job!!?!?!!?!?! Colour me stunned. I phoned Airbnb and said, again in so many words, "We suck up so much **bleep** from guests, and we smile sweetly, and keep repeating ourselves. I was within my rights to insist on keeping the funds we were entitled to, but we were being decent. In the same light, I am sure Airbnb staff have plenty of crap to deal with between guests and hosts, but seriously? a) it was completely disingenuous, and I stand by what I said and b) surely they too know part of their job is to deal with the crap".

I could tell the woman I was talking to could care less, but hey, I had to get it off my chest. I also said if there was any further dialogue required, that I would not be having it with that case manager.

Long and short of it was they gave me a $25 credit. Woopee...I'm sure I can stay at a high end listing with that!

Bah humbug. Rock on hosts, I bow down to us all. Keep smiling! Indeed I feel better for having poured out my woes 😉

[Dawn33]

Check the expiration date on that credit and put it towards someplace fun.

[Inna22]

@Catherine232 On the bright side, if this did not happen to you, I would not have woken up to reading this wonderful short story that your post is. Sorry it happened to you, but reading about it was a true delight with the few laughs out loud in between.

[Robin4]

@Catherine232

Catherine, your mistake was in accepting this reservation to start with. By the sound of it it was not an IB, you had this dialogue with the guest before a booking was confirmed.

I have said this before but it probably bares repeating...

I have had a lifetime of studying people and after a while you realise that (just by their speech) personalities fit into two categories. Passive complimentary…..and aggressive demanding.

When a potential guest sends me an Instant Book comment, or an inquiry comment like….”We have seen your lovely listing and can’t wait to meet you and have a couple of days away from the kids” …..I can’t hit the accept tab fast enough! They have come to me in a passive complimentary way, and a request like that tells me they have read my listing description and my house rules, they do not want to lay down conditions relating to their stay, they are happy with what they see and they just want to pull out their credit card and book!

I know 100% they will make great guests.

When a potential guest comes to me with a comment like….”We are in your area for…… something or other, what time can we check-in? is there WI-Fi available? is there off-street parking?” …..They have come to me in an aggressive assertive way! They have already started to ‘haggle’ over what is available, most of which would have been answered in the listing description if they had bothered to read it. A request formed in that manner has come from a Haggler….and hagglers do not make good guests. It is a form of power play to them! They have had a lifetime of getting their own way and they will bombard you with questions (even silly trivial ones) because with every question they ask, they strengthen their ground and weaken yours….you just keep giving in to their demands! When I see a request like this I want to do a lot more digging before I accept….what have their past hosting reviews been like? What have others thought of them…I will not get involved with a haggler!

This is not foolproof, no system is, there are still those that will slip through the cracks, but fortunately in over 240 guests I have only had three I would not welcome back into my life, and one of those was the result of a 'Bookers Account' where I did not have any contact with the guest before he arrived.

Catherine, I would not have accepted this inquiry of yours in a fit!!

Catherine  you say we as hosts  "We suck up so much **bleep** from guests, and we smile sweetly, and keep repeating ourselves........"

Believe me we as hosts do not see the half of it, everyone who goes to CS has a problem, and most of them are angry...they all expect CS to validate something that can't be validated. I am not saying all CS agents get it right every time, and I do feel the growth of the company has seen a dramatic increase in personnel that possibly stretches the limits of their training .

In the level of support I worked in I had a customer acceptance rate of between 92-96% which was just slightly above the company average and this meant there was only a few user enquiries that actually had to be passed on to CS inner sanctum. But those that did have to be passed on were, in the main,those who would not accept the rules and felt that their particular position was different! They felt they warranted some sort of special consideration or exemption!

I bring this into it Catherine because support is hard, it cracked me...in the end I could not keep handling the "Where are you, what do I have to do to get some help around here"? when I would shut my terminal down at 1.15am in the morning to get some sleep. Problems are global and they just keep requiring an immediate response. After a while you start to look at every aspect of life in a negative way and it definitely makes a lesser, and less charitable human being of you!.

When you approach CS try to understand they are under pressure...pressure like you would not believe. Sure, they may not always give you that pleasant informed response, just like that, because they may have just come from a rollicking by some other user.

Try not to be too dumbfounded....hey!

Cheers.....Rob

[Kenneth12]

1) you accepted a third-party reservation?  First mistake.

2) It's September and you're complaining about a reservation that was accidently made for 2018 not 2019,  and don't want to give a refund?  Is that three months in advance or a year?  Refund the guest. 

[Catherine232]

Huh? I agreed right away to give the refund. I was just rolling my eyes about it. What I *was* complaining about was the contact from the Airbnb side which *after* I had clearly indicated to the guest we were willing to refund him 100%, was setting me with false "extenuating circumstances" rationales (which, as I clearly said, was unnecessary because we'd already indicated we'd do it). Also, it was the other way around, they made for 2019 when they wanted 2018. Do you always chastise for things you haven't understood? 

[Victoria567]

I had similarities this year and despite having a strict cancellation policy I told Air bnb that I was willing to offer a 50% refund.

Result I’m happy that the matter is quickly resolved without the lengthy resolution process and guest is delirious at getting 50% refund which they did not expect!

No resolution process.....everyone’s a winner!

[Robin4]

@Victoria567

Thanks for posting that Victoria....the whole world goes much better on nice stories!

And you bring up a good point! The first step regarding the money side of a cancellation is... On cancellation you will be offered.....'Do you wish to offer the guest a refund' and this has nothing to do with your cancellation policy. If, at that point, you elect to offer a refund then your cancellation policy is automaticaly overiden and the refund is put into place. If the refund is for a forthcoming reservation the refund to the guest will be that percentage of the total amount you are offering less the Airbnb service fees, and the remainder will ultimately be forwarded on to you the host. If the refund is for a stay where payment has already been released to your payout method, that refund will be automatically processed and taken from your subsequent payouts.

If you elect not to offer a refund then the cancellation policy will apply along with whatever bun fight may come with it, and that is where the Resolution Centre will become involved.

It is wise to remember 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing!!

Thanks for telling us your experience Victoria.

Cheers.....Rob

[Kenneth12]

I understood perfectly;  it's a typo;  alas the edit period is up.

It's hard to make sense of why you were so up in arms and furious about,  or what you're complaining about,  and needed to post so much about,   if you were willing to give a refund,  which you should have done. 

Who cares about anything else? It's a mistaken reservation far in the future;  ignore anything else,  refund.

CS reps are mostly useless and getting into arguments with them is also mostly useless,  especially when you're arguing a null point.  Unless you're just streamed because dealing with ABB CS is so infuriating in general?  🙂

Otherwise,  don't accept third-party bookings,  treat them as a yellow or red flag depending on circumstances.

[Victoria567]

@Kenneth12

Hello

Just curious how do you know you have a third party booking if you do instant bookings?

[Kenneth12]

You ask questions.

I have a primary screener message that gets modified to the situation.   If there's no substantive reply to the major questions,  (did you read our House Rules and do you acknowledge them),  that's always a flag.  One gets a sense of what replies are normal and not.

If there's no reply,  that's always a red flag.   Recently I had a no reply,  I prompted again a few times and finally texted a few days before the visit.  I got a reply from mom who had booked for her minor child and his girlfriend and thought that was not a problem.

Firm but polite reply:  not within ABB's policies.  

We have a few active threads today,  about nightmare guests.   I fully believe ABB has the size and resources to do better,  more thourough checks and prevent many of the situations.  But they aren't doing that,  so we need to learn to read people and interactions.

That said,  our property is in a unique place next to the University of Chicago,  and we really cater towards students,  academics and other univeristy affiliates/associates such as medical professionals.  That narrows down our niche-- I really know what replies from a sociologist look like,  and can contact someone through their institution if I suspect hijinks (a mention that I was advised by the wife of the President of the University makes a certain point,  to those in academic communities).   

As anyone outside academic and associated professional communities is a small percentage of bookings,  I can spend a bit more time.

And yet-- I got the strange woman,  who told me she was a UChicago parent and wasn't,  who believes that eating vegetablesand incandescent light bulbsetc cause cancer,  and have led to the emasculation of male identity and American decline and whatnot-- and who ate a day or more of my time with histrionic claims of problems.

So it goes.

[Robert1127]

I concurwith your findings, the Airbnb staff can be a bit frustrating. I have asked questions that they can’t give me a simple answer to...

i feel your pain...

[Sarah977]

@Kenneth12  Maybe you need to take a break from refinishing all that lovely old wood and fittings and get some sleep (or maybe the summer heat in Mexico is getting to you), because your reading comprehension has taken a dive 🙂

Catherine clearly said the guy made a booking for 2019 and then realized he meant to make it for 2018. And she also said she was willing to refund him.

[Kenneth12]

Summer heat?  In la Ciudad?   Chicago is actually having more unusually hot weather,  but...

I wouldn't say anything about the above is clear,   on the fifth reading.    As horrendous as ABB's CS is,  why is there an argument going on about "extenuating circumstances" at all,  especially if you're trying to get a refund for a guest?  (And why are you trying to get a refund for a guest???)

Don't take third party bookings.  Three+ months out,  refund the booking and tell the guest to contact ABB themselves for fees-- on them.   Seriously,    calling CS is enough of a time-wasting pain-in-the-rump,  don't call up when its a guest's responsibility,  and then get into a side argument over a tangentally related issue (if that's what happened;  who can tell from the above?).

Certainly,  don't come into this game with the expectation that ABB CS will be professional,  courteous or competent in most situations.

That's all.

[Sarah977]

@Kenneth12  Well, enjoy that high elevation weather. It's sweltering here on the coast, but it's thundering right now, so the rain should cool things down.

I know some posts are lengthy and hard to make sense of.  I think the OP's issue (and she didn't initiate contact with CS at all- she was dealing professionally and patiently with the guest and their cancellation and refund herself), was CS contacting her about "extenuating circumstances" when in fact, the guest simply hadn't bothered to pay attention to his booking information, which was clearly evidenced in his message stream with the host.

An extenuating circumstance is supposed to be something like a medical emergency, death in the family, accident, act of god, etc. For hosts and guests. So it's troubling if Airbnb looks at a guest cancellation which is simply due to the guest's inattention and considers it "extenuating circumstances". What's next- "Oh, I broke a nail, I can't possibly travel now,  I want to cancel tomorrow's reservation and get a full refund"?