Cannot contact upcoming guest as his account is "temporarily unavailable"

Many thanks for the responses. I’ll wait it out until tomorrow and see what happens. I’m still wondering why they allowed someone to book when there’s a problem with verifying the account. Surely that’s back to front??
I’ve had cases before with payment issues from guests but I’ve never been unable to access their profile or message thread.

If it was a confirmed booking, I think SM is right.
Good riddance.

Update: I called Air and they’ve cancelled the reservation. They couldn’t give me details about the issue over his account, understandably, but apparently if the guest can sort out the issue in time he can re-book with me.

So… I don’t know, it’s all very unsatisfactory really. From memory this was a first-time user and will no doubt think to hell with it, I’m going to book a hotel and never ever use Airbnb again. And I’m out on the ££ because I won’t get a last-minute booking - it’s not the season for it.

On the other hand, maybe there really is a trust & safety issue and I’ve been saved. Plus they were a middle-aged French couple on holiday so the review would have been crap :wink:

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This is what pisses me off, it’s not just ensuring the problem guest cancels, but all the lost business because of such a snafu.

Every cloud has a ligne d’argent! :slight_smile:

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And another update: received a text from the cancelled guests informing me of their arrival time tomorrow. Sigh. Shoot me but I’m just going to take cash off them. Need the money and don’t need the hassle of dealing with Airbnb.
They’re just a couple on holiday who probably screwed up entering their credit card details or something. What’s the worst that could happen? I’m on-site with plenty of back-up if necessary. It’ll be fine. And no review, yay!

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As long as you tell the guests they had better have cash payment on hand because their cc didn’t clear, I say go for it. (Just don’t give my right name.) :smile:

What’s the worst that could happen?

I’d hate to think it - but hopefully all will be fine!

And a further update: they arrived and are a really nice couple. They paid immediately. They hardly speak any English so the whole conversation was in French and I may have missed some details. But essentially, I understood that they have been on a touring holiday and stayed at two Airbnbs with no problem. Then they tried to amend a booking and everything went wrong. Air contacted them and said there was a problem with their payment method and, according to them, asked for their “personal secret code” to their bank account. They were unwilling to give this information. They waited two days for Air to find a French-speaker to contact them. By the time this happened, all their subsequent bookings had already been cancelled. They spent hours at a tourist office in a very remote place trying to find alternative accommodation. They were not informed that their booking with me was cancelled. They’re very grateful to have a place to stay for the final two nights of their holiday.
I don’t know what to make of it. It seems to be a case of mis-communication and misunderstanding on both sides. However, I do think it’s extreme to just cancel all of a guest’s bookings during their holiday over a banking issue. One thing I do know for sure - they said they will NEVER use Airbnb again.

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Wow! Glad it worked out and glad you took them in after all!

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Well, to me it seems that maybe they weren’t supposed to use Airbnb in the first place. I know that in older generation it it quite common not to speak English or any other foreign language, but if this is so, I’m not sure I would dare to use a platform like Airbnb, at least not on my own. My parents are similar in this respect (although my dad does speak English and Italian, and can get by with basic German), so I usually book a place for them as I’m better accustomed to using platforms such as Airbnb and Booking. I had non-English speaking couples several times and every single time it turned out that they made some sort of mistake in the booking process. :smiley: Once they thought that my village is a part of a larger city that is about 5 km away, because they didn’t know how to use the map on Airbnb search. Sometimes they thought it was a hotel, or they even thought they had to pay upon arrival, not realizing that the money was already withdrawn from their card. It all turned out well, but I saw a huge potential for miscommunication. If there were any troubles, I’m not sure how they would’ve solved it.

Actually they are pretty savvy travellers and clearly used to homestays. Perfect guests, actually! I don’t think a knowledge of English should be a requirement to using Airbnb. It’s an international company, after all, and taking two whole days to find a French speaker to contact them is unacceptable in my opinion. It’s a shame they can’t leave a review - I might have got my first 5* from French guests!!

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You’re totally right, I really don’t know how they managed not to find a French speaker for such a long time. I mean, at least French is a world language and quite a few people speak it. I was more speaking in general terms, when it comes to understanding the language of terms and conditions and very technical language sometimes used on the platform. I didn’t want to imply that it is their fault that the platform is not sufficiently equipped for serving non-English speakers, but I was rather stating that it simply is so. But ok, I’m speaking from a position of a person whose native language is usually not accommodated on any sort of platform, because it is too small in global terms, so I’m prepared to such stuff. :smiley: Also, I’m very deep into this whole Airbnb thing as a host so to me it seems like I’m finding out new things about the platform on daily basis.

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I’m intrigued! Basque? Macedonian? Welsh?
I think they have a put a lot of effort into the Chinese and S Korean platform because they are major travellers now and a big market. However, it still feels very much like an American company with little to no comprehension of other cultures and languages despite the whole ‘belong anywhere’ tag.

Croatian. :wink: They added it to the platform recently, but I find it difficult to use, the language is awkward and ambiguous; I prefer English instead.

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Aah Croatia, beautiful country that is top of my list to visit next. It’s interesting what you say about the Croatian version being awkward and ambiguous. There is absolutely no excuse for that. It’s annoying (understatement) to me this imperialist attitude :frowning:

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I have to ask, given your positive outcome with their stay; any regrets about the above comment? I’ve had a few French middle-aged couples (and less than) over the summer, all delightful, who have given me splendid reviews, both verbal and stars. On reflection, I can’t generalise on any nationality giving crap reviews; it’s too simplistic to do so.

So glad it did work out very well.

I don’t think there’s any correlation between speaking English and using a worldwide platform such as Airbnb. Airbnb provides their platform in a whole variety of languages, there is no need to know in English in using the platform itself.

This could equally happen to English-speakers as well. I imagine in each case, they’re using their own language version of Airbnb, especially if it’s a widely spoken language.


:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: is that Croatian sense of humour :wink:

I don’t think there’s any problem until these folks actually run into a problem. Then it is obviously a problem to even get a customer support agent who speaks some other language. Even as widely spoken as French.

I wasn’t implying it is their problem, but to me it seems rather obvious that it is much harder to negotiate and win the case with Airbnb in the case you don’t have a good command in English. Same goes for hosts who do not speak English.

As you know, Airbnb is very nitpicky about what was stated in written communication, and very persistant to flip you off with your request immediately if they can. I can barely keep up with this whole process of going back and forth with the agents, let alone a person to whom English presents a difficulty. Many times on this orum we had an opportunity to read how hosts who couldn’t communicate with support propmtly lost their cases even if there were completely right. I think these people are also less likely to escalate the case if there are any prpblems. This is a failure on the side of Airbnb. I still admire the courage. I’m not sure I would dare dealing with Airbnb without speaking English, Even more so as a host than a guest.

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All good points @Inna. When Airbnb presents its website in multiple languages and operates on a global basis, not having customer support in all those languages is a shame, and reflects badly on Airbnb.

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Normally I would agree with you but the subject of French leaving low ratings has been discussed on here several times (hence the :wink: !).
I should have been more explicit and said low star ratings rather than crappy reviews, in hindsight. The reality is that I’ve hosted over 60 sets of French guests and around 70% of them leave 4* or less. The actual written reviews are no worse or better than anyone else’s but that percentage of 4* ratings is way above the norm. I’m a superhost at the moment so it is definitely a significant pattern with French guests. I don’t have a problem with it, it’s just an observation.

See here for one of the discussions: