Opting out of "Services"

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Just a note to hosts who don’t fancy the idea of your guests being able to contract “Services”, like chefs, spa treatments, photographers, etc., which Airbnb is now offering in some areas, which amounts to extra people in your rental, who you don’t know. Those people are going to be using your utilities, towels, parking, etc. and if they get massage oil all over your furniture, or damage something, make a mess, or steal something, Airbnb has not offered to cover that, as far as anything I’ve read.

Furthermore, these service providers are not paying you anything to ply their trade in your venue, unlike a film crew that contacts you wanting to film in your listing, that gets charged way more than a standard accomodation rental.

And do these service providers carry their own insurance, is the host given their information if a guest orders a service? Is the host advised of when these people will be at your rental? I’ve read nothing to indicate that this is the case.

To find out if services are offered in your area, enter the name of your town and click on Services.

You have to contact Airbnb to opt out. It’s super easy, I just did it. I messaged them, got an immediate reply, a CS rep asked which services I wanted to opt out of, or all. I said all, she said it was done- guests would not see any option to book services on my listing. The whole thing took about 3 minutes. No questions asked.

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FYI, as soon as you opt out of “Services”, Airbnb automatically adds “No in-home services allowed” to your list of House Rules.

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Can you be a little more specific and provide a link or an actual location where to find this? Where do I enter the name of my town for instance? Thank you.

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I just entered the name of my town in the search bar, as if I were a guest looking to book here. Didn’t put in dates or number of guests or anything else. And I did it while logged into my account, although I’m sure you could do it incognito as well. Then clicked on “Services” at the top of the page.

When I did that, 2 “services” were shown- both of them for chef services.

Of course, just because no services come up for a host’s location just means no one has listed a service there yet, not that there won’t be any in the future.

I think you can tell Airbnb you want to opt of of allowing services regardless of whether you find any listed in your area yet.

And I did read in the Airbnb info on Services that they say they vet service providers, and that they have to carry insurance. Also that anything untoward done by them is covered under AirCover. Which we all know is not something to rely on.

“The chef my guests contracted with walked off with a bunch of my kitchen gear.”

“You need to provide receipts for all the kitchen gear and photographic evidence that it isn’t there.”

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I have just written explicitly in my own house rules that no third party services are permitted on the premises. Ahead of any opt out options appearing.

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I’ll try that. FYI, my area has services for 33 photographers alone! This is horrible.

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One more question, how do I message them?

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Go to Help in your acct. and then “Contact Us”. You’ll be given the option of them calling you or you sending a message. I prefer messaging with CS, as they can call you in the middle of the night, and then close the case because you didn’t answer.

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As far as I am aware, you won’t see any “options” to opt out. You have to message or call Airbnb to opt out.

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Done and done!

202020202

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I think you must have got more efficient CS operatives than me. My simple request for both my listings to opt out of the new services provision came back first with an automated response explaining how I could delist my listing if I no longer wanted to use Airbnb services (!) followed by a human response asking why I wanted to opt out. I explained the reasons. The final response thanked me for setting it all out so clearly and went on to say that my concerns would be ‘escalated’, but they couldn’t say how long that would take and so would close the case in the meantime.

I have no idea what that means. Or whether an opt out has even been applied. I guess I will just have to stick with it specified my house rules for now.

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Well, sorry to hear that- it does seem to be luck of the draw as far as how different CS reps respond.

FYI, my first message to CS was, in fact, answered by their AI bot- this is how it went:

“Hi Sarah, thanks for being a Superhost! I’m an AI assistant who can get you help quickly. I might not always get things right, so if you want to talk to a person instead, just ask.
What’s going on?”

Me: “I am contacting you to opt out of Services being available to guests when booking my listing.”

“If you’d like to prevent certain services from being offered at your listing, you’ll need to update your house rules. Since this requires assistance, I can connect you with a member of our team who can help you make those changes. Would you like me to do that?”

Me: “Yes.”

“Choose how you’d like to connect with us.”

(Options for them to call me or message- I chose message)

“Got it. I’m transferring this conversation to a member of our team who will respond within 24 hours. Feel free to add more details while you wait.”

Then, within a couple minutes, I got a human CS rep who asked which services I wanted to opt out of or all of them, who dealt with it.

When messaging CS, hosts need to remember that they use algorithms, AI, and key words. I don’t know how you worded your request @Lizardsinthekitchen, but you are more likely to get on point responses if you keep it simple. Like: “Services Opt-out”, rather than a paragraph explaining what you want, which can confuse their bots.

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