Ripping Out my Hair - Customer Service: AirBNB Vs Homeaway

[Anonymous]

I am having one hell of a new Host experience with AirbBNB. I have literally almost been brought to tears with how much they **** you over financially during disputes, how much they completely ignore you, how long it takes them to post pictures you paid for from THEIR photographers, all the while I am losing money tryign to host in NYC. 

Does any one else feel like Airbnb host (customer) service is either just dead, or they stopped providing, or they see it as a sick joke they laugh about in their WeWork space? Does any one know if Homeaway provides better service for hosts? Here are my issues which are making me want to never use AirBNB as a host ever again.

1) One of my first guests was staying for almost two weeks. The day of the reservation, my guest tells me that due to snow in NYC her flight was canceled -- I hosted at least 4 other guests in other NYC units flying in from around the world that day -- we had a very short storm but flights were landing within a few hours. My guest tells me she is canceling her reservation, which is fine I have a policy in place where I should get about half of my reservation about. I never heard a word from my guest or Airbnb until about 2 weeks later where I get a message say "sorry for the inconvenience" but we are awarding your guest a full refund due to "extenuating circumstances" policy. So I lost aout 1,500 dollars right there due to AirBNB Overriding my cancelation policy and springing this news onto me way after i had any chance to re-book this and try to make some money back. They wrote that one email saying "sorry for the inconvenience" and then essentially have refused to speak with me on the phone to explain themselves (the case managers seem to hold ALL the power and are NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVR available to speak on the phone -- so all you get is a really stupid call center person who says they can do nothing for you except ask the case maneger to respond to my emails). -- so it's been about 2 weeks more now of me sending a "?" to this case maneger ever single day requesting an explanation that stil has never come)

2) I paid for professional photos VIA airbnb photography process. The photographer loaded the photos to AirBNB the same day he took them (he confirmed to me). It has been two weeks now and they still haven't release my *****ing photos to my listing, which I need direly to save my listing. I had no idea this process takes weeks! I have also opened up a case manager style request to ask that they post my **bleep** photos that have already been taken and are just sitting somewhere in AirBNB's WeWork offices. So I am doing the one "?" a day in that thread too to try to get my photos posted or some information about what is going on. So far I have sent 11 "?" with no response in that case manager thread. 

So like I said, it feels like AIRBNB has just given up on supporting hosts, at least in the ways that I need support right now. Is Homeaway any better?

Thanks.

[David126]

You should never assume AirBnB will uphold your cancellation clause.

Could you not gtet the photos direct?

[Anonymous]

Thanks David. Do you know if Homeaway has more host friendly policies with regard to guest cancellations? It is really hard to try to run any sort of commerce or business knowing that AirBNB case managers can make decision involving thousands of your dollars without asking you for input in the dispute or even following up with you to explain their decision. And as what seems to be common practice with AirBNB and anyone who works with them, no, the photographer has not responded to me since I have asked him to send me the photos directly, which I didn't expect any way because it is AirBNB's policy to review and post the photos -- I just wish it didn't take them a month to do this and also refuse to provide any updates to their progress or even answer a single question about that process. Just radio silence from AIRBNB in these two cases I have with them once of which involves them literally reaching into my bank account two weeks after the canceled reservation and stealing my money. Any other recommendations on how to do business with this AirBNB?

[David126]

As far as I am aware ABB is the only one with an extenuating circustances policy, usually the other big issue for those that need it is the lack of a security deposit.

[Anonymous]

Thanks David -- However it does not seem to be a real "Extenuating Circumstance" policy -- my guest could have rebooked her flight within a few hours. My guest also akwowledged that she would only get back about half of her reservation and she was fine with this at the time she canceled. She even wrote that she was fine with paying the cancellation fee it and she wanted to cancel the reservation presumably for other reasons as well (the weather was not really an issue that day -- minor flight cancellations in New York lasted a few hours). So my question is really like what are these case managers doing, and how and why do they have so much power and then apparently you cannot even have any input as a host as the decision to steal your money is being made at AirBNB, and then they don't even have the courtesy to explain themselves to you. Is Homeaway better for customer service in general? Have you or anyone reading this ever used Homeaway? I don't want to go throuhg setting up on that platform if all players in this industry are equally bad. 

[Hideout0]

Hi there,

once I had a bad luck on a strange Case Manager - quite rude and without answers - what helped was writing a twitter directed at AirbnbHelp - I got a new Case Manager and the issue was solved very quickly, in a matter of one or two days.

Best of luck!

Ali