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I called again to see if possibly a new rep. would be willing to help me. I know many of you have seen my posts of how I am not visible in searches that I should be showing up in.
There are way less than 300 rentals in my area, so I should appear in basic searches of my city with no filters applied.
I called 40 minutes ago and explained to the rep. that this issue has been going on for several months. Keep in mind that when you do a search for my city with no filters and leave the default as one guest…only about 24 listings appear. So I asked the rep. to not apply any filters, just to tell me why others in my area show, but I don’t appear anywhere…
Well…he supposedly selects the city and then asks if he can put me on hold while he searches for my place. I told him there are only 24 listings to scroll through. After he couldn’t find me, he asks to place me on hold while he speaks to the Engineering dept. He left me on hold for 30 minutes and never came back on the phone.
And no…I do not talk down angrily to reps. It’s just yet another crappy experience with them.
I feel your frustration. I had a really bad experience with Airbnb customer support this week which made me feel really stressed and uncomfortable, especially with all the people talking about being kicked off for no reason lately. It made me feel like I am at their whim and have no real control over my business ultimately (I know I know, diversify, I’ve tried, but I get 99% of business from Air). I tried talking to another rep to no avail as well. They just made me feel really unvalued and they treated me like I was in trouble for something that wasn’t my fault. It is really disappointing as I have had good experiences up til now, but this one kind of canceled out the rest.
I completely understand this! I called back and got a different rep. I get the feeling it was someone new to the company. After she could see for herself and confirmed my same findings, I asked if it would be best for me to create another listing. She said she thought that was a good idea but I did not have any confidence that somehow it would be discovered I have two listings for the same property…then someone would all of a sudden lock me out of both.
Hopefully I will get a different response this time around…since a few months have passed. The rep. confirmed that with no other filters selected (except guest count) - I miraculously appear when 4 guests are entered. I even recently reduced my base guest count from 6 to 4. I have no desire to fool around with “under 2 guests are free.” It’s too much trouble because the guest has already submitted a booking request that I cannot alter before accepting the request.
The rep. took screen shots to show the engineering dept. that I do not show. I asked her to please, please make other notes and she did. I explained to her that in the past all the other reps. would confirm things over the phone, but then someone would follow up saying I show up just fine. She was sure it was just because they didn’t fully understand my issue. That’s why I say she is likely new. She had a pleasant naivety about her…lol. But she did read back the notes I asked her to leave along with the screen shots.
Damn, that’s so frustrating. Honestly, though, these CS reps have no clout at all with the tech people (who does?). I spent a long time trying to explain some technical fault and got nowhere. I gave up in the end because it wasn’t worth it. But your situation is serious and needs attention. Have you tried contacting them online? I don’t mean twitter etc. but finding the online chat? That’s worked for me before and it saves a lot of time (and money) hanging on the phone.
I used it once. The transcript afterwards was not available, at least to me. The rep claimed it was, but didn’t explain how I could access it. So don’t use it if you want a permanent record.
It’s more efficient for me to have a phone call anyway. the call for me is free. Was just wondering if the reps. are the same level as the ones on the phone.
I’ve written about that particular exchange elsewhere. I can link to that post/thread if you want. It was the guy you booked for 10 days and that wrote to me that he had cancelled (but didn’t actually cancel) 5 days before the start of the reservation. That’s why I contacted Airbnb, to cancel his reservation.
Oh, and for the record, the guy was an ass. The first thing he asked me was whether I wanted to give a full refund. Then he said that the guest would have got a full refund if he’d actually cancelled when he said he cancelled. Yes, he said that. As far as “special powers” go, no idea, but I don’t see why they should.
i was only asking about the special powers thing because I couldn’t tell if Magwitch was suggesting that, or if she was just trying to save me a phone call.
I think the only difference is that you save the price of a phone call, and typically you get connected faster. I’ve used instant chat elsewhere, and my impression is that one person handles multiple chats. Which of course, isn’t possible with a phone call. And for that reason I get the impression that (at least some of the time) it is preferred over a phone call.
Their number is free for me to call. So sounds like it would take much longer than a regular phone conversation.
The guy who put me on a 30 minute hold did it because he didn’t want to deal with my situation. I bet he looked at the past notes and decided he wasn’t in the mood to deal with anything complicated. I did find it odd that I was able to be on hold that long without the line disconnecting. Surely he wasn’t just sitting there in his cublicle? I imagine Air times the calls, etc. at their call centers. And how would he receive any incoming calls with me on hold? Just weird…
Yes, the online chat would take much much longer than being able to speak over the phone.
The initial hold time is just two or three minutes. And the phone call is free. So it wouldn’t make any sense for me to do an online chat. I can type fast. But I can “speak” a conversation much faster than typing back and forth with someone.
I see. You’re saying you prefer the phone, because you don’t have to pay and connection time is fast.
Well, there are some advantages to working in text. Misunderstandings over what the other person has said are less likely. And you can look back over the transcript of the conversation while you are having it.
Just a follow up on my interaction with them. I reached out to one of the previous customer support people I had talked to. She called me from France and gave me a completely different answer and was much more willing to work with me than the one who was unwilling to help me and treated me like I was trying to get away with something. In trying to email the kind rep, I received an email back from someone at “Airbnb Premium Support” who had a COMPLETE change of tone - “oh thank you for being such a wonderful superhost, we will reach out to this guest and help them immediately, etc etc”. Whereas the first person I spoke with, no matter how much I pleaded and begged refused to help me.
So my advice is like others have said, continue to try different methods of contact until you find a sympathetic customer service rep who will take your issue seriously. Perhaps try sending a message to response@airbnb.com and write the issue out clearly and see if you can get someone else to talk to you.
I haven’t heard back anything from my rep. so far. Maybe I will hear something today.
I did go through at least 5 different reps and twitter with no help at all. Each time they would act like they were going to help but then they would send a reply confirming I could be found in searches. Then the next rep. reads the same thing and switches their story after they just saw with their own eyes that I don’t appear.
Hopefully since months have passed now, more people have reported the same issue and now maybe there is some easier fix. I think my issue is complicated because it’s nothing the front line can resolve. And it’s not that my listing has completely disappeared. It seems hosts who have had their listing completely disappear…have been able to get Air to resolve it.
