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I am making a logical point. If Airbnb takes whatever any guest says at face value, not bothering to investigate, then what advice does @TheInsider for hosts, to protect themselves from losing their livelihood over any random accusation by some randomly upset guest? Is there anything that a host can do to protect themselves – such as declaring they have surveillance cameras, when they dont’ – just so they are protected in case guest tells a lie – or declaring they have a gun, when they don’t – for similar protection. Is it better to lie and say they have certain things at their house that they dont’ have, just to reduce the risk of the fallout from lies of a disgruntled guest?
I mean, if there is no way for a host to protect themselves from a false accusation, then I’d like to see someone from Airbnb such as @TheInsider just come out and say that .
And if and when that is said I hope the media are listening. The Judge in @PuppyLover case certainly was upset. Maybe someone would call the judge’s response to this case in the courtroom, a “rant.”
ALL I can say to this is documentation, documentation, pictures, pictures, pictures, and accuracy in describing your listing from time of reservation being confirmed to time of check-out. Having protection for the host, starts with the host. Follow all procedures, document everything, and Airbnb will have your back in situations that arise during a reservation even if it is a PITA for the host.
My motivation here is to help the host, educate the host, and show the host support during every possible situation that may come up as long as they listen to my advice.
How though can a host have pictures of what is NOT there? I can understand having photos of what is there…eg…the bed is a single, not a double…the table is oak, not plastic…but how can you show photos that prove you did NOT have a gun if the guest said you did? That is not a documentable or photo-verifiable issue.
Also…@puppylover sent photos to Airbnb after the guest complained of a gun, stating and demonstrating that the “gun” was a rubber toy. I dont’ know, maybe she also sent Airbnb a video of the “gun” showing that she could bend it in half…as it was rubber…Airbnb terminated her account anyway. How could documentation have helped here? What could @puppylover have done to prevent being terminated over a false report? Does Airbnb realize they didn’t manage this correctly, is there any desire on their part to not make similar mistakes going forward?
If I were to take this advice, and photograph everything before each guest arrives I would think I could do a 2 minute video walk through where I already have the cabinets open to show contents I would start the video with a shot of my apple watch showing the date and time.
I’m going to move my reply over to the original thread @FunWithJim so the Mods will have a “clean” thread here with just specific for @TheInsider vs. global observations.
Thank you so much for answering my question, and I see your point. Why didnʻt the other agents simply say that? Itʻs the first time I understand why my point was not taken into consideration. So thank you.
Based on the reply given by @TheInsider in post #99, i don’t think that would occur! After our back & forth, I definitely more confident in my prior opinion that Airbnb itself has yet to fully address the issues from this complex law and thus a CSR at that or any level doesn’t have the potential answers to questions and that’s NOT their fault or responsibility which is perfectly ok with me. I’m mostly upset with the MA Legislature for creating a 24+ pg convoluted tax law that varies not only by town/city but even with a given city based on host location(s).
I’ve had a couple of recent flaky guests leave poor reviews on a fairly new listing and have been sent the do better email. I’m not worried as my ratings will rise again but wondering what is the rating cut off for pausing and delisting your place if you know.
Their original business model wasn’t shit, but the current business model certainly is shit, and getting shittier every day. If they keep it up, another disrupter will take all their business away by actually providing a service to hosts.
There was a fascinating post by @Barry_Brachfeld the other day. He had been unjustly suspended for unknown (according to him) reasons and ignored when trying to discover why or to be reinstated. Then one day he discovered his account was active again and he could start hosting again. His experience, and if I remember correctly he is not in the US, is that Airbnb is king in the space. What was shit was his business when Airbnb de-listed him. Now he said that if the Airbnb guest wants to knock a hold in the wall, he will give them a hammer. That’s how much power they have.
I suspect the home share model Air started with was not really profitable but we’ll probably never know.
Whoever thinks investigations don’t happen when a guest claims this about a host or a host says a guest stole X from me is just wrong and not informed correctly. I come to rent your listing and you have a hunting rifle mounted on wall that wasn’t disclosed on listing, the burden of proof of claim falls on the guest to prove the host has said hunting rifle. Claims are a two-way street and both parties typically have a chance to respond unless it’s an extremely urgent matter and the guest or host shows rock solid proof of what’s going on.
Airbnb can, will, and does drop hosts and guests every day for many reasons BUT this is a microscopic percentage of all users. Don’t stress this side of things too much. When I say documentation is your best friend, I mean overall in host protection of your listings assets. When I mention making your listing ad and house rules air tight, it’s for your protection etc etc etc
Honestly, lack of training or a simple need for the agent to finish your call and move to the next because this is one topic they can’t do much about so some agents don’t take the time to fully explain things.
If you’ve already received the do better email, imo you need to make corrective action based on guest review complaints regardless of if you’re in the wrong or not. I honestly don’t know the cutoff or timeline so I won’t mislead you. I do know if you’re deactivated it’s usually for 14-30 days for the first time.
Both models in the past and current are highly profitable or alot of people wouldn’t have jobs and the site would be done. Millions of reservations take place each day with less than 6% of those having any sort of issue that requires a csr mediation. It sounds like that host was deactivated for a period of time for either guest reviews, host standards violation (s), unresponsive to guests or support, etc but it was first offense (after warning emails) which is why he was ultimately turned back to active. I’m just assuming here as I don’t have, nor do I want, account details.
Yep! There is not a single agent, case manager, supervisor, etc that will give tax advice. There is just too much liability in that area. All we can officially say is “here’s the help center article, contact your local tax person for any other advice needed.” This is completely out of my realm which is why I’ve avoided the topic I detail, not to blow off a host on here, I just refuse to mislead anyone nor will I give tax advice.
