Why is customer service suddenly so unbelievably bad?

[Jillian115]

When you speak to a CS Rep they will tell you that the reason they can not help you immediately is because of COVID-19. They thank you for your patience and say the case will be escalated and the wait time is 5+ days.

The two real reasons why we are all having so many issues are: 

1. Airbnb laid off 1900+ employees in May

2. Airbnb is doing everything they can to prevent Cancelations and we are paying the price. 

Today for a full refund, the guest must state they are “uncomfortable with the host”.  Or they must pay the service charge. They are advised to ask the host to cancel the reservation. Then when we go to cancel the reservation we are marked down. I have no penalties in place for guests to cancel on my listing. They should able to cancel without issue.

Everybody loses in this scenario. 

1. Customer Service calls increase.

2. Guests are frustrated and may not book again.

3. Hosts are frustrated and closing their listing. 

Very disappointing. 😞

[Michelle1648]

It has been an utter nightmare.  I am looking for an alternative to Air BnB if anyone has anything legit, let me know.  I had some issues with some problems before Covid19 but this is too much.  I get that Covid19 has made everything harder but people WORK FROM HOME for god sake.   

[Glenys-and-Henry0]

@Michelle1648  Same experience here: there are widespread issues across Bali where our listings are and I cannot get any sense out of AirBnB to outline the scenario of cheapskates and scammers who are looking for properties there.  I just want an email address to send AirBnB a letter but they won't communicate.  CS is next to useless and they are now downgrading us due to so many DECLINEs.... weirdo's and scammers, but AirBnB doesn't seem to pick this up. Grrrr.

[Jillian115]

It looks like there are a lot of hosts looking to transition to another service. Some are just closing their listings. I think I have my listing set up so I won't continually have to cancel due to California's ever-changing COVID health guidelines. Airbnb doesn't have the three-day buffer anymore but I have it set to two days between guests. That being said-- who knows with them. Airbnb has always been glitchy I'm sure there are more issues to come. Every time my phone has an update 9 times out of 10 it's the Airbnb app. 

[Erin4715]

Why can I not join this?

[Erin4715]

When I bring up about missing payments an unexpected error occurs and I cannot join, maybe this time it will work? Is anyone else not getting payouts? We are owed for four bookings now

[Pat271]

Don’t ever cancel a reservation if the guest wants to cancel for any reason.  

This is the email you should be getting from Airbnb for people requesting a full refund due to COVID.  If the Airbnb rep is untrained, refer to this as the email that they should send:

[Jillian115]

@Pat271 Yes I know. That's why it has been so difficult lately. When a guest cancels a reservation now they get a message that they should not cancel the reservation. The message now sates to contact the host and have them cancel the reservation for them. The only way for the guest can avoid paying the Airbnb penalty now is for the guest to cancel the reservation selecting the reason "Uncomfortable with Host" . I have had two separate situations where this has happened. 

[Pat271]

As you can see in my screen shot, this email I received is extremely recent, like 2 days ago.  So, my guest must have handled their request a different way.  My guest booked a long time ago, so perhaps she gets different choices in the software that allow her to get a COVID 100% refund.

May I ask you when your guest booked? Any booking after March 15th doesn’t really qualify under COVID, since it is assumed the guest knew there was a pandemic after that date.  If my guests booked after March 15th and want to cancel, I tell them I can approve a refund of the payout I would receive, but that they will have to talk to Airbnb about the Airbnb guest fee.  They call Airbnb and point them to my message allowing the refund.  Sometimes Airbnb contacts me to make sure I really want to allow the refund of my portion.  I think some of my guests still end up on the hook for the Airbnb fee, unless they can provide documentation that qualifies them under Extenuating Circumstances.

[Danielle476]

@Pat271 Just a forewarning - I've had two reservations refunded now that were booked AFTER March 14th and both cancelled outside of the current August 15th EC end date.  One was refunded in full without any notification from AirBNB - no e-mail, no direct message, not even a pop-up on my phone.  Another reservation was refunded 50% as per my strict cancellation policy, and then the guest sent me a money request for the other half.  I declined, and they escalated it to AirBNB.  AirBNB reached out to me to ask if I wanted to refund the guest - I said no and they confirmed it would not be refunded.  What did they do?  Refunded them anyway.  Once again, they didn't notify me via e-mail, push notification or direct message.  I only saw the refund when I was in my Resolution Centre looking at another claim!

Unconscionable, in my opinion.  Why even have parameters for refunds anymore if CS reps are just going to go Wild West on hosts and do as they please?  I lost over $700 from those cancellation refunds alone.  Your cancellation policy means nothing right now, your payouts mean nothing, the EC clause means nothing, your rights mean nothing.  Track your payments carefully and screenshot your messages if you get anything in writing, because they're also deleting messages.  Hosts beware!

[Jillian115]

 @Pat271 One of the bookings was in May and the other in July. So after March 15. But the booking were allowed because the system allowed it. They should have been blocked from booking for two different reasons both due to the Airbnb platform

[Pat271]

@Danielle476  Oh, I know, I’ve had some post-March 14th full-refund cancellations as well, without being asked.  I’m assuming that those guests were able to qualify under Extenuating Circumstances, but who knows.  Sometimes I think it is all random depending on which CS agent is assigned.

[Lauren331]

CS hit an all time low with me today. I had a request for a long term booking, however, I kept getting this error message every time I tried to accept it: "Something went wrong.  Unfortunately, a server error prevented your request from being completed. Airbnb may be undergoing maintenance or your connection may have timed out. Please try again." I called CS - SEVERAL times, couldn't get someone to figure out how to make this work.  They kept saying they'd research and call me back, they never did. They kept emailing and calling the guest, bothering him at work. I asked him to be patient, it never got fixed after FOUR HOURS total on the phone with them!  Finally they told me to decline the request and ask him to send another request, didn't work again.  He finally got fed up and booked a place through a different service.  Of course you can't get an upper manager on the phone to make a formal complaint, I am SO PISSED!  This is complete and utter BS. Anyone hosting through other services?  Please let me know your experiences.  Thanks!

REQUEST DECLINED

Gavin

• 1 guest
  
• 147 nights
• $4,249.47