Guest threatening for a bad review/rating and case manager saying it's not violation

[Hitomi3]

Happy Holidays, forum!

I have been having only good guests in the past several months, and here came a bad guest.

Situation:

1. the guest books 6 days in advance. A couple days later, asks if he can bring another guest and pay in cash off-platform, which I declined and explained. (I only take one person at a time, and it is said on my listing.)

2. the guest tried to change the date to a month ahead, which I declined

3. I offered him a 50% refund in case he wants to cancel. He doesn't believe that I'd do this and threatens me "I am not going to cancel, if that is the case, but this is definitely going to reflect on my rating".

Airbnb Help:

Now he's clearly violating multiple policies, I called the Help Centre, the operator I initially spoke with was very understanding. Then got a call from a case manager, who somehow does not understand that this is a threat, and says "he means he is concerned about the review HE gets." :0 She told me she can cancel it for me but I will not get any payout and guest will get full refund. The manager also said that "this review has not happened YET, so he is not violating the policy". Threatening always happens for the future, doesn't it? Do hosts have to go through the worst to get supported?

We hung up the phone as I had to go into a meeting. Then later messaged the guest to clarify what he means. He goes:

"I am saying your review is a consequence of my experience with you which is so far terrible and you're making sure to make it difficult for me."

"I rather keep it and make sure to give a proper rating to reflect the situation than get 0$ and let you book it again. Please send me check-in instructions."

I really feel threatened and unsafe.

I also tweeted to the Airbnb help on twitter, but then referred back to the same case manager.

Conclusion:

After getting a call from the same case manager, I decided to let them cancel the reservation on behalf of Airbnb (with no payout to the host, full refund to the guest).

The case manager was saying he hasn't violated rules or policies YET, if he does violate the house rules during his stay, Airbnb can help me. She suggested "be really nice when the guest arrives, maybe there has been miscommunication". When a guest is already this hostile, it's too risky to wait and see what happens in the house, as any hosts would think. He may damage the property on purpose or attack me verbally or physically, who knows? I'm not happy with the outcome, but it also was not worth fighting for any longer than that. I blocked the guest already so I won't get any more harrassment.

Question for other hosts:

How do you handle when you are assigned to a case manager who does not seem to understand the case?

I have experienced drastic difference in qualities of case managers. This was not the worst, but the outcome is disappointing. During the first call, I requested I would speak to another person or her supervisor, but she told me "I am already a manager, ma'am." I contacted the twitter help, too, which did not succeed as I wrote above.

Let me know if you have good tips!

[Ricardo85]

@Hitomi3

How did vou bloco the guest?

Ricardo

[Hitomi3]

You can select "report" under the guest name.

[Sarah977]

@Hitomi3  This is clearly extortion, which is definitely against Airbnb TOS, as you are aware. Good thing to cancel this guest, he would have been without a doubt a nightmare to have in your home.

What I and another host I know have done when getting an inappropriate response from CS is to just say okay, thank you for your time, letting them know that you consider the case closed, then call back in the hopes that you get someone more helpful, sympathetic and knowledgable re policy. Don't mention that you've already called about the issue, present it as if it's the first contact about it. You may have to do this several times before getting someone who helps you appropriately. Also have the pertinent TOS section at hand so you can direct the CS rep to it if they are clueless.

And I'd fight having this show up as a host cancellation.

[Hitomi3]

@Sara66 Wow! True, I have read other hosts talking about calling several times, which I had forgotten! Thank you for this tip. It's helpful and I will definitely do this next time. Having TOS at hand also is a great idea. Usually, I message the Help Center before calling so there will be a written trace, but I guess I should just call until I get a good case manager. It's a bit annoying as you need to talk to a CS representitive first, and then get assigned to a case manager. Even if the CS rep was really good (in my case, he was), you might still get an unreasonable manager. Then you have to repeat...

Oh, of course, I did not do this as a host cancellation! I confirmed many times that it is not counted as "my" cancellation (that hosts have penalty-free once a year). The manager told me that if they cancel on behalf, a full refund will be issued to the guest and said "it's a new policy, ma'am". I'm not sure if that's the case, but it was a one night booking, so it really wasn't worth pursuing this...

Case manager also confirmed that an option to review will not be given to the guest. I hope this is true. In the past when I got Airbnb cancel reservations for me (because of guests' violation), the review option was available to the guests, which was very scary. It happened twice, though the guests ended up not writing anything.

[Sarah977]

@Hitomi3 Oh, you sure don't want this guest being able to leave a review, I can just imagine what he'd write. I think the only time a guest who hasn't actually stayed is allowed to write a review is if the reservation was cancelled day-of check-in. It's awful that they allow this, but I can see the flip side, too. Guest arrives, negligent host isn't there to meet them at agreed check-in time, doesn't answer their phone, leaves guest standing around in the cold. Or guest checks in to find that the place hasn't been cleaned, it's filthy, no clean towels, no hot water, sheets are still from the last guest.

I also have always communicated with CS by writing to them, and usually work things out with them eventually. I'd read enough reports on this forum about hosts being told there was "no record" of their previous phone calls. But none of my issues have been urgent, (I find it can easily take them 24 hours to respond) and none have dealt with a bad guest who I either wanted to boot out, or cancel before the booking date. So, time wasn't of the essence.

I did understand you didn't cancel this yourself, but I've also read here where hosts said they got Airbnb to cancel, were assured they wouldn't be penalized, then had "The host cancelled this reservation" show up on their account, and even had a financial penalty docked from their following payout. Hope none of this happens to you.

I also had a guest ask if someone else could stay with her and she'd pay for him, even though my listing clearly says "For solo guest", but that was during her stay. I declined, and luckily she was a reasonable person who didn't make a fuss or leave a bad review.

[Robin4]

@Hitomi3 @Sarah977

Hitomi, it pays to have a bit of back-up material on hand that you can in a nice way introduce into the support communication.

Last year....I know because I became involved in the aftermath of this, Airbnb prevented a particular user from booking a listing in a specific area! This user wanted to go to Charlottesvile in Virginia and protest in the race riots where that woman was unfortunately run over and killed. Airbnb would not let this account holder book a listing. They felt a booking in this situation could leave a host in a vulnerable position and Trust and Safety took measures to head off a problem for their hosts. If your case manager has spent any amount of time in this role they would be aware of this particular case, it was high profile at the time, and I spent the best part of a couple of hours  defusing this situation with the account holder once the accommodation side of things had all blown over.

If your case manager says that nothing can be done until the guest has actually stayed and broken your house rules and written a review, that is incorrect and you can always quote the case I mentioned above. Airbnb were protecting not just one host but many in that area, they could see the potential for problems and acted accordingly....and good on them for that! Many times we say the company abandons us, but that is not always the case.

Also, the case manager has the liberty of making this a neutral cancellation where neither guest or host are penalised.

@Sarah977's  suggestion is a good one Hitomi, if you are not satisfied, every inquiry is allocated a 'ticket'! In a pleasant way thank the CX person you are dealing with and instruct them to close the ticket. That way your next approach to support will be seen as a new inquiry and you have every chance of getting another support person to deal with.

Happy Christmas girls!

Cheers....Rob

[Hitomi3]

Thanks for your tips, @Robin4. 🙂

Wow,  that is a horrifying story. It seems that Airbnb customer centres are all over the world, so if the one you get happened to be outside North America, they may not know the story you shared.

Happy holidays to you, too!

[Mark116]

It sounded like a threat to me!  And the sad thing is, if  you had not had it cancelled and then they followed through and gave all 1 stars, airbnb would tell you there is nothing they can do after the fact, because it's the guests 'experience'.