Interaction with a CS rep who wasn't a clueless robot!

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So I had a guest who was supposed to check in today, but who hadn’t responded to the Airbnb message I sent days ago with transportation info, how to coordinate with me for bus station pick-up, asking her ETA, etc. She also didn’t respond to a follow-up whatsapp msg. or an SMS text.
It’s more or less impossible for guests to find my house without this coordination, so I was getting stressed, wondering if she’d even show up, not wanting to have to clean and prep the room if she wasn’t.

So I sent a message to CS yesterday aft. indicating that the guest was non-responsive to all those forms of communication, that maybe her notifications weren’t turned on, and the phone number on her account wasn’t correct, asking if Airbnb could try to reach her.

I got a call 15 minutes later that my phone blocked as spam. Then I right away got an Airbnb message from CS that didn’t contain any of the usual paragraphs of platitudes- the rep said she’d just tried to call me, and then went on to say she was also unable to get a response from the guest and if I wanted to cancel the booking I could do so penalty free since the guest was incommunicado.

I replied that I didn’t want to cancel- it was too late for me to get a replacement booking for the 3 nights anyway and I would just have to assume she’d show up or make contact when she realized she wouldn’t be able to find my house without contacting me, and that I also expected to be paid according to my moderate policy if she didn’t show up.

I also said I saw the call that my phone had blocked because it was routed through an 844 number- known for being used by scammers and that there were warnings online about not answering 844 calls.

Within a few minutes, my phone rang again, this time from a different number. It was the CS rep, saying that if I used that number, which is for Mexico CS in the future, the calls shoukd go through. I asked her if she was in Mexico, she said, no, the US (amazing- not the call center in the Phillipines or India!)

We then talked about the booking, she said she totally understood about me not wanting to cancel, so I would still be paid if the guest didn’t show up.

I also said that since I had her on the phone, maybe she could help me with something else? That I keep getting notifications to enter my Canadian taxpayer info, even though I live in Mexico, my listing is in Mexico, and the taxes are paid to the Mexican tax dept. I told her I had asked before, was told it was because of my payout method to my Canadian bank, so I had changed the payouts to my Mexican bank, but was still receiving those notifications.
She seemed to know exactly what the issue was without any hesitation- she said I needed to change my listing currency from Can. dollars to Mexican pesos and those notifications would stop.

I thanked her for being such a knowledgable and helpful CS rep, saying it was actually unusual, that having to engage in 10 back and forth messages before a rep even understood an issue, was common. She said “I know” (:laughing:) and we wrapped up the conversation.

5 minutes later I finally got a response from the guest, saying she’d had a dental emergency which caused a bad sinus infection and that she wasn’t coming.

Atthe same time, I got another message from the CS rep, where she said she had tried again, was finally able to reach the guest, who should be contacting me soon. She also included that Mexican Airbnb number for me to use if calling CS and said she would pass along the info that phones may block that 3rd party 844 number as spam.

I’ve gotten some decent Airbnb reps over the years, although most interactions are fraught with misunderstanding and platitudes and non-help and closing the case, but this rep was by far the best I’ve encountered. Just thought I’d give a shout-out to her, and let other hosts know that it is possible to luck out and get a great CS rep. I suspect she picked up the communication because it was for a booking with imminent check-in. Maybe they assign better reps to those.

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I had help once or maybe twice from a CS rep in a similar to your situation, i.e. closing in on check-in time, and guest not responding to any messages or private texts. So I called CS. They sad yes, I would be paid regardless, and would contact guest. Within a 1/2 hour guest replied to my inquiries saying she was in fact coming, so I hustled to get Tiny Tiki ready quickly.
I agree that writing CS in a message usually has better results and a call from them, or a choice to answer the call or keep communications in writing.

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What’s that expression? “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut!” It’s sad that most of our dealings with Airbnb are fraught with misinformation, & usually end in our having to make numerous calls in order to find a rep who is familiar w/ Air’s TOS. Congratulations, Muddy! :+1:t2::boom:

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I am finding myself learning so much about the Airbnb platform. Please don’t boot me, but I use Evolve as my management company. They do all the marketing and send my rental to Airbnb, HomeAway, Booking .com, VRBO, and other short-term rental platforms. They collect and pay all of my hotel taxes, do all of the communication, schedule bookings, they will schedule housekeeping if I want them to. They researched the area and priced my place accordingly. I have only been in the business for 18 months and have a full-time job elsewhere, so they have been essential in getting my rental off the ground. Their CS is very good and I have been pleased with them, but I always like to keep my options open to see if “the grass is greener on the other side…” I don’t have a lot of competition in my rural area, so it was hard to know how to price it and manage it.

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I’ve read a lot of bad things about Evolve and other big property management companies, both from the guest and host side, but I imagine it depends a lot on the area reps you are dealing with.

The main reason not to let a property manager list your property under their name is that if you come to a point where you are no longer pleased with their services, you lose all the reviews and have to start over with a new listing, because listings are not transferable. And some hosts have had managers who refuse to remove the listing from their account.

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All of the reviews are posted to the agency in which the guest booked, so not all of my reviews are with Evolve, some are with Airbnb and HomeAway as well as a few with VRBO. So, it depends on what platform they booked to where the reviews go. I would prefer to have them all on one place, but I don’t want to just be connected to just one platform either. So, this is the forum in which I am trying to find the best marketing and advice from experts. I appreciate all information provided.

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I have never rated a guest. I am not familiar with that process.

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I wasn’t referring to which platform reviews for your property appear on. But if your property is listed under a property manager’s account, rather than your own account, if you decide in the future you want to change property managers or manage the listing yourself, the listing will need to be started from scratch with no reviews or ratings- it will appear as a new listing with no history.

Reviews and ratings are tied to the listing host’s account, not to the property itself.
To make sure you retain all reviews and ratings, hosts need to list under their own account, making the property manager the co-host. But big property management companies seem to insist on maintaining full control of the listing, which is why many hosts do not use these companies.