Hi Bhumika,
Many thanks for your response and reaching out.
My post refers to a recent booking and incident with a terrible guest that has been extremely distressing for my family and I, and I feel that Airbnb support managed the issue in a very poor way indeed.
Without explaining the whole story to you from scratch again, herewith the essence of the matter:
Guest initially books for 6 months;
Guest then extends for an additional 2 years-this after only 1 day after check-in;
3 weeks later guest complains of insect bites;
I investage, try everything in my power to assist the guest, find no insect infestation;
Airbnb investigates, finds no insect infestation, finds no fault or liability on me;
Guest cancels reservation, demands a refund;
Airbnb support state no refund is due and i am not liable, I also decline the refund as per my strict cancellation policy and in lieu of the undue stress and duress the guest had put me under;
Guest then refuses to vacate, trespasses;
I need to call my armed response security company and the police to evict her;
Guest eventually vacates and steals property of mine from the accommodations;
Guest then opens a false charge of common assault against me due to retaliation and out of spite;
Guest leaves a terrible and untrue review;
Guest contacts Airbnb specialist Safety Department with complaint of assault;
Guest contacts Airbnb Aircover Host Liability Insurance and lodges a claim with them.
So I am happy and thankful that Airbnb support ruled in favour of me and that no liability or fault on my part was found regarding the allegation of an insect infestation. Likewise I am happy they also ruled that no refund is due to the guest.
The specialist Safety support team also investigated the guests allegation of assault and cleared me, they had suspended my listings and blocked my calendar but then cleared this and re-instated my listings and opened my calendars for new bookings accordingly.
This I am also thankful for.
What I am unhappy about is:
From the very start of this issue, the guest was able to open multiple cases and chat threads with numerous support agents for exactly the same complaint.
As soon as I would deal with the matter with support and they would close it as resolved, the guest would then contact another support agent. I would then be contacted once more by support and I would once more have to explain and provide evidence from the start all over again.
This went on and on as the guest was somehow able to open many cases over and over again with different agents, all relating to exactly the same issue.
This complicated matters, this delayed a final resolution, this caused me hours and hours of frustration and emotional distress. The issue was also escalated each time to some or other specialist department and this delayed things even more as they would first need to investigate.
Why was the guest able to open numerous cases with numerous support agents?
Why was the guest able to open a case of alleged assault against me with the specialist safety department, this after she had canceled her reservation, was in fact trespassing by refusing to vacate, and as such was no longer a guest with no current booking?
In lieu of Airbnb ruling and finding in my favour over everything, why is the guest still allowed to lodge a claim with Airbnb Aircover Host Liability Insurance?
Surely on the computer system that the support agents use, they can see or pick up on previous chat threads or a case reference number and resolution outcome when dealing with the guest each time she lodges the same complaint over and over again?
Does the system not support this, or are the agents perhaps negligent by not checking this when they should be?
The guest also left a terrible review that is simply not true and based purely on retaliation and spite because she did not get a refund. I have been unable to remove the review and have even asked for the matter to be escalated with no luck.
This is totally unfair and it damages my credibility and overall business reputation.
How the review team can decline the removal of the review is beyond me, all they need to do is review the history if this matter and it should be very easy for anyone to see that the guests review is simply not true and ased on retaliation.
Furthermore I have now lost my Superhost status, something I have always been very proud of, due to this review.
It would seem that your support agents are based all over the world, I can tell this by their accents and that also implies English is in many cases not their first language. It is often difficult to understand what they are saying and likewise it is often difficult for them to fully understand what I am saying.
Why can one support agent not deal with the same case from start to finish?
Multiple agents are often involved, especially in the specialist departments. This again causes confusion and diminishes overall continuity.
I feel a lot of unnecessary distress and frustration could have been avoided in this matter if it had been handled in a better and more efficient manner by support from the onset, or if Airbnb had better internal systems in place.
I am still dealing with the aftermath of this terrible experience, the investigation by Host Liability Insurance is ongoing, and I am still struggling to get the review removed.
