Hello
I'm new to the community forum but have been a host with airbnb for many years. Last year I temporarily delisted my account for health reasons and opened it up again last month. Since then I have hit so many problems. These have twice kept me on my laptop or phone to airbnb for hours, causing a literal headache each time and with nothing resolved and the final advice I was given was to delist my account for a week while airbnb investigate their glitch. This blocks any bookings I might have taken in the weeks ahead and from Christmas onwards. I have not heard back from airbnb.
The greatest frustration is that when I rang airbnb customer service I trusted in the information I was given but both times this proved wrong. Now I am left in limbo with a delisted account. I have lost all faith in resolution. These are the issues:
- Pre-approval: I was told I could not pre-approve more than one guest at a time. I needed to withdraw preapproval from one, to allow me to pre-approve the first guest who had requested many hours before. Withdrawing preapproval blocked my calendar, deeply upset this guest, and the guest I pre-approved instead could not complete because these dates were blocked. All this took 3 continuous hours to resolve. Later I learned a host can pre-approve as many guests as they wish.
- London airbnb only allows 90 days short lets annually but 90 day lets or longer are not counted as short lets. These longer lets suit me much better, I therefore halve my nightly rate for 90 day bookings. But airbnb then automatically deduct weekly and monthly amounts which reduces my payment to a ridiculously low level. I did not notice this until after I had accepted guests for 2 consecutive bookings due to the pre-approval headache each time. I AM UNABLE TO RECTIFY THIS! I'VE PUT UP MY RATES AND TRIED TO REMOVE THE LOW WEEKLY AND MONTHLY RATES BUT THEY WILL NOT CHANGE - THEY ARE STUCK. When I rang airbnb I was told the problem was with my laptop and I had to clear cache. I struggled for ages with this but failed, then asked my daughter by phone to try via her laptop. She did, and hit the exact same problem. She also manages her sister's airbnb account and said this too has the same problem.
So now I am left with a suspended account. This is my main income and is costing me. What has gone wrong with airbnb to treat its hosts so badly?
Pat
