Weird interaction with "Customer Service"

1

I’ll try to keep this short. My concern is that is this really going to happen. It’s seems so odd. .

  1. Guest tried to modify his reservation after the 14 days cut-off for free cancellation and I denied him twice. He then said that If I won’t adjust he wants to cancel. I told him to contact Airbnb and that there might be penalties and fees from Airbnb plus my cancellation fee. This is in my House Rules about adjust dates after cut-off date.

  2. Of course Airbnb asked if I would give him a full refund. When I said no, he declined to cancelled. (My spider senses were already twitching.)

  3. I wrote him again about the info needed or I could not provide check in if. (This info is due within 24 hours from booking and it was now 3 weeks and he said “I do not see the relevancy of needing my current address for this stay”.

  4. The next day I contacted airbnb (in writing) that I wanted them to contact him to tell him he needed to send info but also also included past history. (My ultimate goal was to get Airbnb to cancel him without penalty to me) so I gave them the back story.

  5. They contacted him and refused to cancel but they told me that I would get the full payout, that I didn’t have to host him and if he wrote a review that did not reflect his experience they would remove it.

  6. So now I only have this reps word (and my screenshots) but I’ve never had Airbnb say I would get paid, my calendar would stay blocked and the guest can not check in. Not notification from the guest. And of course while he can’t check in, he will get my address since he did not cancel.
    (I’m going to write to them again about him not getting my address.)

Note - I went back in today to cut and paste CS copy and only the last message was accessible. Luckily, I screenshot the entire conversation yesterday.

Has this happened to anyone before? It doesn’t quite make sense to me.

2

This hasn’t happened to me. However, there are many reports of different CS reps saying conflicting things. Not making sense seems somewhat common. I would lean toward canceling him yourself and then using the screenshots to address any penalties Airbnb tries to charge you. Also be vigilant the original check-in day. Guests do weird things.

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3

Can you clarify whether the reservation is still showing? I couldn’t tell if Airbnb actually removed the reservation?

If it hasn’t disappeared and your calendar cleared, then I think the rep had to be in error. How can you be told you wouldn’t have to host when the guest is still paying for the trip? That doesn’t make sense to me. And the guest nor you has cancelled.

4

Interesting. I read a similar story yesterday on a different Airbnb group. It was further along. After host refused to cancel 4 days before check-in & said let’s follow the cancellation policy we mutually agreed upon at booking, the guests checked in for their stay.

Immediately they started contacting Airbnb-the home wasn’t clean, the pool wasn’t cleaned (owner disclosed below freezing weather & pool closed), no hot water, sheets dirty(picture of a black thread on sheets), refrigerator not cooling, the list goes on.

To motivate the guest to cancel so they won’t show up, maybe ask Airbnb to notify guest that you will refund any days you rebook if they cancel.

Best wishes with a good resolution.

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5

They would not cancel nor unblock dates and I requested 3 time that I understood what they were saying. So he’s still booked but I do not have to host him.

6

I tried that too but they insist on giving me full payment but not cancelling the guest.

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7

While I might end of doing that, I’m not sure if they will honor the request. Sadly, I don’t trust Airbnb to do what they say without is consuming a lot of my time. Ultimately though my safety is my prime concern and now I don’t want this guest to show up. If he did show up, I plan on video taping and date-stamping the suite to show that there were no issues before check in.

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8

What a nightmare! While I wasn’t worried about my safety, it sounds like my ABB experience with my recent guest.

WTF is going on with ABB CS?

9

The nightmare continues. I wrote today asking that he not get my address and now the new customer service rep is saying I need to cancel and forfeit all payment, have my dates blocked and while she didn’t say a penalty, I think It will happen. They are taking no ownership of the fact that the house guest is unwilling to provide me with the questions per IB and House rules.

10

I’m sorry this is happening to you. I don’t have any advice regarding Airbnb CS.

This is a lesson in “follow your own rules.” If he even read it when he booked, once he didn’t comply, that was his signal that he was the boss. I understand letting it go because you figure you have enough time to get it later but you definitely should have done it sooner. Get him his refund, don’t fool with the crap, get another booking.

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11

This is the exact BS I dealt with from ABB CS and the escalation to a “manager.” Keep at it. Tweet-shame, FB-shame them. Keep escalating.

This is more than “not comfortable with guest,” this is a personal safety issue.

Good luck! And find the link to ABB SH IB rules and make them enforce them. I hope you have better luck than I did.

And take the hit on the blocked days. No amount of money is worth what this guy is doing to you.

Tell him, “Insurance and legal necessity to have your full information, your ID at check in - just like a hotel - with your name matching.”

12

There are no penalties or fees for guests cancelling, so not sure why you told him this. Airbnb simply doesn’t refund the service fee.

I agree with KKC, if a guest doesn’t respond or won’t comply with your requirements, don’t wait until they are past their free cancellation period, tell them to cancel if they won’t comply, before it gets into the mess of them demanding a refund past the free cancellation period and you having to cancel.

And why would you believe a clueless CS rep who told you that the booking didn’t need to be cancelled? Of course a booking needs to show as cancelled if it really is.

13

I was using the penalties as a description for him not getting his fees back…

14

He was already past his free cancellation period. It was the 13th day before check in and he still wouldn’t provide me with the info required so I got Airbnb involved. He was doing the revise my reservation (which I declined twice) so that he could reset the policy and get a full refund.

15

And I didn’t. I started the conversation again today and this time she offered to cancel, no penalties to me and my 50 percent due me due to my cancellation policy and open up my calendar but then at the minute she said that she now needs to talk with her supervisor.

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16

I followed up 4 times and even sent a text off platform to reply via platform. He did answer all the other questions but skipped over the ones I needed. Yes, I should have cancelled earlier but I have never gotten this push back before so I didn’t expect it. Lesson learned.

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17

Air Customer Service no longer exists. What we have instead is customer disservice — a bunch of contractors in the Phillipines who are hired solely for their ability to read a script in perfect English with an American accent. That’s all they can do, read a script. If they go off script they know NOTHING about Air’s policies and rules. They barely understand what AirBNB is.

I believe that it has two purposes, 1) to save money and make shareholders happy and 2) to discourage hosts from cancelling any way they can. Air doesn’t care about hosts, they care about making money from guests no matter the problems they may cause for hosts.

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18

I’m sorry you’re having this trouble with both the would-be guest and Airbnb cs.

I am curious on your asking him his address. I’m wondering, but don’t know, that you’re asking so that in the event of litigation that you could pursue him. But it could be a local regulatory requirement for where you are located?

When a guest provides their address, how do you know, or do you, that it is really their address?

I know that your rules could provide that you could ask to see a government issued ID, and I’ve read on this forum of Hosts who require that. But it appears that that is not part of your process, or is it?

19

I used to ask for a copy of their ID but a guest complained and the cs rep decided to read all my house rules and modify some. She told me that I could ask to see it upon checking. Since I often don’t meet guests at check in because I got tired of guests showing up hours late with no communication. You can only make a copy if required by law.

They told me I could ask for the full legal name, current address and age.

Yes it’s for liability should something happen but I also do my own background check if something seem off. First I start with google and see if I can find out if this person exists and if the address matches up. Then if I feel the info is off I dive a little deeper. Honestly, I’ve done this 6 years and have only had one really bad guest. (Local). In fact nearly all my so so guests are local and since you don’t know this until you accept, it can be frustrating.

This guy when search with the limited information I had seems legit and very protectional. I would have been happy to host him but not with that attitude. He knew what he was doing to try to cancel the reservation and get his money back. I really bothers me that airbnb doesn’t seem to feel that guests have to follow host’s house and IB rules.

I spent a second day with cs getting conflicting info. I

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20

I would be fine with showing a host my ID on arrival, just as one does at a hotel. But I’d find it odd and invasive for a host to ask me when I booked for my address.

And you wouldn’t find my address or phone number or anything about me by googling or on social media. Would that make me somehow suspect?