“Some people seem to have an emotional relationship with Airbnb that I don’t have.”
In these parts they call that “good mental health.” Which I admire and should not argue the point as if I’m trying to tinker with your healthy emotional detachment.
You are right, people do get emotional, and yes they should go somewhere else rather than complain.
For some bizarre reason, no competitor has been able to touch Air, so, if you want the equivalent, there is LITERALLY no place else to go.
Tune into other blogs (or fb groups like Airbnb Automated, mostly offering good advice) and you’ll see people doing everything in their power to leave and ultimately resigning back to being over a barrel, having put their faith in Airbnb for something more critical than pin money. (Airbnb is “bending over backwards” to make guests happy still, so they still own the audience.)
But I disagree-luck has EVERYTHING to do with Airbnb’s handling of cases, conflicts, resolutions, and making good on their “host guarantee.” They are consistently answering hosts claims, in a calm friendly way with zero payouts, and the “reasons” are right out of Monty Python.
Of more concern, is that hosts who “make noise” and get angry in response, are simply being removed from the platform, with no notice or explanation, other than an email that says something like “We regret to inform you that we can no longer support you on the platform as a host or guest according to our community standards. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, which you agreed to, we are not obligated to explain any details surrounding our decision. At Airbnb we take these matters very seriously. Thank you for your cooperation in accepting that our decision is final and we consider this case permanently closed. Thank you for being part of the Airbnb Community.”
By the way, they use hyperlinks to direct you to any terms they reference, (i.e. “Privacy Policy”) But the letter you are receiving that is directing you to any information on the site, is explaining that you are hereby prohibited access to the site. So in addition to refusing to tell you who said what about you, they are pointing to what is actually public information, with link that is a stone wall.
At which point, all of your information, (including what you may need for tax purposes) vanishes (TOS: it’s their property) and there is no way for you to appeal or contact them unless you worm your way in through some sort of proxy, which will ultimately be met with the same firewall as anything coming from your known contact information/mechanisms.
Once dropped, any correspondence from you receives an automatic “Uh-oh, we seem to be having trouble. Someone will get right back to you as soon as possible!” You can literally pile up thousands of those messages over years and receive no response, like a button that’s just there “for show” but doesn’t do anything.
Through a personal mutual friend, I brought this to the attention of Senior Vice President for Global Policy and Communications, Chris Lehane, who had sent me a nice email promising to “have someone look into it.” That was a year and a half ago. (I figured with him having worked directly for Al Gore for a time, he might be a little more handy with making “the internet” work.)
BTW-Do not forget to back up anything on your site you want to save, REGULARLY. Especially your finance info. My “We’ll get right back to you!” messages were in response to requests for records I’m legally obligated by the government to produce. My accountant had me send a letter to my Attorney General, Maura Healey, to prove I did my due diligence but got dead air, and I received a letter from her that sufficed (along with a suggestion to call a private law firm.)
So how did a Pollyanna, 5-time Superhost, with nothing but consistent, endearing, 5-star reviews, wind up looking more like John Cleese whacking the bird on the counter?
I’m either crazy, or just emotionally attached to fairness, logic, honesty…and the basic tenants of the U.S. Constitution, including the 6th Ammendment (I think) which is that you have a right to face your accuser. You will see dozens and dozens of frantic hosts on the Airbnb Automated fb sites who are saying “I got an email from Airbnb shutting down my listing because a guest told them I didn’t disclose security cameras. I DON’T HAVE ANY SECURITY CAMERAS! I have one RING DOOR BELL that I used to LET THEM IN when they lost their key!” The back story was, they were in the midst of reconciling a claim concerning collecting fees for undisclosed guests (two of them canine, in a “no pets” listing) but they can only guess that was the reason because Airbnb staunchly defends that the guest has no right to know, having agreed to their “Privacy Policy.”
That’s my story for the day! And now I’m going to emulate your style and just walk out of the pet store, on this beautiful morning and Let it Go!
(Had to include the link to my obscure Monty Python reference-it never gets old…)