Formal Complaints Procedure / Court Proceedings

MyManor0
Level 1
England, United Kingdom

Formal Complaints Procedure / Court Proceedings

On 10th March I had three bookings that were due to check in, all of which I missed due to a persistent Error 500 throughout the entire afternoon, meaning I couldn't message a single person re check in as I didn't have their details which were on an inaccessable site. I've now been charged three cancellation penalties due to the site being down.

 

Three people (all morons) initially tried to handle my case.

 

- One blamed me for Airbnb being down (yes really!) and is now refusing to give me his managers details, in fact he is ignoring every message I send him - all politely asking for some kind of response.

- Another has contradicted himself twice.

- When I raised this as an issue with another customer service person (in hope I'd find somebody that could actually string a basic sentence in English/wasn't under the influence/insane etc..) they ignored the main point of my message which was demanding a full refund of the wrongly charged refunds - they just gave an over dramatic meaningless apology about how the site was down, and offered no solution.

 

I have raised this issue on twitter and the staff there are as equally useless as they are on the platform. When asking them about their formal complaints process, they simply ask me to DM them and the circle will continue to be that. I have now asked them a further seven times simply "Do you have a formal complaints procedure - YES or NO" to which I have received no response. 

 

Tonight they have disabled our listings due to numerous cancellations(!!!!!!) - We are a short let company which rents out our clients apartments, 30+ of them. So to have ALL listings disabled is a catastrophic hit for our business and our clients. 

 

I have opened up a case with Resolver (complaints handler in the UK) and by advice of my lawyer if I get nowhere I plan on taking Airbnb to court to recover the wrongly charged cancellation fees and to file for damages for Airbnb disabling the listings for god knows how long.

 

I have never experienced customer service as infuriatingly bad as Airbnb's. My company has just switched to Airbnb from HomeAway and oh my god what a mistake that was. HomeAway is pretty crap, but Airbnb is on a whole new level.

 

So to sum up - guys, is there a formal complaints procedure - and if so WHAT IS IT?!

 

Thank you,

Stacey - Director

 

 

8 Replies 8
Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@MyManor0 

I know I am not answering your question but there is a few things I am missing here

  1. Didn’t the guests have your contact details? Why would they not call you even if you could not get Airbnb messages?
  2. When they got in touch with Airbnb because they could not check in, why did Airbnb not call you?
  3. There was not an option to send people to wait at respective listings to wait or to at least put notes on doors?
  4. You could not call Airbnb and ask them to read the details to you?

 

I just do not understand why the events had to take such dramatic turn.

 

I would encourage you to start a conversation with your guests way prior to the day of check in. Many are flying or travelling from out of country with no internet access so might not be able to immediately get in touch.

 

And now to answer your immediate question- I am not sure if UK terms are different but here you would need to take them to arbitration. There is no court option. There is no formal complaint path that I am aware of

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

@MyManor0  I'm equally confused by this.  The Airbnb site goes down for maintenance several times per month and is offline for a few hours per time.  It's normally my daytime (your nightime).

 

I only operate one listing but even so, I use a professional communication tool (that I pay for) that automates all my check-in messages to guests, which are sent several days in advance.  I would imagine that a professional short let company would do the same, if not better than this?  I ask because this is fundamentally your responsibility as a host to communicate with your guests and ensure they have all the information they need prior to check-in.  This should be done well before check-in day. 

 

Airbnb being down for maintentance shouldn't impact upon your guest communication... ever. With management tools like Smartbnb, Superhosttools, Yourporter... there really is no excuse for relying purely on Airbnb messaging.  Please tell me if I'm missing something here, because I can't quite work out how a guest could be left standing in the cold on check-in day... because Airbnb was down for a few hours.

 

It sounds to me like you have a significant business risk that is not properly being managed, which has materialised into this issue.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@MyManor0  While I agree that Airbnb CS can be incredibly infuriating, I also don't understand- when a guest has a confirmed booking, you are given their phone number. So in addition to all the online tools @Ben551  mentioned, you could have phoned or texted the guests. I always make a note of upcoming guest's phone numbers, in a book I keep for that purpose, just in case the site isn't working properly.

And why you didn't have check-in times arranged with the guest before the day of their arrival is also rather odd. Guests are also given the host's # and could have phoned or texted if the pre-arranged check-in time needed to be altered.

 

Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Ben551 @Sarah977

Stacey, you not have any reviews for any of the 19 properties. There are two automated reviews for cancellation. One saying cancelled 7 days prior to arrival, one the day before. You said three resos lost same day. Neither the number nor the timeline match. Perhaps Airbnb is not helping you because what happened was not their fault? You can not leave travellers hanging like that

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

Ahh @Inna22 thanks for pointing this out. I see what you mean. Yeah it doesn’t quite align.

 

I guess the point from all this is, if we can’t work it out collectively ... then I expect CS have even less  chance of understanding it.

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Ben551 @Sarah977 @Inna22 

 

I also don't buy this story for the simple reason that I took a booking in the early evening  of 10th March.

Precise time 19.26, (7.30 pm). So the website wasn't down, certainly not in London. 

 

Otherwise, like Sarah, I also note Guest contact details as soon as the booking is confirmed. I both copy it onto my personal email and hand-write onto a piece of paper.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Inna22  @Ben551  @Alon1  @Sarah977 

Yeah, none of this makes sense, we always look for excuses when we foul up because we didn't do our job properly.

I too message guests on the morning of the stay so I can plan my day and the check-in procedure but, it has been my experience that not all guests travel with the mobile app at their disposal and I send my same message to both the Airbnb message stream and their mobile number so they are sure of getting it....and I almost always get a response and things run smoothly!

 

As far as site maintenance is concerned I have never  struck the 500 service error code with Airbnb. I have been hosting for three years and never once have I not been able to reach the site and I would possibly be looking at other causes for this problem.....maybe Stacey's  cache needs to be cleared.

 

@MyManor0  Stacey, I know you have come here for support, not criticism, and as a hosting community we need to support each other without being too critical of those slip ups that can happen along the way.

I would just suggest two things to you. Please bare in mind the system that runs the platform is automated and simply responds to specific sets of protocols, it does not take into account circumstances, and in many instances customer support have their hands tied when trying to overide certain eventualities.

Secondly CX is a hard gig, everyone who goes there has a problem and most of them are angry. You must at all times be as pleasant as you can and ask for support, not demand answers. Nobody likes to get their head yanked off, and comments like......"Three people (all morons) initially tried to handle my case."  is guaranteed to get you a very short hearing and an unsatisfactory response. I have always found CX to be extremely helpfull and in almost all instances have been able to sort out my issues, but I have always been gentle with them and Stacey, it's amazing how far you get when you use gentle smooth words rather than brandishing a big verbal stick!

 

Stacey, I am so sorry that you have found yourself in this situation but try and take stock of where you are....and it if you haven't burnt too many bridges, pleasantly get any current CX tickets closed and start again with a new complaint and ask for their advice, don't demand answers.

All the best Stacey.

 

Cheers......Rob

Val89
Level 2
Stirling, United Kingdom

I have a 10 roomed house 5 bedrooms.

In August last year a family of 7 adults booked it for a week. On the day of arrival one of the party called me and said they wouldn't be ale to come as the grandmother had to go to hospital.

ispoke with Airbnb and confirmed that I have a strict cancellation policy , due to the size of the house, and cancelling on the day,They agreed and paid me £1,500

AT Christmas time I didn't get paid for my Christmas booking .When I asked why they informed me it was due to them giving the family in August their full amount of money back ? After agreeing to pay me for the booking .

i asked for them to provide me with proof i.e. The letter from the hospital etc, they refused on the grounds that it was confidential.

i have just had people staying for the weekend January,and wondered why after 2 weeks I haven't been paid for that,and now they say they are taking £198 approx due to the August refund.

i getall these different people in Airbnb saying how sorry they are but doing nothing about the fact that I have costs and can't understand no one has actually contacted me , they just helped themselves to the money due to me.

Any suggestions howi can at least get a fair percentage  of my money.

the running costs of my house are huge. 

I have a strict cancellation policy with Homeaway and if guests cancel before 60 days they get 1/2 their money back otherwise it's entirely at my discretion, as they wouldn't get any money back. 

In certain circumstances i would refund, and defiantly would if I managed to rebook the house.

i am really angry will not be going to deal with them in the future it's too risky, as you have no guarantee of being treated fairly , or getting your payments.

val Gair.