Airbnb middle-of-the-night emails and being unreasonable about email response times

[Tolga1]

Recently I have been working through several Support cases with Airbnb and I have a BIG complaint about these cases, them sending messages at all hours and expecting responses in 1-2 hours under threat of closing a case?!

Clearly they have employees working 24/7, around the world, so they will email back to hosts like me at all hours of the day and night. It is not uncommon to get emails from them at 2-3am local time. This would not be a problem *however* regardless of when these people email, they EXPECT IMMEDIATE RESPONSES!

They have then sent follow-up emails 2-3 hours after their initial message telling me I need to respond ASAP or they will close a case. This is ridiculous and nuts. Aside from being the middle of the night, this can also occur during work hours as like many hosts, I have a day job. I have also received these tense emails in the middle of the night on *holidays* and *weekends* with no regard to local time or if it is a bank holiday...and the Airbnb staff member is international, they may not even know it's a bank holiday. There should be a policy that hosts have at least one business day to respond to emails, and that the time should start counting, not when the email is sent/received, but the start of the business day locally.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that Airbnb Support is generally pretty responsive and are trying to help, but I don't need to be punished for not responding at 4am (which I don't think it the Support Staff's decision, but a policy of some sort).

Any one else have experience with this?

[Emiel1]

@Tolga1 

At least you get a response from Airbnb CS, although at strange times. You are privileged these days !
But yes, it is rather absurd they expect you to answer when sleeping.

[Sarah977]

@Tolga1  Have you messaged them about this? If not, you should.

"Hi there, while I really appreciate that Airbnb is trying to deal with my case, support doesn't seem to be aware that this is an international platform with hosts in many time zones. I am receiving messages from CS at what is 3AM my time. I am asleep, of course. These messages tell me if I don't respond within 1-2 hours, the case will be closed. Please be respectful of time differences and not threaten me with a case closure simply because I can't respond at what, for me, is the middle of the night. Thank you for your attention to this."

[Super47]

@Tolga1

"I don't need to be punished for not responding at 4am (which I don't think it the Support Staff's decision, but a policy of some sort)"

You're correct there. Regardless of location, hosts all over the world are receiving these emails during sleeping hours - sometimes with as little as a 30 minute limitation for response - that invariably result in an arbitrary judgement being made in favour of the guest, very often granting an unwarranted full or partial refund (typically in voucher form) 

Underhand and unconscionable behaviour on Airbnb's part, but nothing new in that. 

[Linda4515]

Absolutely agree! I got their email at 3:47 AM my time and of course I would be sleeping. In their email, I’m requested to get in touch with them within 30 minutes. Stupidity and absurdity! It’s not the way of doing business. 

[Bart7]

Worse yet, we had guest who violated all the house rules - Airbnb evenutally cancelled and asked them to leave. A couple of weeks later, refund was issued without any communication from Airbnb. We often get messages in the middle of the night giving us 30-minute answer ultimatum or decision will be made by a team member... today i woke up to a messages saying guest does not like the communal corridor smell and they will issue a refund if I do not answer in 30 min. When challaneged, they say it's an airbnb policy.

[Helen3]

In your case as someone who runs a large scale management company I would just take them to small claims court for the two examples you mention @Bart7 

Do be careful as you know Airbnb sees any host with listings at 4.6 or lower as poorly performing listings and yours are at 4.52 average.  Although are more lenient with management companies like yours they can and do suspend listings that drop to these sort of levels so one or two more negative ratings could put you at risk.