As a brand new Airbnb guest, I am writing this in the hope that my concerns could be addressed in clarifying in for the benefit of ALL NEW Airbnb guests. Although we were somewhat familiar with Airbnb when we did our first rental, we did not know about all rules of the company regarding issues arising for the protection of the interests of guests and hosts. Apparently some hosts are far more familiar (though not always) with these rules than others.
1) Airbnb should alert immediately prospective guests of recommendations for certain types of rentals. For instance, people over 50 should be alerted to avoid taking units higher than say the 10th floor. In the event of non-working elevators, it is conceivable that guests could be stuck either in the unit or having to literally be carried up or down the building in the event they are on a very high floor, which would be, or potentially be, a tremendous inconvenience and even danger to anyone over 50. We personally faced this situation recently where we were unable to access our unit on a very high floor for several days until repairs were to be made to all the elevators (where parts had to be brought in from the US). Heaven knows what the situation would have been had we been stuck on that high floor.
2) Regardless of the age of guests and the floor of the unit in a tall building, guests should be informed at the outset of the arrangements Airbnb will make for their safety and protection if they are either stuck in the unit or cannot go up to access the unit.
3) Guests should be informed in a special alert message as well at the very outset of their stay that they must report any problem, large or small, with the liveability of the rental IMMEDIATELY to Airbnb, who will handle the situation with the Host on behalf of the guest, thereby reducing the aggravation to the guests. People have been in situations where they did not know about such rules, and were not able to get it resolved financially or otherwise with Airbnb within what we discovered to be a 72 hour window.
4) Airbnb's Ambassador setup is not very customer friendly at all. Despite the best of intentions of the contact people (ambassadors), it is EXTREMELY frustrating to have to deal with new representatives each time for the same case, representatives each of whom has to be familiarized with the case and who occasionally contradict each other on the steps needed to be taken. There has got to be a method of helping guests without having to deal with several ambassadors (sometimes simultaneously) who are not familiar with everything related to the case, whether by phone or message.
I have other concerns, but would like to start with these ones. I would like my concerns to find their way to the management of Airbnb, as recommended by Airbnb phone staff as well.....
Thank you.
