Absolutely Victoria, since I started hosting 4 years ago almost every channel of communication with the company has been withdrawn: telephone numbers stop working, emails to previously used address bounce back, feedback buttons disappear. I'm in the UK and there is supposed to be a Customer Service Centre in Ireland, but the few times I have managed to get a callback (always initiated by the guest) it's come from San Francisco. The only way to contact Airbnb and actually get a response, let alone a prompt one, is by publicly tweeting them - which they then want to take offline pretty quick as you can imagine!
Hosts are not only customers just as guests are; we are the substance of the business model. Without the accommodation we provide, not to mention our time and talents welcoming people and dealing on an intimate level with their questions, their problems and (literally) their dirty laundry, Airbnb would not have a company. We deserve a good deal more respect than we are getting lately. If that needs to come with a crackdown on poor hosts such as the shadowy apartment letting companies masquerading as individual hosts, or listings that never accept bookings, so be it.
