Account Locked In Error for Almost 3 Months

Posted on December 27, 2019

My account was locked in error for three months. This is my response to the agent after it was finally resolved, explaining my situation.

Thanks, this is great to have figured out. After almost three months. I’m sure you’re not personally responsible for this insanely long delay, but the reason I opened a duplicate account is because I had given up (after two and a half months) on this ever getting resolved.

In the meantime I have had to plan two trips without using Airbnb, which sucks for everyone. In the course of these three months, I’ve called in and spoken to four different customer service agents, all of whom informed me that my request was elevated to ‘urgent’, and I would hear back within 24 to 48 hours. I haven’t heard back until this email from you.

I’m not sure if this is standard protocol, but as far as customer service experiences go, this is by far the worst customer service experience I’ve had, in any category. I imagine Airbnb has the resources to do better. If there were another comparable option, I would stop using Airbnb simply because of this experience.

I have an extremely low opinion of the company now. I’ve only had positive experiences within the Airbnb community, but this direct experience was really, really bad. And it was a fluke on your end. And not even a ‘sorry about that’. Maybe a $5 voucher? Gimme a break.

Again, I’m sure the blame doesn’t lie on you personally, but the company should have a higher standard than this. Now all I can do is just hope my account isn’t accidentally locked again for another three months.

Superhost Account Deactivated Without Reason

Posted on November 22, 2019

Over a week ago from the time of this writing, I logged into my Airbnb account only to find all of my bookings (over $1000 worth) had disappeared. There was no indication of why this would’ve happened except an email sent that afternoon (which appeared to be a virus) that a “random” background check was performed on me by their company (Inflection Safe Decision API), and that as a result, Airbnb made the decision to “permanently deactivate” my Superhost account. Several guests (some repeat guests) were forced to inconveniently alter their plans and find other accommodations.

Immediate calls to Airbnb Support yielded nothing, as I was informed the decision fell to their “Trust Department,” for whom they not only had no phone number or were able to transfer me to, but indicated would not respond to an email for 2-3 business days. Having no other options, I decided to take the risk of opening the link in this suspicious email. It led to a report of a criminal charge from nearly three years ago in which it stated clearly in its outcome that all charges had been dismissed.

At the end of a two-day wait (Friday evening), I received an email from Airbnb Community Support stating that my Superhost account was removed due to this criminal record, and stated “this is a violation of the Airbnb Community Standards.” However, nowhere in these standards does it state that it is a violation to be charged with a crime. I point this out in an email, stating that any innocent host or guest could potentially be charged with a crime at any point for numerous reasons beyond one’s control, but what matters is a conviction. I asked where in these standards was the “violation” they referred to.

After five days and further loss of income, I got no response and decided to email again. After a day of calls and emails, I received a generic apology for the delay. Shockingly, it also stated, entirely falsely, that “the public records that were used in this determination did not show that the charges were dismissed.” I was asked to provide documentation of this outcome in order to have my account reinstated.

A reply has now been sent, where I’ve highlighted the plainly stated outcome of a “dismissal” within the very same public record which they used against me. While I have ample evidence of my innocence. Not only does it remain to be seen if my Superhost account with its hundreds of glowing reviews will be reinstated, but Airbnb has not refunded the several hundreds of dollars in lost income that they caused.

If there ever was an ‘Airbnb nightmare’ for a host, surely this exemplifies it. That Airbnb does nothing to inform a host of this “random” action is bad enough, but it appears they cannot even bother to review the information their own background check company provides them before or after deciding to take devastating action on it. Their complete lack of lines of communication for hosts and cancelled guests in such a matter is equally inexcusable. I never imagined Airbnb, who has previously provided outstanding customer service, would treat a Superhost with such inflexible negligence.

Nightmare Guest Gets 13-year Airbnb Host Banned

Posted on October 31, 2019

This is both a host and a guest story. I have been a host since about 2006 and have always been a huge advocate of Airbnb. I have also loved using Airbnb myself all over the world. I have had tons of positive reviews on both the guest and host side.

Now, suddenly, after having a terrible experience with a guest, I am permanently deactivated. Airbnb won’t talk to me. The reservation I have for my family at Christmas time in Savannah has been canceled, and I have received no refund. In addition, my fiancé, who was also on that reservation, was also deactivated.

I had decided to sell my three unit property that has two units listed on Airbnb. The units are monthly rentals and usually rent from 1-6 months. The real estate agent asked me to leave the units open to make it easier to show them, so I was considering taking the listings down.

However, I received a request from a guest who said she was between leases and needed a place to stay. She didn’t have any reviews on her profile but I decided to help her out. I asked her for two things: I said I am selling the property. Would you be willing to work with my real estate agent for showings? She would need to leave the extra key in the lockbox for the agent. And would you be willing to keep the apartment clean? She agreed to those conditions and I accepted the reservation.

She checked in on a Sunday and that afternoon I called her and messaged her and got no response. On Tuesday morning the city inspector was scheduled to come through for the city certification, something the city does every four years. I called and messaged her multiple times Sunday and Monday and got no response.

On Monday my friend went over to see if she was there and if the second set of keys was in the lockbox. She was not there and neither were the keys. By Monday night I called Airbnb and I sent her a message saying that if she didn’t respond I was going to have to get a locksmith for the city appointment. I should have had more sets of keys but only had two sets (one for her and one for the lockbox).

In the morning we had a locksmith get into the apartment and we found a disaster. There was stuff everywhere, alcohol bottles everywhere, lighters, discharge papers from rehab, her wallet and the wallet of another person plus the parole card of a third person (the reservation was for one person).

The stove had been dismantled. There was food everywhere. We found a needle in the bathroom. While my friend was there with the city she discovered the guest had locked herself out and gone out partying, didn’t come back until 3:00 AM and then tried to break into the wrong apartment, scaring my neighbors and the tenants in the other unit, who called the cops.

However, they didn’t contact me at any point. They never ended up contacting me. I was finally able to cancel their reservation through Airbnb, but I still had her stuff. I called the mental hospital/ rehab listed on the papers in the property and gave them the contact info of my friend to try to get her stuff back to her (I do not live in the area any longer).

She screamed at my friend, told her she was going to get revenge, and that it was a race issue, that we were treating her badly because she was black (I had never seen her). Shortly thereafter, her stuff disappeared from the apartment, and there was a lighter left on the table. She or her friends must have broken in and taken her things.

A few days later, and my account is deactivated and my fiancé’s account is as well. Airbnb won’t talk to me. I have a paid for reservation in Savannah for which I believe I should be refunded. It is upsetting that, after years of working with Airbnb, they would do this without even hearing my side of the story, and that they can cancel a reservation without refunding the money. It seems like the consumer should have more rights than this.

Off Airbnb Because Guest Falsely Reports Surveillance

Posted on October 9, 2019

Has anyone had this happen to them? If so, what options did you consider to rectify a fraudulent claim by a guest? To be kicked off of a hosting platform for nondisclosure of non-surveillance equipment may even be a bit comical, if it were not so sad.

We did not violate the Airbnb rules that were sent to us. Airbnb sided with a guest who not only broke Airbnb policies while staying in our house but fraudulently impeded our ability to make money in the future on this platform. To us, this is not only defamation of our character but was a whirlwind of events that left us unhappy and totally confused. We are still scratching our heads and wonder “what just happened?”

We have had our vacation rental for years without any complaints from guests, many of whom have come back to our rental. Now for the highlights. We received a call at night from someone claiming to be from Airbnb. They claimed that one of our past guests reported our house to them for having surveillance equipment, which of course was not true and considered by myself to be quite preposterous.

I immediately thought this was an attempt to defraud me via the phone. Since we had not had any disgruntled guests I asked the person for proof they were, in fact, working with Airbnb by requesting they send me a message in our Airbnb inbox. The person refused and said they could not do that. Since I have talked to customer service via messages in our inbox before, I was convinced this was a fraudulent call, a scammer, with the intent to perpetrate fraud. I gave them a piece of my mind and hung up on them.

Later I called Airbnb to report this call and was told by customer service that no one had called us. I mentioned an email that I found in my email box after the call and was first told it was not sent by Airbnb. I pushed the agent to further investigate, asked to be transferred to a supervisor and finally talked to someone who verified that the email was from an Airbnb agent.

I then answered the email and stated that I had talked with Airbnb customer service and they verified that they were an agent, the email was valid and that it was safe to open the email link they had asked me to click. I told the agent the accusation was false and that I was ready to talk to them.

After a few more calls to Airbnb, I received an email where we were told by this agent that they had all they needed to investigate. Again, not true because they never discussed this claim with me. I was never shown any evidence that we could review and they had none of our rebuttal information at that time.

We called our current guest, who had been with us over a week already, made them aware of the situation and invited them to look for said equipment by us. They did and found none. Eventually, Airbnb decided without talking with us that we did have non-disclosed surveillance equipment in the house, suspended our account forever and forced our current guest out of the house.

They called them and told them they had to get out. Our guest did not want to leave and told Airbnb they were happy with us, we had been excellent hosts, they loved the home, that there was no surveillance equipment in the house, and they didn’t want to leave. Airbnb told them they were forcefully canceling their reservation and they had to leave.

Since there was a current Airbnb guest in our house this proved to be a real eye-opening experience for them as well. They saw firsthand how unfairly we were being treated.

I failed to mention that we have in writing from the guest how wonderful their experience was so we were floored to find out who filed the claim. We have no idea why they would do such a thing but theorize that they were not happy we caught them violating our rules and Airbnb rules while they were in our house. We decided to let the infractions go and mark it up as lessons learned. We did nothing to them via Airbnb or any other way. In hindsight, perhaps we should have. We’d love to hear your similar stories and suggestions.

Deactivated by Airbnb without Notification

Posted on September 29, 2019

Since July 21, my Washington DC Airbnb unit has become invisible to prospective guests. Airbnb contacted me about updating my host information using a government-accredited ID. I hesitated to do so and was locked out of my account until I did as requested. From that date on, my unit has not shown up in any searches for DC accommodations.

My co-host and I have been in touch constantly since the problem was discovered. Airbnb first asked why I had deactivated my account (I had not). I checked my status; all was in order. The Airbnb support staff finally agreed it was a problem at their end and tech staff would provide a remedy.

No such luck. The case was called closed without a resolution. I have been pushed around to various folks using their automated system. It has been over 60 days since my place was seen by prospective guests. We had been occupied on average 20 days a month before this snafu with a good stream of income, which is necessary to help pay the mortgage.

We have some possible long-term renters in the wings but I would prefer a quicker resolution to my problem by Airbnb along with a real explanation as to how this happened, a guarantee of it not happening again, and some kind of compensation for lost revenue due to their incompetence in not swiftly and efficiently resolving this problem.

Banned When the Case had Nothing to do with me

Posted on August 29, 2019

I live in NY and have been a Superhost for almost three years with a large number of glowing reviews. About a month ago I got a phone call that my mother had had a major stroke and I rushed back to Australia to be with her.

During my time away I asked another Superhost friend to stay at my place to look after it while I was away. A guest who also lives in New York and had no reviews booked two nights seven days before her stay. After her visit she opened a dispute. They never told us what it was about. However, to paint a little picture of her, she brought a drug dealer into the apartment and smoked weed with a friend she brought over without asking.

This morning I woke up to find they’d cancelled all my bookings and banned me and my friend from Airbnb, which was a major loss of income. Of course, Airbnb is not letting me talk to anyone and gave me the standard “The decision to remove you from the Airbnb community was made after gathering and carefully reviewing all related documentation and communication from the parties involved. We consider this decision final.”

…despite the fact that I’m currently in Australia and never met her or spoke with her. Way to give a huge dose of anxiety.

Waited Four Years for Airbnb to Steal my Money

Posted on August 29, 2019

I made a reservation for a cottage property four years ago. After the stay, we got charged $500 for apparently “breaking” the property’s hot tub and TV. Their proof was pictures that the hosts apparently sent them. Airbnb did not even try to ask us to verify if those pictures were even taken right after our stay, nor did they ask us anything at all. Instead, they immediately deactivated my account along with all of my friends who stayed at the cottage for four years.

Now, four years later, I went onto Airbnb and noticed my account was reactivated. I decided to give them one more chance, and booked a stay in Vancouver. I got charged on my credit card and received a confirmation email and a receipt for my stay.

The next day, I went onto my account and it was again deactivated. Not only that, but they have taken my money and literally just deactivated my account. There is no way of contacting them at all as they keep saying I will be emailed shortly; that never happened. I called them twice but only found the number through this website because they will do anything to hide their customer service.

Once I talked to them, they said my money is in a safe and secure place. A safe and secure place that is not my bank account?

They said they couldn’t do anything or transfer me to a manager but instead I should wait for an email and said I would be refunded in about 15 days once they accept the refund. Then another lady said my account is going through a technical issue. I just don’t understand, they change their story every time I call. Needless to say… I am still waiting for my refund.

Possible Resources for Use after Airbnb Account Deactivated

Posted on August 11, 2019

My account was deactivated on August 5th with no reason cited. My work requires a thorough background check, so I figured the deactivation was some sort of glitch in the system. At the very least, I was phished due to some sort of security breach as I had deleted two expired credit cards and added a current card while making my reservation.

Airbnb customer service initially appeared to prove helpful, checking to ascertain my case had been placed in the review process. The Airbnb review proved to be an authoritarian process with no appeals process. Airbnb cited exercising discretion under their Terms of Service to disable my account. The company cited having no obligation to provide action taken on my account.

I did want to refer to all of this in a December 2018 YouTube video detailing a dispute process available at that date. Apparently, Airbnb utilizes SafeDecision API, a product offered by Inflection Risk Solutions, LLC, a firm which provided information to make the determination to deactivate the videographer’s account. The address and contact information will follow this post.

This third party details any criminal background that may have been used in the deactivation. As in the case of the videographer, he had no criminal background and went through a process to reinstate his account (which proved successful). Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, anyone has the right to access such a report and have a 60-day timeline to file a dispute against whatever might be inaccurately be indicated on the report or to determine if the report used was in fact, you at all.

My feeling is Airbnb is no longer citing reasons for deactivation because of inaccuracies reflected in reports used to deactivate accounts. Complaints researched via the Internet indicate accounts deactivated for minor offenses, including traffic offenses. Also, in one case of a married couple, the husband’s account was deactivated and following his wife’s attempt to book under her account, her account was deactivated. In my opinion, this is a severe overreach case of collateral damage on the part of Airbnb.

I’m not even certain it’s legal, but who knows, as no reason is given for deactivation. I was not told of the reason for the account deactivation and since the airing of the above YouTube video, no reasons are provided to guests or hosts for deactivation by Airbnb; however, I plan to move through the above process to see what I can find out and register mail all results to Aisling Hassell (Trust and Security Airbnb) and Brian Chesky (CEO Airbnb). I’ll post updates.

Keep in mind Airbnb did not provide me with the Inflection Risk Solutions, LLC information. I credit (and thank) the YouTube videographer regarding the Account Deactivation video for making this information public. Inflection Risk Solutions, LLC was most kind in providing my background report on the same day as my email request for a copy of my report.

Two emails were received directly from the company: the first indicating a copy of the report had been emailed to me and second, the actual report. A link is provided asking for my name, email and date of birth before accessing the report.

While on the site, in addition to reading the results of the “background check Airbnb ran” on me, a dispute for investigation can be filed regarding incorrect information on the report as well as getting help on any additional question. My report was clear in the all areas: National Criminal Records Search, Sex Offender List Search and Global Watch List Search. If the report documented an area of dispute, an “Upload Documents” page allows documents to be made accessible to the Inflection SafeDecision API Support Team.

These documents typically include files that support dispute and special consent forms. For those who believe the information in the results is inaccurate, a link is provided to file a dispute. I would add that the Inflection email cover letter accompanying my report indicated “as part of your membership with Airbnb, you provided written instructions for Airbnb to run a background check on you to determine your eligibility to use its platform.”

I can only imagine my written instructions were included within the Terms updated by Airbnb. I also obtained online a copy of my free credit report via the annualcreditreport.com website jointly operated by the three major U.S. credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You will have to provide the last 4 digits of your social security number, but not the entire number. This report reflected a good financial record.

With all this information, I contacted the case manager associated with the deactivation of my Airbnb account and attached the Inflection background check (I did not provide my credit report). As trust and security is not an issue, I requested my Airbnb account be reactivated. I also have a running message with customer service on the Airbnb Facebook page. I was able to attach the Inflection report to the message. At the very least, I know (and knew) the error was on Airbnb. Stay tuned.

Superhost Account Removed for “Security Reasons”

Posted on May 30, 2019

I am a Superhost in Dorset UK. My account has been locked for security reasons by Airbnb but I have not received correspondence as to the reason. I can not access my account to communicate with guests. My listing showing the room and details has been removed from the Airbnb website. I got an automated email from Airbnb saying I should reset my password. I followed the instructions and got a code to enter with the new password, but this was not accepted as Airbnb rejected my mobile number and email as not recognised. This conflicts with their security message because they have sent five emails to me directing me to online help, which I cannot access because my account is locked. Please help me and other hosts and guests affected and clear this technical glitch.

Can Airbnb Intervene for Experience Outside Platform?

Posted on January 16, 2019

***The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of Airbnb Hell or its affiliates.***

I am a 45-year-old male. I run experiential tours on Airbnb, such as food tours, and also host a bar crawl. A female client went with me on Tuesday for a bar crawl. She said she had come here to broaden her experiences.

She said she was looking for sexual experiences as well. She wanted to come to my place and drink more alcohol like gin and rum, but not that night – perhaps the next day or the day after that. She said she had bought a bottle of Smirnoff vodka that she couldn’t take back to Dubai and needed to finish it off. I said we could drink that too.

That night after the bar crawl when I was getting her home, she said that she had a bad experience in her Airbnb host house, because she felt someone was watching her. Out of concern, I said, she could stay at my place for the night, until she found another place. She didn’t want to do that and forego what she had paid the host. Then I told her if she still felt that presence in her room to call me. She was happy at my concern and said okay.

The next day, she asked me to go with her on a private social excursion on Wednesday, which had nothing to do with Airbnb. She wanted me to take her to the bank to change money and to the mall, for a movie. She held hands with me. I didn’t pull away. She bought tickets for a movie and made plans for dinner. We walked in the mall for around two hours, holding hands, meeting my friends.

At all times she was happy and I also was enjoying holding hands with her. At the beginning I told her that if she was uncomfortable at any point we could stop holding hands; she said she was enjoying it. She planned for us to go to the movie at 8:45 and then for dinner. She also wanted to come to my place and drink alcohol. I said that was fine. Then she wanted me to do a food tour for her on Wednesday night or Thursday.

On Wednesday night she blew me off, and on Sunday had complained to Airbnb that I had acted inappropriately during the experience. I submitted the WhatsApp message thread showing that our social excursion happened on Wednesday and at her request. Regardless, within one hour of getting this message thread from me, they terminated my account and refused to give any consideration to the fact that:

Nothing happened during their experience.
They have no jurisdiction over a date between two adults.
She initiated holding hands in the first place, which I reciprocated, and now she is blaming me for inappropriate activity.
She spent two or more hours with me at the mall, bought tickets for a movie which I have the e-tickets for, and made dinner plans.

I wish to sue Airbnb for whatever I can, as they have terminated my income, and also defamed my character by listening to this person who also has said she has mental and emotional issues, has been possessed by demons, and felt someone was watching her. All this was told to Airbnb but they took her side.