How Do You Rate AirBnB for Customer Service?

[John1574]

Perhaps AirBnB should set up a ratings system for themselves so their clients can see, for the sake of transparency,  how effective their policies and their how effective they are in customer service as rated by their clients.

1. Communication
2. a) did they listen well?  did they understand your complaint?
3. b) did they respond in a timely fashion?
4. c) did they communicate their decision accurately in the context of their policies?

1. Resolution
2. a) did they resolve your problem satisfactorily?
3. b) if they did not did resolve your problem satisfactorily did they explain it adequately?

1. Policies
2. a) do AirBnB policies adequately support their customers?
3. b) is AirBnB doing their best to protect both guests and hosts?

I’m sure better minds than mine can come up with supporting ideas and suggestions.

What I’m not looking for here are long dissertations about specific incidents:  but rather to hear from people who have dealt with AirBnB customer service and can relate their experience to the rest of us.

The Good, the Bad, and the  . . . (Ugly)

[Deb134]

I contacted CS with my issues - the lady was nice but referred me to a place to make comments, which I did.  Nothing happened in response to the comments.

[John1574]

@Gulay0  

I came across this post today that feels like it belongs here, on this thread.

Gulay was out aprox $500 in damages and CS paid her aprox $150.

Gulay worked hard and appropriately with CS but still walked away with the short end of the stick.

Here is a quote from her:

Next time I heard back from the agents there was a plethora of demands and excessive details, that were not mentioned before. This was on a Friday, and the agent gave me 72 hours to produce these documents:

1. A 'professional incident report'. Stated as-is with no explanation. I had no idea what this was.  I was told by Airbnb customer service on the phone that it could be an online form, a police report, or my impressions in writing. The next day, my assigned agent informed me that it was none of these. The agent wanted a written report from the handyman about the cause of the damages occured, as if he were a detective. I asked the handyman, and he said he doesn't offer such services.
2. A new invoice for the closet. The agent asked for a new invoice and it was to include "labor per hour and worked hours, detailed list of the used materials and its costs, and worked area in square inches, signature and stamp." It was the weekend and I couldn't possibly produce this document.
3. An invoice for the washing machine repair. Since the washing machine replacement part hadn't arrived, I was only billed for the replacement part at the time. So, I couldn't possibly provide an invoice for the full cost of repair in the next 72 hours.

   At this point, I had already spent $287 for repairs and I would be charged an additional $207 when the Bosch service arrived.

   The agent deemed broken hinges and a large crack on the door were deemed "wear and tear" and awarded $0 for the $120 repair. $167 in damages were awared for washing machine repairs, that has cost me $374. In total, I received $167 for $494 in damages that the guest left.

   You've made this far and it means I haven't lost you in the details of my story, so thank you for reading! I realize my losses aren't devastating; it could have been much worse. By sharing my story I tried to describe the type of attitude Airbnb customer support has towards the host in a damage claim dispute.

   If you choose to do a damage claim with Airbnb my advice is as follows:

   1. Do not get anything fixed before your case manager is satisfied with all pictures.
   2. Ask for detailed reports from whoever comes to inspect and remove damaged items from your property.
   3. Do not accept e-mailed invoices. Ask your invoices to be stamped and signed. Ask for the service company to include cost of labor per hour, hours worked, materials used and their costs, and area worked on in square inches.
   4. Make a full downpayment for the services you have requested, so you can send Airbnb the invoice, when they ask for them.
   5. Do not count on your security deposit or the 'One-Million Dollar Guarantee.' Take all steps you can take to prove and justify your repair payments.

      And here is the link to the thread:

      https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Guest-damages-apartment-customer-service-refuses-to-grant/m...

      If you read other threads that touch on the topic of AirBnB Customer Service you can always paste the link here so we gather info on this topic in one place.

[Jonathan547]

I had a very similar experience to Gulay's. A guest broke my refrigerator and refused to help pay for the replacement (EUR500; I only asked for EUR250 just to be fair). I then involved airbnb, and they asked for exactly the same police-statement-like list of "evidence" that Gulay was asked for -- which no one would be able to supply.

Now I am out more than EUR500 despite my GBP500 security deposit. Airbnb refuses to do anything.

[Ck6]

Perhaps host should ask for a Host "manual" from AIRBNB that states their working side and includes all paperwork regarding reports, accidents, scams etc.  I am looking for an answer now and have to call instead of find here.  It is to long to type.  I did have a great responce from Airbnb when if told them about the family emergency my guest had and had to leave earlier and warned them of the AIRBNB guest in my other rental who complained from the time they got there to the check 30 days later. 

Even after offering to refund she wanted to stay!  After 30 years of living in hotels and retiring.  I do treat my rentals like a 5 star hotel room and work hard to maintain that.  So far so good but my efforts do cost me extra monies! 

[Lisa723]

1 star:

This support case is now closed.

You can no longer reply to this thread. If you need additional help, you can always visit our Help Center.

Go to Help Center

 

"do it"? Do what???

 

Jun 2, 2018 8:55 AM

 

Hi Lisa,
I'm Claudia from Airbnb customer service and I've just got your case.
I'm so sorry for the late reply, we had system issues and a want personally apologize for the missing assistance in the previous days, we always reply in 24 hours maximum.
I'm here to help you now.
I contacted an expert for your issue and she told me to advise to do it on the computer using firefox or Chrome browser.
Please let me know if you can solve in this way or you still need my help.
Have a nice day Lisa,
Claudia

 

Jun 2, 2018 2:39 AM

 

What do you mean by "re-upload?" I created the guide in the IOS app and I there doesn't seem to be any other way to access it. Do you mean destroy it and re-create it? That is a lot of work. First can we just establish whether it is expected that Airbnb will automatically send it, and whether this is happening?

 

May 28, 2018 11:48 AM

 

Your issue has been sent to an Airbnb support specialist — expect a reply in this thread within 24 hours.

Was your issue resolved by this community expert?

 

 

No, I need help from a specialist

 

May 28, 2018 11:35 AM

 

Hello how are you? My name is Daniel Airbnb Expert and I will help you today. 

hello, the best thing you can do is to re-upload the guide for the guest's arrival, often not seen immediately, but when the guest enters to see the itinerary of their trip, some people have disabled the airbnb messages in their emails and that in turn prevents it from happening. 

But you can use the advice I give you to get the situation back to normal 

Daniel 
Airbnb Expert and Superhost

 

May 28, 2018 11:25 AM

 

Thanks for your message — Airbnb Support will reply as soon as a specialist becomes available.

 

I created check-in guides for each of my listings, but it seems that Airbnb is no longer automatically sending them to my guests on their check-in day. Is this the case and if so can it be fixed? Thank you.

 

May 28, 2018 10:51 AM

[John1574]

 @Lisa0

Ouch, Lisa, very frustrating.  Too much for them to handle I guess.  Any resolution?

[Lisa723]

No resolution. I am just assuming the check-in guide is not automatically sent, and sending it myself.

[John1574]

 @Lisa0

 I am very curious about this myself, Lisa. 

 Maybe you should start a thread with the title:

Does Airbnb automatically send the check in guide instructions prior to guests checking in?

Also you could contact Lizzie as she seems quite helpful.

 I would like to know if my check in instructions are being delivered as they're supposed to be. 

[John1574]

@Harris-Robin0

Interesting thread below by Harris Robin n the subject of AirBnB Customer Service:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Airbnb-customer-support-is-awful/m-p/724979#M163079

pull quote:

"That being said, the customer support agent was extremly inpatient and unprofessional with me. She would barely let me speak and it got so bad that I had to stop her in the middle of the conversation and let her know that I was trying to speak. It got worse from there. The person I spoke to should not be working in CS. 

I am posting this here because there is no way to give feedback on customer support so on the off chance this falls on someone at Airbnb who cares, they should really start looking into how CS is treating the hosts. "

We're all waiting with bated breath.

[Susan17]

To be fair, we can't lay the blame on the CX reps themselves. Most of them are actually lovely people, trying to do a very difficult job, in horrible conditions. The fact is, they're under-trained, under-informed by Airbnb as to their daily-changing policies, underpaid in relation to similar positions with other companies, under serious pressure to meet ridiculously unattainable targets and totally undervalued by the company they serve all day, every day. Not so different to the rest of us, then.

If you want to get some idea of the reality of working conditions for many Airbnb staffers, have a look at a website called Glass door, where you can read *their* reviews, and also learn some eye-opening facts on their salaries and the interview processes the company employs in recruiting them. Certainly gives some valuable insight into what life is really like as an Airbnb employee. 

[John1574]

 That does not sound right to me. 

 Lovely people?  Horrible working conditions?  Under trained, under informed?  You make it sound like the early industrial age.

 Your post is hyperbolic. 

 Can you please copy and paste a link directly to the information you gathered because I went to glass door and I could not find any such thing.  

 I'm sure there are bad reviews by disgruntled employees but that doesn't mean anything. 

 It's a company culture we are discussing here not individuals.  All employees are complicit in that culture. 

[Nathan162]

Airbnb ‘customer service’ is a joke.

I wanted to contact them to ask/complain about a landlord with multiple properties renting us a different one from the one we requested but:

Constant, endless, going round in circles and being redirected to the same &@%#ing pages ‘contact host’, resolution centre, FAQs, contact host,resolution centre, FAQ etc, etc, etc...driving me mad.

Hours of surfing found me a telephone number which connected me to someone in Asia, we couldn’t really understand each other- she gave me a ‘UK’ contact number and guess what? It was the one I had just called.

As a multi BILLION dollar company you MUST set up an easy to use, dedicated and local email and telephone system for customer services which is clearly displayed and gives quick access to knowledgeable staff who can answer questions and resolve issues. 

Your ‘inclusive, isn’t the world a lovely place, everything’s beautiful, everybody can talk to each other and resolve their differences’ schtick is a thinly veiled policy of profiteering. 

If you can’t be bothered to sort it out then I hope other companies, who can, will take your business away from you. 

Nathan

[Susan17]

Well, sorry but you can't have looked too far past the reviews from the staffers who sound as if they have about 5 minutes experience of the world of work - and even less experience of the real world, John. To see the bigger picture, try looking a bit harder for the (many) reviews from the clued-up contributors who sound as if they actually *know* what they're talking about. Like this one...

Helpful (7)

"So much potential, but a mess of a company."

StarStarStarStarStar

Current Employee - CX Specialist

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

CEO

I have been working at Airbnb full-time (More than 3 years)

Pros

- Free Food
- Pension
- Travel credit
- Mostly great co workers.
- Dog friendly
- Work from Home policy
- Yearly Holidays
- Nice office.
- Stock options

Cons

- Little chance of progression.
- Very poor salary.
- Management just don't care, any feedback given you are told you are being "Negative"
- Very poor yearly pay increases.
- Huge difference in % pay increases from team to team even if you got the same rating.
- Poor work life balance.
- Tech company we certainly are not. We use more google forms then any other company in the world.
- They pretend to have a culture but are more interested in getting ready for the IPO. Very hypocritical.
- Many of the management are inexperienced, young, and were promoted internally, most have no idea what they are doing.
- So much red tape for a tech company
- Very poor internal systems to help you do your daily job.
- Christmas bonus would be nice !
- Company continuously asks for feedback but does nothing when feedback is given.

Advice to Management

Listen to your staff. Just look at the amount of people leaving the company and the reviews on glass door !!

------END OF REVIEW-----

Also, Dublin is a very small place, John. Most of us personally know at least several current and former employees working in Airbnb's non-US HQ here. I can assure you, it doesnt have a good reputation as an efficient, harmonious, functioning work environment, and nobody's queuing up to work there these days. Whether you choose to believe that - or not - without me producing all sorts of hard evidence is entirely up to you. All the same to me. I'm just telling it as it is, regardless.

[David126]

Does seem to reflect what we see here.

[John1574]

@Susan

Thanks for taking the time to respond. 

I already spend too much time on the forums but I see it as an investment rather than a burden.

That being said, to all who post, please provide documentation, in the form of link if possible, to back up any allegations you make.

I will agree to disagree with you Susan on some points and agree with you on others..  I have no doubt about the veracity of what you have heard and read I just interpret it differently than you.

We were discussing the people who work in Customer Service and you imply that it is not the workers to blame for the poor service we receive but rather it's the companies fault.

I hire and fire people routinely in my business.  The ones who get fired are the ones who can't perform, who  are needy and high-maintenance, who accepted a job knowingly full well the pay, the work conditions, the level of commitment involved and so on and so forth.

I wish they had not taken the job then I would not have had to fire them.

I feel the same way about AirBnbB Customer Service employees.  If they are rude and incompetent it is on them. If they don't like working there they can quit. But if they go along with a policy that corrupts the spirit of customer service then there is rot in the company culture and they go along to get along -- in that way it is on them not the company for they are complicit in a corrupt culture.

We agree that the company can can do much better in Customer Service.

You can also see on this board what BnB CS is dealing with.  People don't train themselves:  they don't read the policy:  they don't screen guests well enough: they don't have any business experience what-so-ever: they don't know how to approach customer service.

I'm not defending what appears to be a deeply flawed customer service culture at AirBnB but I will never accept that the customer service employees are poor victims.

I didn't see anything in your post relating to customer service employees on Glass Door, and I would not trust that website any more than I would trust Facebook or Google.

I respect your viewpoint, I just think there are broader issues at work than, AirBnB = Bad, CS employees = poor victims.