WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR HOSTS. -ARBITRARY CANCELLATIONS/FAKE RESERVATIONS/NO RESPONSE

Juan92
Level 3
Miami, FL

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR HOSTS. -ARBITRARY CANCELLATIONS/FAKE RESERVATIONS/NO RESPONSE

I have been an airbnb host for almost 2 years now. I had over 700 reservations through my personal and corporate account. Things in AIRBNB have changed lately and I can guarantee one thing CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR HOSTS sucks.

 

Things are getting scary. I am getting cancellations everytime with no reason. Everytime we call, they just tell me to wait for a case manager to get in contact with me. I have pending resolutions for over 2 months.

 

The last reservation cancelled by a case manager was a few days ago. The guest had the reservation confirmed weeks ago. He wrote to me through airbnb asking to swap dates because he made a mistake. This happened at 1am while I was sleeping. I got an email from airbnb 20 minutes later asking me to respond before 1 hour, or a case manager needs to get involve. All this happened while I was sleeping. As I didnt respond before 2:20 am, a case manager got involved and cancelled the reservation to the guest without penalty.

 

I called next day at 8am to my guest, but I couldnt contact him because he is located in India. I contacted customer support and they just told me the decision was already made, there was nothing else to do.

 

This is only 1 of my hundreds of different open cases I have with airbnb right now.

 

Is really frustrating things have gone this far. Airbnb is NOT taking hosts seriously. This happened 6 times in the last month. I have open cases for over 2 months.

 

I even got a reservation that checked in into one of my properties overseas and the day after I tried contacting my guest through airbnb and the the profile was pending some verification so I was NOT able to contact my guest who was already staying at MY PROPERTY. At airbnb they asked me to wait while I had a guest who wasnt verified and even INSTANT BOOK my property.

 

All this have make me realize that I had to stop trusting airbnb and move to other platforms that takes you seriously.

5 Replies 5
David126
Level 10
Como, CO

You have a lot of lisitings so are going to see a much wider spread of issues than most people on here.

 

There does seem a common theme of ABB not standing up for hosts and a move to less protection for hosts.

 

Begs the question of other platforms any better, I am not sure that is the case, is there a perfect solution?

David

Hi David!

 

Thank you for replying. I do have a lot of listings (and 4 different profiles where we post our listings depending where they are located).

 

AIRBNB is not being helpful at all with hosts. Even customer specilists have confirm that the trust and safety and trip teams have tons of cases that they need to manage. You can only contact them through mail. I

 

I have even got fraudulent reservations while they are staying at my property.

 

I really think AIRBNB needs to take things seriously. Customer Service is getting worse all the time. We need a way to contact someone who can actually answer our questions, not just a trip specialist that will write down everything about your case and then forward it to another team that is negligent and takes for ever.

 

I cannot believe I have open cases for over 2 months.

@Juan92

 

You are eligible for the super strict cancellation policy with more than 50 listings.  Why don't you call them and see if they will allow this concession for you?

 

United States +1-415-800-5959 +1-855-424-7262 (toll-free)
Louise47
Level 10
Maroochydore, Australia

I think we need to start standing up for ourselves.  I've stopped being worried about how guest's review me, because we as a group need to protect each other by writting true reviews of our guests.  We have to start asking our guests questions to determine if they are real.  I have cameras everywhere in my house and stickers stating they are there (none in bedrooms of course, only my bedroom).  Trust me even the nicest guest will open every cupboard, go into every room that does not have a lock on it and go through everything in your house.  It always amazes me what they will do. I even have a camera in the garage.  I have even found them going through stuff in my garage.  I have a lock on my bedroom door and a camera after one guest stole things out of my bedroom.  These people are strangers and we need to start treating them like that.  We have no idea where they come from and what they do. Yes 99% of the time they turn out to be fantastic and great to have but the 1% can really bring you back to earth.  Trust me only the 1% will crack up about being asked personal question and they are the ones you don't want.  

Okay rant over.

Good luck

Margaret-Emily0
Level 2
Savannah, GA

It is IMPOSSIBLE to even get in touch with an Airbnb customer representative. I called 5x yesterday (3/31/17) and sat on the phone each time for 20+ minutes hoping to resolve a situation with a guest who showed up to my place and then left and now requesting their money back. I have tried contacting Airbnb before for other questions and not once have they ever answered the phone in almost a month and a half or more. I'm starting to question the multi billion dollar company that can't even offer decent hospitality to the hosts---the people who make them this money. Without hosts, there wouldn't be any guests.