Airbnb Insider here to help you all!

Oh no. We have all had multiple no stay, yes review situations. Airbnb policy is that if the reservation is cancelled same day it was to begin both parties can review. I had one come in yesterday.

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HT was originally designed to be incorporated with Airbnbs platform. The recent purchasing of them just means the owners/designers hit their original goal and now have a nice piggy bank. There won’t be a noticeable difference for any agent, host, or guest. Air has always used HT on the back end of things for hotel rebooking when a reso on air goes wrong for some reason.

PS
Metrics are the same here and demand alot from agents but our stress level is "hey a guest just committed suicide in my listing compared to HT stress is my app is frozen or I’m locked out or the hotel overbooked. Much different but same call center stress. I wish we had stress or anxiety leave of absence lol we don’t even have holidays off work.

We worked all holidays too - not a lot of fun when you work every Xmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, etc. Yes I used to take a lot of calls from your agents. I was with HT 4 years until I said enough is enough. Employees utilized FMLA for their leaves for stress/anxiety. HT basically gives the hotels the go ahead to overbook - it was repetitive walks and then screaming guests. HT Market Mgrs would often simply add hotel inventory to the platform without the hotel’s permission to do so -then screaming front desk staff and who could blame them. HT outsources to TaskUs in Tijuana and they were barely warm bodies and completely untrained.

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@TheInsider, Hello, and I hope you can assist us.
Since Nov 15th 2018 , we have been going back and forth with 3 Case managers.

After 2 of a 7 nights booking, our guest claimed that they were bitten by beg bugs and demanded a full refund. We immediately inspected and photographed the apartment and found no evidence of any bugs in the apartment. The guest submitted their photos allegedly supporting their claim and checked out. We disputed the guest photos drawing to the fact that the images were not of our property. None of the photos proved the presence of any bed bugs. In January the Case manager Ironically called “Faith” told us to obtain a professional inspection confirming we had no Bed Bugs. At first she accepted the certificate but arbitrarily decided we had “Vermin”. Faith stated that the claim was verified and we were deducted $956.60. We argued this as baseless and further illustrated the false images provided by the guest. In February she asked for a rescan of the certificate. In March Faith wrote back ignoring the contested images and dismissed the certificate citing that too much time had passed. Case Closed.

There simply were no bed bugs or “vermin”!.. and we did everything ABB asked us to do. It’s a ridiculous situation, having to deal with Case Managers who ignores the facts presented, makes their own and unsupported assessments without any evidence. I asked for another case manager to review the claim, but that was denied. I am considering legal action as I have no other recourse channel to pursue.

What can Air really do if a guest refuses to leave at the checkout time?

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Please find and read Puppy Lover’s recent thread here on suing Airbnb and a guest in small claims court.

Thank you for giving us your time on this AMA and returning for day two!

Do 6% of hosts call AirBnB per total ongoing reservations any given day, or 6% call ever, per account history?

My other question is: will AirBnB payout hosts if a guest’s credit card was declined?

I received this email when a new guest booked two weeks ago:

This email was alarming because it states that if a guest’s payment is declined, we are out the money. Since I accept same-day reservations, I worry I’ll find out the next day I won’t be paid for the guest who just stayed.

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Nothing. Lmao. Sorry but that’s the answer. Trust and safety will only take the case after 36 hours, they’ll determine the guest isn’t leaving, kick it back to a trip cm and a cm will tell you that you can do whatever you want/feel is needed to remove guest.

Those are the worst calls for me because I literally can’t do anything for the host.

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It’s just a formality, don’t worry. Guest payments declined, host gets notified, guest gets to reattempt payment and if it continues to fail, the reso will be cancelled, no payout, calendar opened again for replacement booking etc

Also 6% is a general number for assistance calls we get from the entire community as a whole based on number of reservations daily; not as a reference to any host or guest in particular.

I’ll respond to this one later this evening when I have more time.

Hello Insider and thank you bigly and muchly!!
I suggest you may want to ration your time on this site, for example “I will review your questions once a week on Monday evening and post a response to questions not previously asked and answered,” otherwise the probability is that we will, innocently and without ill intent, burn you out with our endless stream of inquiries.

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Thank you so much for patiently answering our questions!

Here’s one: Is there anything a host can do if a guest smokes in their listing?

Hotels often have a $200 charge for smoking in a non-smoking room. I’ve heard that even if a host stipulates a charge in their house rules, that Airbnb won’t allow them to claim because it isn’t “damage”. If the next guests are bothered by the smell, does their cancellation or request for discount count as damage I can charge to the jerk who smoked in my home? I understand that it’s hard to document a smell, but surely hosts should be able to do something?

Is there anything a host can state in their listing or rules to deal with this?

I find it interesting that you say a host can be deactivated based on guest reviews. I don’t think it was even a month ago that myself and other Local Host started chatting about a horrific couple that was going around our area destroying Suites and guest spaces. Each have left bad reviews but the guests are still active. The CSR I spoke to shed that unless a host calls into specifically talk about a guest that the reviews really are not noticed by Airbnb. So does that mean that only the guest reviews of hosts are even somewhat monitored? Both of the people I am speaking of both still have their profiles active.

Please note that i don’t feel/believe that I was asking for “tax advice” but rather:
If, when and how Airbnb will be meeting and complying with their required duties and responsibilities (as i understand them) as defined in the new MA STR tax law. That’s something that a local tax person will have absolutely NO information about as it’s the internal processes, procedures and technology within Airbnb itself that are involved.

I actually love what I do for my career and helping others on here. Just feel free to “love” the responses since I can’t add a GoFundMe button to each response LOL. “Ask an expert your question here instead of on hold for an agent for an hour all for $1!” Hahahaha I wish.

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Not much you can do with smoking, honestly. Open a Resolution Center claim and hope the guest owns up to it and pays. The most a CSR will do is send you up to a $150 reimbursement to pay for the cig smoke fog treatment most professional cleaners will do for you. Good luck if you have upcoming reservations as well because if you’re a good host (not saying you’re not) you’ll want to call in to support and have an agent CBA (cancel by admin) because the listing is unavailable to no fault of your own. Yes, it will piss off upcoming guest, no they can’t review you based on that, yes that one cigarette will end up costing you money, but it’s better you proactively cxl the reso instead of the new guest calling in and you getting a CBH for not following hosting standards. Just my two cents on this subject. I hate that we can’t force payment on guests or I’d be clicking that button all damn day with the host call-ins I get about this issue and similar issues.

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All i know is to “consult local tax person” or “here is the help center article” when a host calls in asking these type of questions. Too much liability giving tax advice, or having the mere conversation, that Air has not trained any agent to handle those calls.

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NO review is actively monitored. It only becomes an “issue” when it is brought up to a csr and we notice a pattern of sorts.

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@TheInsider My question is about surveillance devices.

I have one unit that is in a secured building. The building also has a security guard on staff 24x7, and also usually has a front desk person during normal business hours. My guests have full access to all building amenities, including the parking garage, pool, hot tub, etc.

I have no surveillance devices in my unit, but I assume there are surveillance devices in the parking garage, around the pool area, in the building entry area, hallways, stairways, etc. I do not know if an active recording is taking place. I do not know where all of the surveillance devices are located, or really anything about them, other than I have been told that they exist.

Do I disclose this in my rules?
How would I go about doing that?

Thanks for your input!