Penalised for Goodwill Gesture Inbox

[Jacqueline1502]

"Airbnb is penalising me for offering a reduced fee to a guest who previously paid a cancellation fee for a stay they never had. This was a goodwill gesture, not collusion. Support hasn’t helped. Any tips?

[Shelley159]

How is Airbnb penalising you @Jacqueline1502 ?

If you want to give this particular guest discount, they should send a booking request for their dates so that you can send a special offer. There shouldn't be any penalty or problems.

[Jacqueline1502]

I sent them a discount, they accepted and stayed, and then the problems started really. I worked hard for, and received an excellent review. I know that because I can see the beginnings of it in the email that airbnb sends automatically. But then it was removed, and I was sent a warning email from airbnb. Because I discounted the stay so much, the system presumed I was colluding with the guest, I guess for a good review.   The fact is, the guest had booked, and unfortunately cancelled earlier in the year. From which I recieved money, ostensibly for a stay that never happened. I didn't want t take additional money from this lovely guest.

I'm just little fry, and work so hard to be a great host. Airbnb support were everything but 'support' in this situation. Just cutting and pasting 'careful consideration' responses and being anything but forensic or considered. I am crushed!

[Lorina14]

@Jacqueline1502 

Did you involve the Airbnb customer service in the process of offering a discounted stay due to the guest not being able to stay because of extenuating circumstances? It may be that AI automatically flagged your stay and now you’re battling with the bot. I’ve read two denials until maybe you get a human to interact with you? Have you tried to get to the right team to explain your situation? 

@Bhumika @Rebecca @Elisa could you assist Jacqueline and send her concern to the right Airbnb support team? Thanks!

[Jacqueline1502]

Thanks so much for your time and reply Lorina14.  Truly.    As you've noted - sympathetic or empathetic human response means the world. Thank you.   I am so disappointed with airbnb's reaction, which has been the complete opposite. I am still reeling from the use of the word 'support' as it's had quite a detrimental impact. For literally no good reason. Yes, it appears A.I flagged the stay, but the support human, who I presume has every capacity to look at the 'back end' of the situation and see all the correspondences, special offers, full dialogue etc spent a considerable amount of time simply not listening or choosing to do... nothing. I feel like a flagged host instead of an awesome host. I'm reeling

I didn't involve Airbnb customer service in the process of offering the discounted stay. The first stay was cancelled and the fee after cancellation went to me and that was that. I didn't do anything else at that point. When the lovely guest booked again later, I tried the on-site discounted stay option as I didn't want to take more money from her - the money I had already received was equivalent to the next stay. No siren went off saying, if you do that, you life is going to be a misery! It literally was a gesture of goodwill. And the guest wrote me a great review. Which to be blunt, I worked pretty hard for. I wrote a great review back. I certainly didn't deserve what happened next (ie being accused of violating review policy).    

Anyways. Thanks again for listening.

[Lorina14 · Accepted solution]

@Jacqueline1502 
I truly am sorry about your experience as it was a goodwill gesture and Airbnb can see the entire history of your interaction with the guest on the platform through the messages. This was not a “paid for” review or a way to get a good review.

My comment about involving Airbnb is just to err on involving them to prevent potential issues like this from arising. And who would have thought they would penalize you for this, even after speaking with a human rep (or were they a human rep? I’ve heard that AI can be very convincing). I have brought in customer service when I could have done something on my own as I erred on being cautious. Better to be safe than sorry as my mom used to say… 

I hope they will see the truth of your offer as a good host who wanted to promote a good experience for a guest who had unforeseen circumstances. I have in the past waived refunded a stay as a courtesy as it’s better to have a happy potential return guest than a very unhappy guest who could have potentially left a bad review. I did have one guest who didn’t communicate with me, didn’t show up, and I got paid for her stay (which felt weird) but I didn’t know what happened and it wa too late to get another booking. She didn’t review me nor I her as she didn’t show up but Airbnb prompted us to review each other. 

I hope the community managers are able to have another set of eyes on the appropriate team take a look at your situation. 

[Jacqueline1502]

Thanks so much again for your time and response @Lorina14 !   It means the world. 

And also, excellent advice.

😊Jacqui

[Shelley159]

@Jacqueline1502 this is unfortunate and will probably be a battle, but I'm sure it will be fixed in the end. 

You probably don't feel that way right now😀, but it's good to see there's a solid detection system in place to catch solicited reviews - fake reviews can really mess up the system.

Thanks for posting and hope your original review is back soon! Let us know.

[Jacqueline1502]

Hi again @Shelley159 and @Lorina14 ,

Yes... it was indeed a battle, but actually was fixed in the end!    Just like that, there was a ping in the middle of the night and a message saying, all is well. So relieved. Don't know exactly how and why but all good.

The best thing about the situation was discovering this forum!

Thank you both again for your time and help.

[Lorina14]

@Jacqueline1502 

Im so happy it finally got all worked out! Yay! With all the negative about Airbnb CS and things being continually denied (automatically because of AI and keywords, etc), it is great to celebrate the times they correct the errors and do the right thing.

I recently got flagged and sent an automated message from the trust and safety team as they thought I would trying to take someone off platform. It was another host asking me for insight and I referred them to the Airbnb community center and asked them to DM me and gave them my @screenname. Well that flagged me and they said if I am caught in violation I would get deplatformed. Uh did you look at my text and the chat? I was referring them to your platform for the appropriate support. I called CS and made sure that this would not count against me and that the AI would be trained better. I responded to the email but it was **** so probably went nowhere.

Ah the growing pains of new systems and AI support…

Again, very happy to hear about your happy ending!