I had a technical glitch with one of my listings. I noticed it hadn’t snoozed the way it was supposed to, so I sent a message to Airbnb through their Twitter account. I got a message back right away, and then I got a call. For some reason, although I’m in the US, the rep who called me was in Portugal. She told me she could help me with the glitch, but that listing wasn’t a proper Airbnb listing anyway, so I shouldn’t use it. The listing is for space in our backyard for a tent, along with use of our public areas in and out of the house, the shared bathrooms and breakfast.
I told her I had already had conversations with reps from Airbnb who had told me not only that it was a proper listing but that it was creative, well represented and had good and accurate pictures. She told me it was her manager who told her it wasn’t a proper listing, so I asked to speak to her manager. She first told me the manager wasn’t there, and then she said she spoke with the manager again, and I was sadly mistaken about the propriety of that listing. She said any listing had to be an existing building with a roof, and I couldn’t call a tent a room. I said it was Airbnb that had told me to list it as a private room, as their only choices were private room, shared room or whole apartment/house. Then she said that of course a tent didn’t have a bathroom, so I couldn’t list it with a bathroom. I said the guests for that listing had full access to the house, including the bathrooms. When I saw I was getting nowhere with her, I asked what number I should call as a superhost, to speak to someone in the US. She gave me that number.
I called it, and a rep in the US looked at the listing and told me it was great, clear, had good pictures and described the offering perfectly. No problem. She suggested I also write that the guests would have access to the house, to the bathrooms and be able to have breakfast here. I suggested she read on, and she said she saw it, and it was clear and perfectly written. She then said she’d have her whole team look at it. The rep came back to the phone and said everyone was in agreement that the listing was clear, even just from the title of it. I asked why the rep from Portugal would say otherwise, and she said she thought maybe my listing hadn’t translated well to Portuguese.
After all was said and done, I got the following emails from them within minutes of one another:
Ivo C., Dec 16, 12:04 CST:
Hello again Elizabeth,
I’m sorry to bring you the bad news and to make you feel that I wasn’t letting you talk but I think we were with a delay on our call.
Unfortunately, I really want to help with your issue with your calendar but, as our Terms of Service said, I can’t publish that listing. I suggest you look this link, in order to understand better the typology accepted in our platform:
-> https://www.airbnb.com/terms
It’s very important for us to maintain a clear and trust communication between our user on our community.
Hope you understand.
Have a nice weekend,
Ivo C.
and,
Jeana, Dec 16, 12:19 CST:
Hello Elizabeth,
This is Jeana, your case manager here at Airbnb. I hope this message finds you well and in good spirits, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. As we discussed, the listing looks great! the description is accurate and the pictures show exactly what is being offered. I have snoozed the listing until the end of February and will be live starting March 1st, 2017, If you come across any other questions or concerns just let us know by replying directly to this email or contacting us by phone at +1-855-424-7262 or +1-415-800-5959.
Best wishes,
Jeana