What have we become? Terrible treatment of guests and hosts

Lorraine14
Level 2
London, GB

What have we become? Terrible treatment of guests and hosts

I had a charming guest book for 38 nights. 

With monthly discounts the fee came to £60 per night. 

They stayed for 34 nights and extended another 11 nights. 

Air bnb removed the monthy discount from THE WHOLE booking including the nights already agreed and paid for and added the additional cost to their bill. 

It took me 2 days to get someone to understand that you cant alter a price once its agreed and paid for and the guest has already stayed for the nights. 

it was never fully understood. 

Imagine if you went to a hotel and stayed for a week at £100 per night, you wanted to stay an extra two nights and the hotel told you the price was £120 a night, you agree but they then charge you an extra £20 a night for all the nights you had already stayed. Madness!

People in customer service hanging up on me. people in customer servcie repeating the same thing over and over seeming incapable of understanding or listening.

trying to sort out this glitch for my guests was a terrible experience.

I have now received an email saying there is a problem taking the payment for the remaining nights and asking if i want to cancel my guests stay as Air BnB are not responsible for the payment if its not made. 

My guest his wife and their baby have been staying since March 24th and extended on the 11th of April to include 24th of April until 12th of May. 

Air BnB did not take the extra payment at the point of reservation. 

On the day the reservation extends Air BnB are now encountering what will likely be a clerical error but are suggestng that I throw the guests out because Air BnB are not responsible for collecting the payment.

Air BnB ARE responsible for collecting payments they are an intermediary between guests and hosts and collect a fee for providing this service.

I've been part of this community for ten years but honestly I dont recognise what it has become anymore.

18 Replies 18
Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

I don’t mean to argue @Stephanie but I happen to know a Facebook thread started the onslaught... the closed hosting group. That FB post has been shared over a thousand times... started well over a week ago... still getting shared... scared the crap outta me.

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

As I edited in but you may not have seen, the newsletter went out via email over a week ago which is probably where your peers have been sharing from. In terms of it on the CC, you can find the newsletter here.

 

As for the tip on the Facebook share, that's great info, I'd love to capture all of the at sentiment and feedback also 🙂

 

Thanks

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

Scott_Elaine0
Level 1
Warialda, Australia

Get the guest to pay with cash for the extra days....leave AirBNB out of it.....saves the hassle.

Cathie19
Level 10
Darwin, Australia

Gosh @Lorraine14 , I’m sorry to hear this news. As a STR only host, I can’t begin to imagine how this affects your business model. You do the right thing for the guest, you also do your best to attain a relaxed yet professional approach, then get let down by the Airbnb computer system itself.

 

So a question to Airbnb: Instead of tinkering with the cosmetics of the layout in the software and Applications, can you spend some of that software budget, getting your super clever programmers to sort out this base financial issue. If this is happening to other hosts as they’ve mentioned, then it’s a problem. Luckily, they are happy to bring it to your attention.....

 

The pointy end, the money and trust end matter most.

💐