I have often experienced Airbnb communication as rude and culturally incentive. Here is my story …
I have two beautiful homes in Copenhagen, the Capital of Denmark, that I rent out. One full time one when ever travle takes me away, leaving it empty. I have an alarm in both my homes and this alarm system is connected to a security camera which turns on in the event of an alarm. I can not turn it on and I can not access the pictures. Only the Alarm company can do this and only in the event of an alarm. This is clearly stated in my listings.
So a guest did not bother to read the information, but complained to Airbnb, that they felt they were being watched.
Now what did airbnb do? Write and politely asked me about the issue? Look in my listing to see if the camera were mentioned? No they did not… what they did do was temporarily suspend my account - and write to tell me to read this rule and that rule and change this and do that … and if I did not do this in 48 hours I’d be permanently suspended…
Now this made me as angry as I have ever been! I am a super host and a human being and I deserve respect, not threats. I am a traveler and so I cant be expected to be able to respond in 48 hours. We’ll I did respond and I told them not only did I now as always, follow the rules, and so there was also no need to treat me as I was guilty of some crime instead of going by “innocent until proven guilty” …
After almost a week they - with no apologies or explanations re instate my account and informed me that if there were any further complaints about this issue I’d be out…
I fele hurt and bullied…
So I send them this : " Dear Lauren - Dear Airbnb
It is clear that you have chosen to ignore my feeling of hurt and of being talked down to by Airbnb. That is quite sad.
I assume that it comes out of ignorance and not out of malice and so I will taker the time to tell you a bit about Denmark, so that maybe you can understand why your way of addressing this issue from a Danish point of view is rude and incomprehensible.
Danes are again and again voted amongst the happiest people of the world. If you look behind this vote you will find that one of the main reasons for this is trust. We trust our fellow man, We trust our government and we trust the media to watch over the government. I understand that America is a nation of distrust and while I appreciate how sad that must be for you, I need you to respekt that we are not like that and to keep it to your self in America.
The fact that we trust other people is the fact that Airbnb as a company is basically capitalizing on. This is the trust that lets us allow other people to live in our homes. So when Airbnb expects us to show that trust, the least you could do is to show us as hosts - me as SUPER host that trust. What does that mean in praxis? It means Innocent until proven guilty. It means asking me, politely, if there is a problem or how I feel about the complaint instead of pulling out the big guns and suspending, threatening with further action if I do not answer in 48 hours and so on… It means approaching me with trust instead of distrust.
Super host, what does it actually mean? It is a fancy word you throw around but what is it worth if it is not followed by action? What does it mean, if at the first sign of a problem you go directly for the big guns instead of assuming that I am in the right or that it is all based on a misunderstanding - on the part of the guest? What is it all worth if you (maybe because of cultural ignorance) leave me feeling disrespected and hurt?
I hope you will take the time to read this, think it through and come back to me.
Regards Jacob Hasle Nielsen - Super host!"