23 Comments

  1. My Superhost airbnb account was locked out of my account due to security reasons also. We had many bookings scheduled this month, including the day after this happened. We’re letting the guest complete their stay .. I’m curious, what was the outcome when this happened to you?

  2. I too am suffering from my account being blocked/deactivated because of security reasons. Someone mentioned vacaout.com My browser is not recognizing it. Can you be more explicit? Also how to twitter them through their twitter cccount

  3. I am experiencing a removal of my 6 properties after 5 years on Airbnb. Had 250+++ positive reviews and a rating of 4.7 stars ( one decimal point shy of Superhost). All this is due based on 1 review of a lady that made false and erroneous accusations.
    My emails are not being answered by customer service. Moreover, since we are removed from the platform we have no longer access to our mailbox. Letters of my attorney are not being answered. Any suggestions on how to proceed?

  4. Airbnb are blocking accounts left right and centre.

    Airbnb have disabled my account in error four times now. They have disabled and reinstated my account each time when realizing they have made an error. I had a guest checking in tomorrow at 12pm which would finally give me and my family our months income after being severely disrupted by Airbnb’s awful service.They have caused nothing but stress for me and my family when I have made them thousands of dollars of income from mine and my guests service fees over the past 8 months. I was promised for my account to be reviewed within 24 hours. It took: Five phone calls, four twitter messages and three emails for them to unlock my account but not tell me this on the third time. This is really messing with our mental health now. These b*stards need to be taken to court.

    • re blocking accounts en masse, why would they be doing that, I wonder? Their lack of response is certainly bad for your mental health. Someone was telling me their ‘customer service’ seems to have become especially hellish over the last year. I wonder what is behind it all. Are they just deluged with problems/complaints or do they delight in disturbing people?

    • just happened to me in the States also. they had my birth year wrong – maybe they blocked because they don’t let twelve-year-olds host, thought i was logging in from a new device, and maybe didn’t like that when a bride wanted to supply her best man’s info for point of contact during the wedding stay, i could not see it in the details, so used the email airbnb supplies to contact her. the person on the tollfree # 1 855 424 7262 pretty much admitted that is a “gotcha” – they assume the worst about their hosts and assume if you contact it is to do an end run round them for bookings. I got a case # and they claim 24-48 hours is appropriate for a case escalated as ‘urgent’.

      • finally after losing all my bookings and recovering 75% of them, it was confirmed that the error on my profile of my birth year was the problem. a day later, I happened to check my profile, as the “support” person in the “trust” department told me it was my fault, I made the error, should have been more careful, etc. sure enough – I am still 12 years old in my profile, and it’s locked, and I can’t change it (they have a government i.d. pic so they said they verified and corrected yesterday when they brought the account back up. but, if their internal bots check again, I will be shut down again. the rude attitude that the host is to blame is bad enough, but, i’ve never been asked to verify anything until i was a paying guest for an experience and needed to upload my i.d. it is odd that you cannot correct your own profile, but inexcusable for them to re-make the error and continue to blame the host/guest. i should publish the email exchange here.

  5. You should run a legal hotel or bnb and you wouldn’t have this problem. You are probably not paying any taxes on your earnings and for sure do not have permission from the council to run what is effectively a hotel from your home. Instead, you contribute to the growing problem of home-ownership being impossible for young people, even under 35’s with actual degrees and jobs.

    • Alexis sounds very uninformed. That is why Alexis well probably never be responsible enough to be a land owner. In fact one of the only paths for working class people to be a land owner is using one of these shared economy jobs/gigs for extra income to afford a mortgage payment. It has to be someone that knows how to work hard, like an airbnb host or cleaner, and not a lazy person with a college degree funded by mom and dad. I know of dozens of young couples that either save more for that down payment, or make things more affordable by hosting an airbnb.

      Most of the tax collections issues are a result of the local gov not supporting the shared economy. When a county of city negotiates with AIRbnb to do automatic tax collections, they get taxes AND huge amounts in reduced enforcement costs and collection fees.

      Alexis is also clueless about what a residential usage is, and how airbnb guests are not the same category as the commercial retail type walk/drive by traffic at a hotel. The high numbers of occupancy in maybe a hundred plus rooms also have additional egress and safety requirement sdue to being more of a pubic gathering space.

  6. i found a new website called vacaout.com, they give superhost status automatically if you have one with airbnb

    i reached out to them as I stumbled across them by accident and they said you can create an account because it’s 100% free to host. they only charge the guest a service fee of flat rate of 5%…

    so i created a host account and it’s by far a looot more better than airbnb.. i hope these guys can grow because they were extremely friendly dealing with them. you can even sync your calendar with other websites like airbnb booking.com so you dont get double booked

    they said there launch day is July 04th/2019

    They are fixing a lot of bugs but within 2 weeks i noticed a lot of new features and i like the simplicity of the website..

    they mentioned they are serving worldwide

  7. We have been hosts for 2 years and things seemed to be going fine. Recently we have had a few nightmare guests and decided to get Airbnb support involved due to blatant house rules violations. Maybe it is a coincidence but for the last two weeks our account has been unlisted with no explanation. We have called almost daily and each support person tells us that our case has been assigned to a case manager who will contact us within 24 hours which they don’t or it is very erratic follow up. . No one seems to be able to to resolve the issue and most all of them have very strong accents that make them difficult to understand. They make false promises. There is obviously something seriously wrong with this company. I can’t imagine that they can survive with this kind of ineptness. Is this the workings of an American business of the future? We are all in big trouble if we count on them as our continued business partner.

    • Thanks Jacqueline, I have just started a very similar experience- only (!) 26 hrs in. I complained about a guest- It’s almost as if they think hosts are the enemy or something! Wouldn’t mind but I have a lot of excellent reviews etc. As you say, there is obviously something wrong somewhere. As with other internet companies, we note to vote with our wallets!

      • I voted with my response review and by blocking my calender. I was penalized for cancelling a booking I was not comfortable with within 12 hours of check in. There was an alert on my listing that I cancelled within 24 hours of check in. They allow the host a place to response and I did by saying that the safety of my property and guests is of the upmost importance to me, blah, blay, blah. I then blocked my calenders and told airbnb that my dates would be blocked until further notice. Despite their boasts of transparency, my review disappeared and I was refunded the $100 they charged me for the cancellation….but of course no reimbursement for the lost bookings. This company is not worth the time, the trouble, the risk. All decisions made are for their benefit when the hosts are bearing the risk.

  8. After 6 days locked out I can open account and see calendar and bookings, but no profile on web. No communication from Airbnb other than automated replies like, we take your concerns seriously and we will get back to you. Password reset accepted. Went through updates which shows edition 19.22. Tried to message every guest booked to stay and inform them of security lock down made with no explanation from Airbnb, but no message has gone to any guests because no one called me back to confirm they got my message via airbnb. .

    I have been able to get some guest telephone numbers and called text all except one guest whose number bounces back. It wasn’t UK number. 2 guests quickly responded and told me they had checked their account and could see my account has been deleted for breach of terms and conditions. They tried contacting helpline and were told my account is closed. They have paid 50% of booking to Airbnb and unsure what to do.

    Guests want to relax and enjoy their getaway. Good communication is essential to build business rapour, repeat business and referrals. If or when this massive glitch is resolved, will my status be protected from negative reviews. I will keep you all posted on that. Crystal ball at moment.

    • Hi everyone. I have just received reply from Airbnb my account was closed for routine maintenance. 9 days. Really! If that was true why not send out a courtesy message giving advance notice to both hosts and guest. So much stress my guests trips could have been cancelled by Airbnb. Well lessons can be learnt. Lets hope this case is not replicated around the world. How long would it take to create a polite message and send.

  9. Airbnb is doing a major overhaul to make more profits before the IPO in 2020.
    They appear to have fired many CS agents …. using a few offshore service with no training.
    I have been “locked out” over 5 times in the last week! I called and was told my account was closed…. and that they could not say why for privacy reasons!

    I discovered on my own that it is just a matter of resetting the PW and going through a “review process of all recent and important account settings”. If you do not use txt or change your cell phone number without updating airbnb setting then you are screwed! They make you wait 14days if you update those settings …. which is kinduv hard to do when you are locked out!

    I happen to live in a rural area with no cell coverage, so the authentication process is not so good for me. I do have wifi calling (for cell number) and it works most of the time for the codes.

    Here are the possible items/bugs in airbnbs new automated platform.
    1.)Any call or resolution claim results in a “fake AI rep” that usaully say they are working on my case, but they have an emergency and will not be back for 3 days. Then after a 1-2weeks they might chat back on the inbox CS ,, and ask about closing the case. This has happened 3 times now!

    2.)Possible false alarms and lockout triggers:
    a.) As a host you are traveling in another county … maybe a country with poor credit status. After every login in that country you might be locked out!

    b.)The new “professional tools” might be causing problems. I disabled mine. These tools are a at right pull down menu ….. settings/settings/professional tools

    c.)You might be tagged as a problem host if you have ever called for support or files a resolution claim!

    d.)If you are using many mobile and computer devices at various ip connections (home, work or cafe) this might trigger a lockdown.

    e.) This could just be another psychological technique of Airbnb to warn you that it is an opportunity to be a host, and you are completely at there mercy with no rights or laws to protect you! We gave all those away when we click the “I accept button”. It might also be a quick method to update more agreements for loses of rights to hosts and guests!

  10. This is what happens when you rely on one listing site. You should be on Airbnb, VRBO / HomeAway, booking.com, FlipKey, in Craigslist and have your own commercial website we are actively seeking to get guest to rebook and refer through your website

  11. I got blocked too and was a superhost. They then decided to block me from there services without any reason. Ive messaged them but they wont give a reason. I can no longer list my property or book using there platform. I think its disgusting how they can do this without giving a reason and a chance for us to resolve. I have been nothing but positive about this platform, until now.

    • Theyou don’t give a reason for legal reasons. IF they gave you a reason, they would be subject to one or more lawsuits.

  12. Hello Mike. I have never used Twitter or Facebook. No idea how to do so. I have emailed Brian Chesky asking for help. Also notified BBC news and Daily Mail newspaper but they have not put anything on media yet. I have closed my bank account through fear of hackers.

  13. Hello everyone, I am Jo the Superhost from Blandford Forum, Dorset UK who wrote the above article about my account being locked for security reasons withheld from me by Airbnb. I am a law abiding person with excellent traveller guest reviews. I am very concerned bank accounts may be hacked. After 5 days with no response from Airbnb, I have closed my bank account that Airbnb transfers payments too. Also closed my credit card details that Airbnb hold when I book accommodation as a traveller. I recommend all hosts and guests check their bank accounts and do as I have done, close and open another account. I now have to get my mobile and laptop checked for hackers that have worked their way through my virus security protection. Anyone who has booked Airbnb in Blandford Forum please contact your host now to get confirmation you have not been deleted by Airbnb hackers. My account is still deleted by Airbnb and I still wait on a person from Airbnb to contact me. I now have to make the decision due to unprofessional service to hosts to totally withdraw from using Airbnb and look for another web platform.

    • Thank you for sharing your experience. I’ve been using airbnb for a few short months and have had many, many concerns about their platform and I never even thought of the issues you’ve mentioned here. Again, thank you.

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