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?
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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.
RR
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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.
See:
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Please donʻt scare The Insider off! 
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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 have my answer from my other post. I need to think about this.
Yep. There’s a reason my cousins call it Taxachusetts.
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Hey Insider
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.
Im so glad my RI state & town have it sorted to do the taxes for me.
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.
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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.
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I could be wrong but I’ve always been taught “no stay no review” and if somehow the invitation to review slips through cracks, a good and responsive agent should block reviews on both ends for you with one phone call (and possibly one transfer to the right Dept)
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If you look at the posts by Puppy Lover about suing in small claims court it has her side of the story about being suspended for a toy gun. I’d prefer not to have multiple threads on that story running and further disscussion should be moved to that thread. I appreciate puppy lover’s effort to keep things in their proper place.
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Hi Insider - what are your thoughts on HotelTonight joining Airbnb. I used to work for HT and it was a complete $*** show. So many of our agents went out on stress and anxiety leave and turnover was rampant with some agents just quitting mid-shift or even mid-call lol. They started outsourcing and metrics became unmanageable and unrealistic. Any of this true of Airbnb as well. You gave us an idea that we should also help guests trying to navigate HT’s unqualified CX agents. You are doing a great service.
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