Dreadful treatment of a guest

[Mike-And-Jane0]

We often hear in the Community Centre that Airbnb sides with the guest over the host when there is a dispute.

This article in the Guardian (British newspaper) suggests otherwise.  Airbnb initially defended a host who removed a guests property from their listing when the host thought the guest's stay had finished (it hadn't). It was only the press intervention that got some compensation for the guest.

So what do I take from this? Basically Airbnb support is poor whether you are a guest or a host. They really do need to up their game or they will get an increasingly bad reputation which is not good for any of us.

[Andrea6232]

Buongiorno @Mike-And-Jane0 , I completely agree with you that Airbnb support is absolutely poor and this is to the detriment of both hosts and guests

[Helen427]

Support ??
@Marco4294@Andrea6232

No way do ABB offer support that one could count as been up to any acceptable level.

Copy and paste of Links to articles is utter crap and not even listening to or taking a Customer concerns seriously to right wrongs or make amends.

Frankly as a Host for over 5 years and having worked in Hospitality and Customer Focused roles for some of the most prestigious companies in the world and mixed with all manner of people from all walks and places in life the standard of Customer Support has seriously gone downhill in many places.

Indeed, much of it wouldn't even stand up legally in Courts of Laws.

Society in general when it comes to Customer Support needs a wake up, not helped by the last few years and what's happened in the world with shutting down of the Hospitality Trade in the way it has been.

The sooner businesses fixated on using AI Bots get held to account the better for all of us, we are Humans after all even if they think they are saving energy (sic) which along the way has been very Lost in Translation...

[Andrea6232]

Ciao @Helen427 , I agree with you ... but what can we do to improve Airbnb support?

[Helen427]

@Andrea6232 

Airbnb used to have great friendly qualified people in Customer Support up, until around 2 - 3 years ago when they laid off those who had an understanding and experience with Policy and how it applied.

Sadly too many people are so focused/ addicted to AI without looking at the bigger picture of Laws.

Take away copy / paste.

Reset the education system to teach people to understand there's more to CS than copy paste and create a generation and more who understand they are not Robots.

[Marco4294]

My First guest left my apartment very dirty and I had 12 towels for only 3 persons. Most of the towels were left all over the apartment on the floor. The toaster and coffee machine they left it dirty with something sticky. My washing machine broke down when my maid used it once after they left. I chatted with Airbnb for quite some time about this complain I did, at first they sided with the guest as I imagine that Airbnb communicates with hosts and guests to get to know from both what really happened but finally my first guest had to pay almost all the amount for the washing machine. This was my first guest and he wrote a partially bad review as he said also in his review that my cutlery and plates were a bit dirty which I cleaned myself and did all my best to leave all apartment clean as I was excited that I had my first guest and hoped that they will enjoy my apartment. My mistake was when I had to write my bad review on him, I sent it in his inbox and not in the review box, so he saw it beforehand  and it was payback time for me from him.. At the end Airbnb realized that I was on the right side and they got the money for me.. I could not believe my first guest will do this to me. Till now all other guests were great. 

[Elaine701]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

I've always found that the press prefers stories about guests getting shafted on Airbnb, while precious little is ever written about hosts getting shafted, which I understand that statistically is far more common.

I reckon amongst the average reader, there is more empathy for innocent guests than money-grubbing hosts (in the rare cases hosts are mentioned, they're often characterised as selfish scrooges). 

Like you, we go to a lot of trouble to make sure our guests are happy and comfortable. Most are very appreciative of that, some aren't, but that's just the nature of this beast.

Yet I take no pleasure in seeing guests treated unfairly, especially by a dysfunctional customer support system. That alone is the hidden root cause of many of the bad stories in the press rather than hosts treating the guests unfairly (who often take the blame). 

Still, most outsourced customer support in any business tends to be dismal and/or dysfunctional.  Think about your telecom or some online retailers...

That doesn't make it right though. Neither guests nor hosts should be treated that way. We are in the hospitality business after all.