The easiest Airbnb Customer Service Hack

Betty-B--M-0
Level 10
Nairobi, Kenya

The easiest Airbnb Customer Service Hack

Hey community! 

 

(Long posting ahoy!)

 

I just wanted to share something about Airbnb's Customer Service that I hope may be useful, especially to us hosts. 

Shout-out to Simone for being a truly wonderful agent and for allowing me to publish parts of our interaction.

 

The other day I accepted a reservation by mistake. It was not a big deal as the guest and I had been messaging and I told her that I was going to take a little time before accepting. The pressure of the ticking countdown clock and my misunderstanding on the way pricing displays for longer-term reservations led to my accepting too fast.

So there it was, reservation on the calendar, guest charged and me not quite ready to accept the booking at that stage. As soon as I did it, I messaged the guest to let her know I had made the mistake and that I'd do everything I could to fix it.

I then called Airbnb and explained the situation and I am NOT joking when I say that in approximately 7 minutes, no being placed on hold, no penalties that should have applied, no issues, the reservation was cancelled, calendar freed up, guest refunded in full, and there was no impact to host rating and reviews (no dreaded "The host cancelled this reservation X days before arrival). 

 

I realise that lots of times (though not always) we post on the forum after having had a poor experience with Airbnb customer service and I'm not discounting difficulties that have been experienced. However, I can say that for me,  almost every time I have called, Airbnb have been VERY helpful and I have come away feeling supported.

 

While this particular customer service agent was fantastic (especially impressive was how fast she grasped the situation and how fast she rectified it), I do not believe this was agent-specific or that it's hit-and-miss depending on whom one speaks with.

 In fact, following her permission to publish this, I would like to quote what the agent mentioned as being instrumental in my case:

"For transparency, your spotless history with Airbnb, immediacy with which you contacted us after realising the mistake, and consideration of the impact to the guest put this cancellation within our parameters for making a unique exception. "

 

Please don't see the above as me blowing hard on my own horn.  Rather it is merely a suggestion for all of us hosts, and I do include myself, to consider that : 

- our past behaviour with Airbnb, including as guest, host, and voice-on-the-other-end-of-the-line;

- our being on-top of things, and;

- our genuine concern for guest well-being;

could go a long way towards expediting a resolution, especially when we are the ones at fault, as in my case. 

As requested by Simone, I must add that every situation is handled and judged on a case-by-case basis so what may have applied to me, won't always apply elsewhere.

 

Still, I think it's worth remembering that people (including Airbnb people and the community) notice when we're considerate of others and try to genuinely do things the right and transparent way. The same is true when we're the opposite. Of course catching a customer service break is far from being the only reason to be this way. The truth is, far and away, it's just easiest to be a decent person. (Can I get an A-to-the-men up in here?!)

Again, things are on a case-by-case basis but for today, I serve all this up just as a point of reflection, especially if ever you've had a run-in with Airbnb customer service.  

Now is that an easy hack or an easy hack?

I'm now ready to have a strip ripped off of me for this. 

 

Thanks for reading, happy weekend, not-so-happy ripping, happy hosting to all! 

 

Betty

70 Replies 70
Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

@Betty-B--M-0  Your post reflects my experience most of the time.  Thanks

@Betty-B--M-0 Yet another excellent post and so useful. (no strip ripping here!)

So glad @Linda108 can back up this experience with customer service - and thank you for posting a specific example with the quoted comments - this will make a big impact on fellow hosts - especially the newer ones and for that we are all grateful!

 

Best Wishes.

Thank you @Rachael26; your own encouragement is much-appreciated and I can only guess that @Linda and I aren't the only ones who have experienced something good from ABB customer service. Again, there IS room for improvement, agreed, accepted, no argument! Only, I find there are also some good things about it too.

@Betty-B--M-0

 

Thanks for posting this. It's actually also my experience that due to myconscientious way of hosting and dealing with things (and having SH status surely helps too) my experience with customer experience is quite excellent too. One time I seemed to have gotten a newbie on the line who forgot to whitewash my commitment  rate after annulling an IB who hadn't read my conditions. So I simply called again and got an experienced employee who solved the problem.

And I always treat them nicely and with appreciation, which automatically seems to bounce back to me.

 

I haven't had to ever submit a damage claim happily, so can't speak for that. But for the rest, it's really good. They're only human and have to follow rules, so things could sometimes be improved, but life's like that generally.

 

@Andrea9 thanks for reading and commenting; always happy to receive your feedback.  It's good to know that you too have had positive experiences with customer service. I'll only add that even before receiving SH, I received help from them and I wasn't disappointed. I didn't want to bring up SH because it's easy for people to think that's the reason why; it helps but my experience is that it's not the only factor. I like your comment on things bouncing back to you as that could be even more important in the grand scheme of things. 

Happy hosting, Andrea.

So glad to hear of your positive experience. I am a superhost and have just given up trying to get something fixed that will help a guest after being on hold for over half an hour. Good to know sometimes it work right - guess I'll try again tomorrow.

 

Lynne

@Lynne43 hoping you got through by now.

Hi Betty,

Yes, I called early the next morning and promptly got Miranda who quickly resolved the problem.

Glad to know it is really possible to speak to person at airbnb as I have been very impressed with everything else. They are so organized, and prompt.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Lynne43

hey, glad you have discovered how good they are. 

Just remember, this is a forum site, and anything that can go wrong will end up here.

What you received yesterday is the norm....they just give good honest service....I can't fault them!

cheers....Rob

Ditto! This has been my experience too. The ABB support team has done a great job in helping me sort out a few issues during the past year. If you happen to get an agent who doesn't give you stellar service, just call back. Most are real pros, but some are newer and still on a learning curve. By all means, staying positive and acting with integrity pays off. 🙂

Marcia

Zacharias0
Level 10
Las Vegas, NV

Yes, being on top of things in your listing goes a long way. But, as they mentioned its a unique exception and the fact that all parties were in agreement and there was no money on the line surely helped the situation.

@Zacharias0 unless you mean something else, the guest had already been charged so if she cancelled, she'd have taken a penalty and not received the full refund, and if I cancelled,  a penalty would have been applied to my future earnings. There was cash on the line though I think contacting them immediately/being on top of things mitigated the effect substantially.

Cormac0
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

@Betty-B--M-0

 

Call me cynical, but tell me a good news story where somebody had something to lose and it was handled to everybody satisfaction, if handled at all, then I'll offer due deference.

 

Disclaimer:

I can speak completely impartially on this "TOPIC”, as any issues I may have had, I chose not to contact Airbnb's help, based on the comments written within these blogs.

 

The salient point is, there is a mountain of unhappy and disgruntled Host who have found Airbnb’s help impenetrable.

 

@Betty-B--M-0 I'm glad you’ve had a positive outcome, but empirically there's a lot of work to be done.

 

Regards

Cormac

The Explorer's Club Krakow III

The Explorer's Club Krakow VIII

 

 

@Cormac0  just why are you so cynical (your word not mine)?  You have two lovely listings with 12 positive reviews.  The reason I ask is that I have probably seen the same postings as you have and maybe a few more, but due to my own personal experience, I am not cynical about this site.  

 

Out of the millions of hosts in over 190 countries, I think the host forum does not have a fair representation.  More negative host experiences, many of which are due to inexperience or lack of educating oneself, are naturally posted on this site because these hosts are directed to use the community if at all possible.  I am not paid by Air BNB to state that, nor do I want to minimize the negative impact some hosts have had experienced.  It is not my style to focus on the negative but to focus on the solution if possible.