Who you gonna call? (Not ghostbusters)

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

Who you gonna call? (Not ghostbusters)

Hi all, 

 

Just read a post where host Wendy of Stonington, CT suggested that calling ABB everytime something goes wrong is a little much. Basically, your house, your rules, guest observes or leaves.

While this may sound a little cut-and-dried, I think it is brilliant.

Imagine you are running a guest house  or rental property entirely on your own initiative and without ABB.

If something went wrong and you felt the guest/tenant had to go and there was no one to call (except perhaps the police or emergency services if it got that serious), what would you do?

Now I know we are concerned about bad reviews, blocked calendars etc because in reality, we are on ABB and not entirely independent. 

Still, with a little imagination and some authoritativeness, some things may be better and faster resolved without wasting time looking for the ABB phone number, sending a ream of emails, venting on the forum, and feeling generally upset or afraid of consequences. 

Just my two cents. I'm ready for any dressing-down now. 

Thank you for reading and with thanks to Wendy of Stonington, CT for sparking my imagination.

42 Replies 42
David126
Level 10
Como, CO

@Betty-B--M-0

 

I agree, many times I see things here that have me wondering....

David
Wendy-and-Frank0
Level 10
Stonington, CT

Betty,

 

You are most welcome!

 

😉

Rachael26
Level 10
Murphy, NC

@Betty-B--M-0

How refreshing! And certainly no dressing-down from me!

 

I just wrote this post below to a host (American) who had posted that he thought Airbnb's customer servcie was terrible/frightful (and all in CAPS!) because he called several times and was on hold, and cut off, and on and on etc..

 

" X - take a breath - and try an alternative. Think about this - Airbnb is a 800 million dollar company (twice the size of Hilton) - and is present in hundreds of countries acroos the world (I saw a post from Mongolia just yesterday!) so just imagine the call center that must exist to staff enough people (let alone train them all) to handle telephone calls from the MILLIONS of hosts out there around the world. It is never going to be a smooth or satisfactory process. But Airbnb do respond, and if you read the agreement and guidelines that are here to help you - you will see that telephone numbers for each country are listed BUT are for emergencies only (like - you have the police present in your property because of theft/damage, or you have a guest that has turned up with 10 'gnarly looking friends' or they will not leave the property and so on).

 

SO here are some alternative contact approaches (that work within hours)

TWITTER (@airbnbhelp)

Facebook 

 And please read @Dave & Deb's REALLY USEFUL Guide on how to contact Airbnb - with the list of telephone numbers for each country and specific instructions on how to use twitter and facebook to get your answers.

 https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/bd-p/Community-Help-EN

then click on the HOW TO CONTACT AIRBNB post

 

Be patient - be kind - and be persistent. You will get through, like thousands others do every hour!

 Best Wishes.   "

 

So @Betty-B--M-0 Thank you for posting your thoughts - it may well help another host out there who was just about to go down the slippery slope of calling to ask Airbnb to hold their hand......

And @Wendy-and-Frank0 is a great host/poster - with a great sense of humor - so when you want a smile or a laugh - follow her!

And come and visit the USA soon!

Miss @Rachael26,

 

Sometimes a sense of humor is the only thing that will get you through the day!

 

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

@Rachael26 @Wendy-and-Frank0 @David126, thanks, guys. Happy to know I'm no ogre of a host for thinking this way. @Rachael26, I'll visit indeed, enroute to Mongolia. 🙂 @Wendy-and-Frank0 quite right on that daily dose of humour - I'll take two! That reminds me of @Zacharias0 who rants with humour; will miss him when he finally buys his house and stops hosting @David126 I saw you asking the poor guy to include tickets to a show in his listing, his being in Vegas and all... 😄 😄 😄  

I will take the review system seriously when all parties involved in the transaction can be reviewed.

David

@David126 , seems to me that perhaps Airbnb is also tightening or expanding the reviews we fill out in guests. Lately I have noticed that there is a 5 star system in place as well, and it gets introduced by some kind if wording like, let the guest know what they did well and where they can do better. One could actually interpret that as in invitation to diss a guest - like hosts here have complained aBout the negative attitude towards hosts in the questionnaire  guests get to fill out. So it would just be a mirror of that. Perhaps they are actually trying to bring it all into balance?

Zacharias is going to stop hosting?  He had me laughing my butt off over the petite girl and the bathroom!

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

@Betty-B--M-0   Ahhhhhhh...a breathe of fresh air.   Thanks for your posting.  

You're welcome @Linda108 🙂

I'll share the thanks with @Wendy-and-Frank0 

Rhonda34
Level 4
Western Australia, Australia

Well for me I have been booked out since I opened a month ago and am like a bat out of hell changing sheets and cleaning every day. Plus baking home made cookies.  

 

I love it, the only issue I have had is that the map has been firstly placing people at my neigbours house. Thats not good as I have 24 access with a lock box.  Our houses are identical as well to complound the issue.

 

Try as I might no joy from airbnb, and when i did all the fix things and got community help all that did was make my house like the wizard of OZ and drop it a mile from my house and a pub address. 

 

It got handballed to the wizarsd of Oz but alas no response at all, and I have no desire to do another listing just to get my address right when clearly the  software that has a glitch in it.  I do not want to loose all my good ratings. 

 

Being positive is good, but most people have a bit of a whine after hitting their head on the bnb brick wall.  I think the customer service could be a hell of a lot better no excuses.  Thats what we pay for is it not? 

 

As hosts it our reputation on the line, not Airbnb if a guest cant find my place due to a software error they dont blame Airbnb they look to me and wonder why I cant get my own address right. 

I spend a lot of time, replying to guests not to look at the map but to follow my instructions. Its time consuming when you have back to back reservations. 

 

just sayin. 

 

I am off to make a human sacrifice to get the right location on the map...I will take the yellow brick road and see if my house has landed on anyone when it  crashed at a location not to far from here.

Steve211
Level 2
Palm Springs, CA

I've tried to call many times never to speak with anyone just holding fir a long time and hung up 

 First of all, @Steve211, your place in Joshua Tree is amazing!  A couple of days ago I drove through the National Park and the desert bloom was so beautiful.  Hope you have had a chance to get out here to enjoy.  Anyway, to your frustration about reaching Air BNB on the phone.  I never wait more than a couple of minutes!  Probably because I call during the very early morning.  I'm an early riser (usually around 4:30 AM), so that works for me but if you call super late at night, that would work as well.  

 

I wondered why you are not a Super Host given all the positive reviews and then I noticed your cancellation last  month.  Did you protest this cancellation penalty?  You should do so as soon as possible.  As you know the cancellation process is an automated one.  It may be that your decision would come under extenuating circumstances due to weather and you were protecting your guests.  I live in the Coachella Valley (La Quinta) and know about the unusual rains this year.  I hope this works out for you, Linda

Thanks for the responses  I ll keep trying to call. I'm hoping I can get the automatic negative review removed by Airbnb since the only reason I had to cancel a reservation was the road washed out - I had to cancel 

has anyone noticed I the last month I've received no direct bookings only inquiries which I answer and pre approve but nothing after. Right now all bookings have stopped.  Anyone else noticed that? Has Airbnb changed its booking method?

 

 

 

 

no direct bookings only inquires which I answer and I do the