Got to love Airbnb Customer Service

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Some of you may remember that I posted a thread on the fact that a guest (or host) can pull their own review for any reason at any time. That was news to me.

Well, about a month ago I got a really bad review from a guest who complained about the gps getting him lost (but said that I gave perfect directions he just didn’t use them) and that since he only stayed one night, he couldn’t comment on the place so he gave me 3 stars (which generated a warning letter from Airbnb).

Anyway I tried to have it removed because the review wasn’t really about the place and was denied so I wrote to Airbnb requesting that they pull my 5 star review that I wrote for this guest. Well, Customer Service somehow read my request wrong and said that since the guest review wasn’t relevant, that they would remove the guest’s review.

So my rankings jump a percentage point from having that review removed.

Made me chuckle.

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That’s pretty funny.

A few weeks ago I freaked out thinking they had messed up my pricing, so sent a message to support, then realized the pricing I was seeing was in Mexican pesos, so wrote again, saying I figured it out, so they could ignore my original message.

The CS rep’s response was “I understand you are concerned about your listing not showing up?”

They seem to misunderstand an issue entirely more often than they get it right.

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About a year ago, I messaged CS asking why they show the taxes that guests are charged as one “Occupancy tax”, when in fact it is 16% VAT and 4% Occupancy tax, and that lumping them together makes it more difficult for me and my accountant to figure out.

The response was that I need to register my Mexican tax number so that I won’t have 20% income tax withheld. I messaged again, saying that my tax number has been registered with Airbnb for 2 years, that I am not having 20% income tax withheld, that my question is about how Airbnb displays the taxes charged to guests.

The CS rep wrote back that she would have to take this convo to email, as it was regarding my sensitive private tax info and again said I should register my tax number and sent me a link about that.

"NO! " I responded, “This is a general question about how Airbnb displays taxes, it has nothing to do with the taxes I am required to pay, my tax number registration, or any personal sensitive information! Read my original question!”

After several more clueless responses and 3 different reps, with my messages to them becoming increasingly all-caps shouting, I finally got a rep who understood the question. (Although of course there was no logical explanation for how they display the taxes, that’s “just how they do it”.

I screenshot the whole exchange, it was so ludicrous. When I finally asked the first rep, after her 3 clueless, unrelated-to-my-question responses if I was dealing with AI or a human, and said I was being quite serious, not sarcastic, she had the gall to tell me there was no reason to be rude. I told her that what was rude was her continuing to send me responses that had nothing to do with my question. At that point, she passed it on to the second rep, who also couldn’t understand my question.

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wow… great outcome for you. I believe they have designed CS to be frustrating to both hosts and guests so they both go away and solve problems on their own before bringing it to CS. Realistically though, it’s quite hard to train and retain a large CS organization - pay is low, you get calls from a lot of whiners who scream and throw tantrums.

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Such a well oiled machine… :weary:

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The CS representative did you a solid. They are allowed to remove reviews solely about the vicinity and exterior aspects like if it’s hard to park, etc.

And yes anyone can remove their own review, to be in accordance with Data protection laws everywhere.

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Did the guest never end up staying?

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He was scheduled for one night and stayed and had no complaints.

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??? That isn’t true at all. There are several reasons why a review can be removed, according to Airbnb policy. Irrelevant (the guest didn’t like the neighborhood, etc.) is only one reason. Also some hosts have managed to get reviews removed which are clearly retaliatory, like ones where the guest leaves a 1* rating and a written review full of lies, after being calked out for bad behavior, when the host has solid 5* reviews.