Where is the Australian airbnb office hiding? from a Superhost of 2 years.

[Alan423]

We recently took up the offer by AIRBNB  to pay AIRBNB to send photographers and audit our oceanfront position to upgrade to their new improved platform, AIRBNB +  so we paid the funds, prepared the property and when we received the photos they were totally overexposed with a completely white view out the window instead of the current site photos of beautiful  blue ocean views. Half the shots were unusable.. 

After a few attempts to resolve by phone and email by the very very useless support team we were advised that if we did not want the AIR supplied photos to be used we would have to cancel the upgrade. And in addition we were not entitled to a refund. ( Which we did not want, just the photos fixed)

We were also advised that we would be UNABLE to add additional non AIRBNB supplied photos to compensate for the overexposed unusable supplied AIRBNB photos.

I have requested politely on a further 4 times via our "assigned case manager" to please review the substandard view photos against our current site view photos.. without any success at all. I suggested we re pay and have them come out again which they did not respond as they advised the original photos satisfied their review..

So next stop, write to the Australian offices in Sydney to the recently appointed Australian and New Zealand Marketing manager,  but where to write,, No yellow pages listing, no google address and yes whe you ring the useless support people.. " We do not have that information."

How can you not know where the Sydney offices are??   Really Really aweful corporate service.. We will be referring them to our local Government consumer watchdog to see if we can at least help future superhosts..

[Wendy1088]

Oh wow, what a web of deceit and depression I've found here.  I'm in the unforutnate position of having used AirBNB's only endorsed hosting service in Australia, Hometime, to manage my property's listing.  It was a woeful disaster financially with constant issues.  I closed my books and went home for the first time in six month.  I walked in at midnight to find my house had been trashed at some point prior and the hosting company had tried to cover it up.  The damage cost me over $4000 to repair out of my own pocket which I had to do to get my place on the open rental market ASAP having already lost so many thousands of dollars in mismanagement.  My insurance didn't want to know me, saying it was up to the hosting company to claim through Airbnb.  The host company said they would open a claim and that it could take months.  I waited patiently.  I got diagnosed with cancer and asked for a claim update knowing I'd need the money for my months off work, I heard nothing.  I waited some more.  COVID came along and my company cut my pay by 32% but kept me working full time.  So I asked for an update again.  I was ignored for a month until eventually they replied saying they were under no obligation to assist me and that anything they did was a favour - however I have a contract stating they would handle all claims with AirBnB arising.  All I've asked for is proof that they've opened a case, the submission date, details, case number and current status.  And they continue to ignore me.  I can't deal with AirBnB directly as I wasn't the one who managed the listing.  So I have run out of avenues to chase this up.  It drives me mad because a friend's rich sister who was stupid enough to leave expensive items in her home was paid $1500 for a "stolen" handbag and pair of shoes which she later found at her boyfriend's house, yet here I am with my home being maliciously damaged and no one taking any accountability.  How is this the way the world works?!  Karma has a massive backlog to get through that's all I can say at this point.

[Scott1188]

Hi Wendy,

Because you have a contract with HomeTime it is them that are responsible for recovering the cost of the damage as your contract states they are handling all claims with Airbnb.

Airbnb can only process insurance claims within 14 days of the checkout date of the reservation, and the claim must be before the time and date the next guest arrives.

HomeTime should have claimed insurance through Airbnb when the damage was done. If they did not make the claim at the appropriate time then HomeTime will have been negligent in managing your property and should be liable for the damage.

If HomeTime did make the claim with Airbnb at the correct time, you should have been notified to find out the age of the items damaged, as that is part of the claim. In this case, HomeTime should reimburse you the claim paid by Airbnb.

I would recommend contacting HomeTime for reimbursement. If still no resolution I highly recommend going to small claims court. It only costs $80 to lodge a case and you would likely win if you have evidence and a copy of the contract with HomeTime.

[Juan63]

You will get nowhere. I had this fight when Airbnb plus first came out. Same issues, overexposed images and bad photos. At that point, we declined but we did get a refund.

[Gregory515]

I believe if you take legal action in a civil and administrative tribunal (which is relatively in expensive) then if you nominate a respondent and take all reasonable steps to verify that they are the correct respondent (and the correct address for service) the legal powers that be can compel the correct applicant to come forward. - This is not legal advice.