Honesty - What Does It Mean to Airbnb?

[Tony134]

@lizzie

Lizzie, you indicated to me recently you would reply and you had not ignored my prompts on purpose, so I would like you to participate in this conversation.

Point blank, my question to you, the company you work with, and Airbnb:

Is. Honestly. Important?

You speak beautifully, it's true.  You always remain positive and friendly, and I'm sure that's hard sometimes and your position is difficult.  So I will acknowledge you always sound nice and speak well.  But is sounding nice the most important aspect of customer service?  Is it the only requirement?  What does honestly mean to you?

My experience with the Airbnb customer service department has been less than impressive, and that truly is as polite as I can be about it.  Almost every time I speak with customer service, they use 'nice words' while they try to wriggle around the cancellation policy I've chosen.  They are always using words like 'mediate' to essentially offer guests refunds against the cancellation policy set directly out of my wallet.  Every time you do this, I have to accept the following sets of guests(which area already booked, so there is no choice involved) for free with no payout.  Each time, you turn me into a free working slave.

The cancellation policy, breaking the policy, and calls like this from CS come up over and over again in the threads.  This summer they were so bad I had to drain my savings account 3 seperate times to pay the bills when incoming Airbnb payments stopped but the housing bills didn't stop.  I literally don't have a savings account anymore.  

1.  Will you even acknowledge the reason a host would choose a strict cancellation policy?

 As a host, I will tell you, it's because I have limited space - 3 rooms, i'm not a giant hotel, I can't afford to reserve rooms for people who may not want to pay for them.  This is exactly why and the only reason any host chooses 'Strict Cancellation Policy.'  This is very basic, will you acknowledge this truth?

2. Do you claim these cancellations against this strict cancellation policy are rare or special circumstances?  If so, How Many Times Per Year do YOU think this is justifiable?  Per listing even?  Can you choose any number at all and stick by it?

3.  If you cannot pick any number of times at all that this is acceptable, and must remain vague while you dodge the question as per Airbnb cs law, can you explain to me the value in choosing a Strict Cancellation Policy as a host?  I am already losing bookings by not offering flexible cancellation, I am now losing bookings that were supposedly guaranteed, so what exactly is the benefit to me as a host?

4. If there is a dispute, and the host is not at fault, do you still think "splitting the difference 50/50" is fair?  If so, why? Honestly, plain question there.

5.  When I choose a 'Strict Cancellation Policy,' it's because I would not consent to a refund under the circumstances described.  Each time your cs team starts one of these situations, they ASK if it is ok if they issue a special exception refund.  They.  ASK.  Then, when they don't get the answer they expected, they change the ask into a pronouncment.  Why do they ask if my consent does not matter?

6.  Finally, do you understand the huge value of consent in all this?  Do you undertand the Huge Importance of consent to our society?  YOU, airbnb, offer a set of cancellation policies, you write them, you make the offering, I only get to choose one.  Then, when I choose one, against my consent, you offer extra refunds, regularly.  Each time you say "Do I consent?"  (you really do ask each time) Each time I say clearly "No I do not consent." (I really physically and in writing say 'no' each time)  Each time Airbnb then ignores my protest and takes what it wants, money from my bank account.

I think if you truly used your 'good guy goggles' and looked at this from a host perspective, you would see that polite-ism while this behaviour occurs is of the highest order of dishonestly and insanity.  This is my belief as a host who has hosted thousands of guests on your network.

You have claimed I am a valued Super-Host hundreds of time through CS and other interactions, will you do me the honor of an Honest Response?

[Lizzie]

Hello @Tony134,

Thanks for creating this topic, I was concerned I had missed some of your earlier messages to me. I hope you are well. 🙂

In many respects I think I prefer the word trust and I like to think they do go hand-in-hand. Here in the CC, I believe that our conversations are all based on trusting the environment we are responding in and the way we interact with each other. I hope that equally, you trust me when I respond here and that I have the best interests of our community here at heart – by being as honest as possible in providing you the information that I have and vocalising your voices here, back to the different teams on your behalf. 

In terms of our Support Team, I'm not based in that team, so I can't speak directly on their behalf, but I personally think as rewarding as it is helping our community of both hosts and guests, as with many things there must be times when it can be quite tricky. 

Fundermentally I believe each agent, just wants the best outcome for everyone involved, epecially when things aren't always that clear. I know it must be frustrating to be contacted (what sounds like multiple times) by members of our support team to ask you if you might consider offering a refund, especially when you made a choice on what policy you wish to offer.

However, the way I see it is that at these times it is with a mediator hat on, so they will speak to both you and the guest, and they will openly see if this might be something you might we willing to do and if not, then this still remains you choice–basically having a conversation about it (as if it were in person). 

I am not aware of the finer details of the cases you mention here,  I am certainly going to pass this feedback over to the team and make them aware of this. 

As I say, I am not based in our Support Team, but I hope this helps a little. Thanks again for your feedback.

Lizzie

[Tony134]

Sorry, Lizzie, but this is what I'm talking about.  This reply is plain dishonest.  It isn't a case of individual team members playing mediator, it is Airbnb policy making the same thing happen over and over again.  You know in the overwhelming majority of cancellations, the guest chooses another airbnb, so you still get paid, and you don't pay the overhead, i.e. the rent/mortgage/utilities etc, so it isn't you that's put out when payments aren't made.

I'm telling you flat out: when all the overwhelming evidence is right in front of you that there is a large, systematic and management directed problem and you keep trying to slide around addressing it, that is NOT honesty.  It's just not.

If you go to the airbnbhell.com page, it lists ten ways you cannot trust airbnb, and they are 100% on point with those accusations.  Guest complains, guest gets refund or 50% refund, no matter that you have the host paying a mortgage, utilities, furniture, and cleaning services to make those rooms available.  You take the benefit (the available rooms) and you do not pay for it.

In honest cultures, we call this Theft or Slavery.  Sorry I can't pick more polite words, but I'm on the verge of being homeless again do to all of this.  I was a bookbag person, I worked until both my feet were literally broken on the street to save the money to get out of the shelters and into a home and into my airbnb plan.  You will continue talking all this polite nonsense as you use me to profit and send me back to a homeless shelter.  Would you like pictures from the shelter?  Do YOU know what it's like to sleep in a bed infested by bed bugs, surrounded by ex convicts and alcholics, saving every penny and donating your plasma 2x a week as you work to not be homeless?  DO YOU?

Using polite words like you do as a WEAPON to cover bad behaviour just leaves me with the sickest feeling in my stomach.  How can you do it?  Point blank, send me another polite message that's just dodging the real issues, I will be happy to show you what a body covered in bed bug bites looks like, so you can see an example of the real -life consequences of all this fakery.

I always laugh when I see the airbnb page talking about the Cleaning Wage Pledge!  How about you pledge to pay out on bookings to your hosts that work hard to provide them and stop this insane fakery.