Another update which will increase guest refund requests

[Mary419]

I’m very concerned to see this new update.

Giving a guest 72 hours to report problems instead of 24 hours is going to make the free stay scammers ecstatic. 24 hours was plenty. Why should a guest get to complain about cleanliness after staying for over 2 days?

After hosting thousands of guests I can give many examples including once when I went to re-clean a kitchen floor for a family who clearly had spilled their own takeout food sauces all over it and then told me the floor was dirty. I’m getting very worried about the future of this business when I see changes like this:

 

[Charles224]

And probably sucking up to Russia as well, @Branka-and-Silvia0 The problem is that the ABNB see no problem. 

[Gillian166]

like Disney, who also pander to the far-left in the USA, but do whatever needs to be done in China to keep the $$$ coming.  I am increasingly becoming wary of companies that virtue signal about the latest trendy topic, it seems like they do it for the $$$ only. And the companies that do it for genuine reasons run the risk of looking opportunistic. 

I wonder what it is that puts India, Japan and China in the same category, they are such vastly different nations. 

@Charles224 didn't ABB stop all business in Russia during this war? I'm not so sure about that, why punish everyday Russians for the actions of their unelected leader? 

[Charles224]

I think you will find that Putin was actually elected, and pundits are suggesting that a 'quick war to retake the Ukraine' was a political move as Russian elections are due this year. After all; "The silent majority of voters are mostly zombies" (opinion of revolutionaries and fanatics - e.g. religious zealots and save-the-future die-hards).

[Linda153]

Absolutely Ludricous.

I too had a guest who came in, asked to enter early becuase they had children and needed to feed them I let them in early at 9.00am and only the next day I was sent a message stating that the Kitchen stove and kitchen was dirty. On my arrival it was clear that they had used the kiitchen and had used the stove, then I went outside to the barbeque area and they had barbequed too. 

Where is the protection of the HOST????

3 days is far too long and opened to destroy the host.........

Unacceptable, if this gets out of hand, we have to stand together and from my end if I receive abuse of this rule, I will definitely close my account at AiRBNB.

Lets see how this turns out.

[Meehyun0]

How did Airbnb respond?

From what I’m reading in this forum, there definitely needs another options.

after seeing all the grievances in this community platform it is clear to me that the investors realize that Airbnb stock is languishing when they have large percentage of hosts not happy with their experiences.

remember, no hosts, no guests, no Airbnb.  In that order.

[Regina295]

This 72 hour time frame for guests to complain is just what the scammers want! For short weekend stays they wi get a full refund.  This policy needs to be be reversed back to 24 hours! 

[Antonio2898]

Effectively. Those responsible for Airbnb lately and not so lately, are treating the host like a kindergarten child, penalizing him with a five-day suspension for receiving a 3 out of 5 in ratings from guests who do not know how to qualify or what this is, after receiving amount favorable ratings. Worse for Airbnb because other pages will be ahead of them in reservations and will be left without their succulent commission.

Effectively. Those responsible for Airbnb lately and not so lately, are treating Hosts like kindergarten children, penalizing them with a five-day suspension for receiving a 3 out of 5 in ratings from guests who do not know how to rate or what this is, after receiving many favorable ratings. Worse for Airbnb because other platforms will be ahead of them in reservations and they will be left without their commission.

[Connie168]

I totally agree. We had someone who didn't even stay in the apartment - cancelled before arrival - write a bad review. Airbnb actually removed the review themselves but then immediately suspended that listing for 5 days for bad reviews!  We could never get anyone at Airbnb to help us.  5 days in our only season of 3-4 months is a tremendous penalty for something that wasn't even a valid reason.

[Donatello4]

In response to this, hosts should just put a minimum of 4day stays on their settings. 

[Debra300]

@Donatello4,

Setting a minimum stay of 4 night or longer doesn't address the problem with scammer guests who are looking for a discounted or free stay of three nights or less.  This is already a problem with guests who book long-term stays for the large discount, and then report an issue after a week or so saying they want to leave early.  They end up paying significantly less than if they had booked for a week.

[Donatello4]

I was trying to think of a practical solution. I don’t really like complaining just for the sake of it. I would guess it would minimize some of it if you still have to pay for the remaining days. But I suppose you are right that they could just bail on the remaining days. I have never had a scammer like the type hosts here are mentioning. I usually only accept guests with a history of good ratings. I would think this would also minimize being scammed. I wonder how many people here are going to move to another short term rental platform. I considered it after Abnb allowed my bookings to cancel with no funding to me during the beginning of Covid. I do agree with folks here that it seems like Abnb favors the guests over the hosts. I also start to wonder if just renting king term is more worthwhile. 

[Debra300]

@Donatello4,

I missed your response, because you didn't tag my ID (use @ and select the ID).  I've not had these types of scammer guests, either.  Pragmatically speaking, a guests reviews won't necessarily depict if they are or have become a discount hunter.  I don't mention in a review if I gave a guest a discount for something being temporarily non-functional or unavailable (even if I am uncertain who is at fault or it's just a slight inconvenience during the stay), because I don't want to advertise this to the general public.  

[Mary419]

@Debra300

Just reflection on this scammer concept. When I started doing this for other owners  in 2009 (instead of just for myself) I had a very concerned owner ask me “what about scammers? Like the people that will put a hair on the coffee maker and then send you a picture of it to ask for money back?” And I assured him that was not the reality. I basically told him that is a myth. At that point I had some experience which I thought was a lot and virtually never saw that type of pure scam.

I did however begin to see the medium level grey area which is whining for a discount type person, guests who would shamelessly report things at the end of the stay which could have been fixed such as burned out light bulbs or even something like they thought they had no AC because they didn’t know how to use the controls and never asked. Those people asking for discounts may not be the definition of scammers but they have left their conscience behind. The pattern emerged slowly. I developed my own set of criteria for figuring out if a guest had a legit issue and whether they wanted help vs whether they wanted money was a key question for me. But airbnb took away my ability to be the one considering that question. They started making the decision with their own set of criteria which was much less logical in my opinion. 

Fast forward to 2022. Now straight scamming is happening too. Obviously the volume I’ve seen means statistically I’m seeing more than a single host with a single house but I can assure you this phenomenon has blossomed exponentially since 2020. 

[Handsome-Dan-and-The-Fre0]

I am exactly the same.  I manage 22 properties for other owners.  I inspect, organize cleaning, do light repairs, advertise, maintain super host and manage all guest bookings/communications.  1600 reservations/year.  Thankfully 80% of my bookings are through my own site but in general 95% of reservations are good but the 5% that either don't listen, read, think or are outright scammers will cost hosts big under this policy.  

Only around 1% are actual issues or equipment breakdowns that should be addressed.  The other 4% are phantom issues .

A thousand dollar stay refunded is worth 10X times that in good reservation revenues if your margin is only 10%.  Very frustrating and I will be calling Airbnb to protest.

[Connie168]

Extremely well written response.