New Report On Airbnb Customer Service Horror Stories Causes Shares To Fall

TW: Rape, death

Earlier this week, Airbnb was named the top company for quality CX by the Havas Group in a survey across 10 countries, more than 50,000 customers and 500 world-renowned brands. The top spot doesn’t come as a shock for the company, which since the pandemic has seen its most profitable year ever. Over the past three years the travel and hospitality sector’s bounceback has motivated the company to improve their servicing strategy, employing everything from generative text AI to experiential stays. As a pioneer in alternative stays and competitor against hotels, the company has seen critical success since its launch in 2008. However, even momentous gain doesn’t come without its customer service criticisms.

On April 6 Reuters reported that Airbnb’s shares in the stock market, ABNB.O, fell in value as much as 6% on Thursday after The Bear Cave, a newsletter publication that describes itself as dedicated to “exposing corporate misconduct,” released a report focused on customer service problems the organization has.

“Horror stories of guests staying at individually managed Airbnbs abound the internet including surprise cleaning requirements, last-second cancellations, numerous examples of guests finding hidden cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms, a woman receiving a $7 million settlement from Airbnb regarding a rape that occurred when a prior Airbnb visitor made copies of the apartment key and reentered her rental, the death of three friends from carbon monoxide poising in an Airbnb without carbon monoxide detectors, and last month the company was sued for the death of a 19-month-old child that died from an accidental Fentanyl overdose in an Airbnb that was previously used as a party house,”

writes author Edwin Dorsey in the report.

These claims are not the first to bring Airbnb’s customer service and business model into question–last summer CCW Digital reported on similar complaints from customers surrounding security concerns, overcharging and communication missteps from the organization when it came to booking. Considering that the short-term rental industry is fairly unregulated, guests and hosts alike struggle to clearly define terms of operations when it comes to everything from property check-in to renters’ responsibilities. As a result, “Airbnb’s top professional hosts are building out their own booking platforms and offering cheaper deals to cut out Airbnb, growing their own email lists and distribution,” and even “offering loyalty discounts to book off of Airbnb” the report states.

It appears that the more accolades the lodging company secures, the more complicated their mission of providing a quality customer experience becomes. While guests can choose unique stays, packages that highlight the culture and tourism perks of their location of choice, and feel like a local on a staycation, the gray area between legislation and leisure continues to expose the risks that departing from the hotel concierge experience has meant for Airbnb. Without true uniformity between location type, hosting styles and customer expectations, Airbnb bookers gamble on whether or not their stay will live up to photos, location descriptions and previous reviews on the website. By comparison, hosts are left vulnerable and potentially liable for any dangerous, illegal or unsanctioned activity beyond guests utilizing provided amenities, sleeping, and appropriately entertaining themselves on Airbnb property.

Despite a profit of over $8 billion in 2022, the hit-or-miss nature of Airbnb has certainly impacted not only public perception of the company, but shareholders’ faith that the numbers accrued in capital truly reflect the customer experience of the majority of guests. Oftentimes Airbnb users flock to the site in the hopes of skirting high hotel prices and the pressured pomp and circumstance of hotel culture, but what they don’t pay for in terms of hotel rates, they do in terms of reliability. Internally, even the organization recognizes that there are two sides to the Airbnb story: last month it cut recruiting staff in an effort to reduce costs and save margins.

As the year progresses, the company will have ample work to do in order to convince its users–and its investors–that the awards are worth the hype. Multiple instances of unsafe, dangerous, and even fatal Airbnb experiences, coupled with a resurgence of hotel desirability and the presence of other competitors, will leave little room for customer experience error in 2023. Although Airbnb is working to reassess some of the issues that customers cite, additional measures such as:

• tightening the host screening process
• vetting locations and requiring on-site walkthroughs to address security and safety concerns
• establishing clear legal stipulations

will additionally assist in making sure that the top priority for one of the world’s top businesses remains customer satisfaction.

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/opening-door