The new hosts dont do the work because its really difficult to find the correct information. They mainly turn to the Community by mistake thinking they are contacting the company.
I have never seen a site worse organised than Air when it comes to getting assistance. Try coming at the mess it is with fresh eyes. I use HomeAway, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Sleepout; all are orders of magnitude better than Air at this crucial aspect. Air's only saving grace is that it delivers more customers than all the others combined.
Most people give up in desperation after hours of trying to find a way of contacting the company. You know where everything is because you know by experience; I find help through sheer dumb luck. References and links to "help" are all circular, and there are no specific numbers to call anywhere logical listed on the site. I have been at this since September last year and still have no idea if there is someone I can contact on the same bloody continent as me, let alone a local contact in my country.
If Air actually intended to offer any real "Help" the numbers would all be there, plain as day, when you first click on the "Help" button, they aren't. That is not helpful, its unhelpful.
The numbers would be listed right there when rhe "help" homepage opens, it would explain you have to call the USA or Tweet them or send smoke signals. There would be an email service, as per Booking.com and their closed email system, there isn't. Its therefore deliberate in a effort to increase their profit margins by reduceing the service they provide. Everybody on the community boards over the years talks of how the Help featured is diminishing, and is now virtually non existant. They have tossed their responsibility down the plug hole and now rely almost exclusively on unpaid volenteers like yourself. In truth you can't answer legal or juridictional questions, its unfair to ask you to do so. Air has lost the balance in the relationship with their hosts.
There is no email service to ask a question; try asking a difficult question which requires a considered answer when and if you do reach them. You won't get an answer, you will be passed around from pillar to post, and after that there is no follow up from the company. Only hosts on the Community Boards follow up, and if your question is specific, related to the company processes or unusual in any way its unlikely they can help you answer it.
Booking.com come back by email unfailingly within 24 hours to any question, and if its an emergency call within an hour. Sadly, they are utterly hopeless at getting paying customers in or giving an answer in understandable English, but at least they try.
Its a crazy way to run a business. Why on earth is it deliberately made obscure and difficult to contact our Sales Agent? If the site was so well organised and easy to use why so many newbees in melt down? Why do you think they don't make an effort? I have put hundreds of hours into exploring the site itself, the Community and trying to contact the Company. I have succeded in making direct contact only once after dozens of attempts. Air could offer no help and utterly and completely failed to follow up having promised to do so.
The work you speak of is difficult and even arduous to obtain, not easy. Its often seriously incomplete or annoyingly vague when you do find something relevant. I have spent days trying to find numbers to contact from East Africa. There aren'E any, and furthermore there is no explanation that your ONLY local contact in Africa is actually in Utah, so stop bloody trying to find one in Africa. Everything is set up for 1st world hosts with superfast internet services, not standing in the bush on one leg trying to get a signal or plodding along with dialup type download speeds. You have no idea the evil thoughts I have towards programmers who give me circular links like Air. Try waiting 5 minutes to download a page that takes you back to where you started after anothe 5 minutes. You will love them too.
I spend hours trawling through Air Community Notice boards trying to find similar problems, most posts are not even close to the fundermental questions I would like answered. It is largely an enormous waste of time, effort and is very frustrating when you have a client who needs an answer there and then.
If a client asks me something only Air can answer I decline the booking immeadiately, and no longer bother trying to contact Air.. Its the only way I can proceed without getting myself in deep do do
Its really stupid, its deliberate and will cost them the company in the end.
