Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recounted a strange customer service story at the 2019 New York Times DealBook Conference. During an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Chesky was asked about unusual Airbnb incidents. He described a guest who requested a refund after claiming to be bothered by a ghost named Stanley at a listed property. The guest knew about Stanley before booking, as the listing mentioned him. The guest contacted Airbnb’s customer support to complain. The host verified Stanley’s existence, telling Airbnb that the ghost was friendly.
Take a look at the video here
Describing the incident, Chesky said: “One day a customer calls us and says they want a full refund. We asked why you wanted a full refund. They said because the house is haunted and there’s a ghost in the house and we’re like okay well we have to adjudicate this so we call the hosts and all the house has to do is deny it because there’s no photo evidence that goes Well, unfortunately, the host confirms the ghost says that it’s a friendly ghost named Stanley and that the ghost is in the listing description. We read the listing description Stanley as mentioned so we went back to the guests and the guest said yes we knew about Stanley that’s why we booked it but Stanley had been harassing us all night. How do you adjudicate that?”
How social media users reacted to the video
The video was shared on multiple social media platforms including X (earlier Twitter) and Reddit. The Instagram video received over 2.4 lakh likes. Meanwhile, the video which was also shared on Reddit garnered mixed comments.
“Maybe Stanley is lonely and needs a ghost friend. Now I want to stay there!!!” one user wrote reacting to the Reddit post.
Another user, who is also an Airbnb host shared some of the complaints they face from guests. The user wrote: “Our Airbnb is an apartment on the first floor of our house so we are usually on site. No ghosts, but I had a guest knock on the door and hand us a pretty wooden carving of a fish from Thailand that was on the coffee table. He said he couldn’t rest because the fish was giving him bad vibes. Another guest asked us to remove a cute ceramic bird from the patio table because it looked angry. We just smiled and said, of course. They were otherwise pleasant guests and left 5-star reviews.”
“So, Stanley was a feature and not a bug?” a third user added.
