Senior Service Recovery Specialist

The Community You Will Join: 

Airbnb is a mission-driven company dedicated to helping create a world where anyone can belong anywhere. It takes a unified team committed to our core values to achieve this goal. Airbnb's various functions embody the company’s innovative spirit, and our fast-moving team is committed to leading as a 21st-century company.

The AirCover team is charged with ideating, building, launching, and managing the AirCover business inside of Airbnb. We have a huge responsibility to our community of Hosts and guests to be there when things don’t go exactly as planned with their reservations. We have a lot of work to do in the coming years and are looking for someone to help us deliver best-in-class services to our community.

The Service Recovery team is passionate about delivering unparalleled services to our hosts and guests, ensuring they feel supported in the rare event that something goes wrong. We are responsible for fulfilling this bold vision:
"We design and deliver unmatched products and services so everyone can host and travel with confidence."

The Difference You Will Make:

• You have mastered the core responsibilities of Service Recovery and consistently deliver exceptional service quality across all cases.
• You handle complex and ambiguous cases with a high degree of independence and minimal supervision.
• You understand and apply Airbnb’s policies and processes at a deep level, including their implications across all AirCover products and their broader impact on Airbnb.
• You navigate complex case resolutions effectively, knowing who to go to for what and stepping outside of normal processes when necessary.
• You are a bar raiser for high-quality case handling, customer mediation, conflict resolution, and customer experience excellence.
• You demonstrate thought leadership in service recovery, proactively identifying operational gaps and influencing strategic improvements.

As a Senior Service Recovery Specialist at Level 7, you will take ownership of high-stakes, high-visibility cases, providing expert-level resolution while influencing broader process and policy improvements. You will act as a trusted leader within the team, mentoring others and proactively identifying areas where Airbnb can enhance its service experience.

A Typical Day: 

Advanced Case Handling & Escalation Management

• Independently manage high-profile casework with escalation factors.
• Handle severe escalations (Life Safety & Severe Safety) with supervision.
• Work on Executive Escalations, SOS, CCT, and VIP cases with minimal supervision.
• Own high-profile media/press cases, balancing reputation risk and policy enforcement.
• Manage regulatory cases, ensuring compliance and accurate documentation.
• Handle high-GBV ($12K–$50K) reservation-related cases, requiring strong mediation and negotiation skills.
• Serve as the first line of support for complex cases, coordinating with specialized teams in the backend.

Strategic Influence & Leadership

• Act as a bar raiser for service recovery excellence, setting the standard for complex, nuanced case resolution.
• Mentor and guide L6 specialists, providing insights on handling difficult cases and delivering a 10-star service experience.
• Proactively identify workflow inefficiencies and contribute to process and policy improvements.
• Influence a high-performance culture by setting an example in problem-solving, decision-making, and execution.
• Lead by example in conflict resolution, handling cases involving multiple stakeholders with confidence and diplomacy.

Data-Driven Insights & Continuous Improvement

• Conduct root cause investigations, identifying systemic issues and driving preventative measures.
• Leverage data and analysis to propose solutions aligned with business priorities.
• Support project initiatives, SME requests, and case consults, contributing to the team’s broader strategic objectives.
• Compile After Action Reviews, providing structured insights into high-profile cases to drive continuous improvement.
• Serve as a trusted resource for hospitality standards, influencing broader service expectations within Global Operations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence

• Build trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders, effectively navigating cross-functional dependencies.
• Guide conversations skillfully towards win-win resolutions for customers, Airbnb, and internal teams.
• Adapt communication style based on audience, ensuring clarity and understanding across diverse stakeholders.
• Explain and simplify complex policies and processes to ensure buy-in and alignment.
• Participate in high-impact projects requiring cross-functional collaboration and leadership.
  
  

Your Expertise:

• 1-year minimum tenure in L6 Service Recovery role, with promotion eligibility at 18–24 months based on performance.
• Proven mastery of L7 competencies and demonstrated progress towards L8 competencies.
• A track record of high-quality case handling, customer mediation, and resolution of complex, high-risk cases.
• Ability to balance customer experience, risk mitigation, and business impact in decision-making.
• Comfort in dealing with conflict, difficult situations, and high-stakes decisions with confidence and integrity.
• Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills, with an ability to make decisions based on available information and company policies.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and influence others, fostering an inclusive and high-performance team culture.
• Excellent time management, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Ability to proactively identify and resolve operational issues, preventing escalations before they arise.
  
  

Preferred Expertise:

• 4+ years experience in high-touch customer service, risk, or service recovery roles.
• Experience managing high-value and high-risk cases, including fraud prevention, safety, and regulatory issues.
• Strong analytical mindset with experience in reporting, data analysis, and case documentation.
• Demonstrated ability to lead projects, assignments, and process improvements involving multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to drive service excellence, influencing both policy and process improvements at an organizational level.

Your Location:

This position is Canada - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a province where Airbnb Canada, Inc. has a registered entity. Currently we can hire in the following provinces: Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with your recruiter on what provinces you are eligible to work from.

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process.

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.

We use automated tools to help our recruiting team efficiently screen a large volume of applications. All final hiring decisions are made by a human reviewer. 

This role is for an existing vacancy within the organization.