Politically Motivated Account Suspension from Airbnb?

Posted on January 15, 2021

I just received this cryptic email from Airbnb:

“We’ve determined that your account is affiliated with someone not permitted to be on Airbnb. The types of affiliations we consider to make this determination include things like your location and the email address associated with your Airbnb account. As a result, we have removed your account from Airbnb and you will be unable to use the platform in the future. To protect the privacy of the Airbnb community, we can not provide details about this user’s account eligibility.”

So a phantom is magically associated with me that disqualifies me from the platform. I have paid all fees and have had compliments from hosts for the business given by me and my family members. We have booked multiple times and never left a negative review. No complaints from any host or from Airbnb. Suddenly… complete suspension.

What is this? I suspect it is politically motivated, given the timing of the suspension.

Airbnb Account Suspended Without Notice

Posted on December 29, 2020

We have three different properties and are Superhosts with 250+ reviews. We started on Airbnb three years ago and have added a new property each year. This morning we woke up to guests blowing us up wondering why we cancelled their reservations. We came to find out with our own research that we had been suspended.

Airbnb has not notified us in any was as to why. They just cancelled all our reservations and refunded the money to the guests telling them they need to rebook with someone else. When we called to see what happened we were informed that the trust group who suspended us will reach out to us in the future. They do not know why we were suspended and that our only option is to wait until someone reaches out to us.

They even cancelled and refunded three active reservations, so people are staying in houses for free. Saying I am so frustrated isn’t close to describing what I am going through. Does anyone have any advice on what to do now other than wait until they get back with me?

Airbnb Account Suspended for No Reason

Posted on September 28, 2020

After spending thousands of dollars in Airbnbs in Europe and the U.S. my account has been suspended with no explanation. I have had many positive experiences with Airbnb where I wrote positive reviews for hosts and they in turn wrote positive reviews of me. I tried to get on my account and was asked to upload a photo to match my ID. I did this and after that every time I tried to get on I received messages the Airbnb team was investigating and then subsequently I was suspended. They are supposed to contact me, but I have not heard anything.

This is so weird. You can not contact them over the phone. No telephone numbers are being answered by a live person. This has to be one of the worst customer experiences I’ve ever had… just terrible. I would like to book other vacations, but am unable to for no good reason. I would have been someone who told you the majority of my Airbnb experiences were positive. No more.

My suggestion to readers of this post: if you are looking for accommodations do not look at Airbnb first. Look into the other sites like VRBO and HomeAway.

Airbnb Host Beyond Frustrated with the Company

Posted on March 24, 2020

We have listed our vacation rental on Airbnb for ten years and always had a five-star rating. Recent policy changes seems to be paired with horrible customer service and you cannot get past the person that answers the phone but can never help you. Phone calls are answered by apologetic people who cannot resolve issues nor can they pass you on to someone that can.

Our listing was disabled two weeks ago. It has taken many calls to find a reason with the same answer: that there is a specific department that deals with that and they only communicate via email. Apparently neither they nor you can email them; you have to wait for them to email you and that never happens.

I have repeatedly asked to speak to a supervisor or someone in a position that can help me but they just say they will notify them of my situation. We are a highly popular rental and have lost thousands in recent cancellations due to the pandemic and the lack of being able to get an answer to our issue via a simple email is outrageous and costing us even more as we sit unpunished.

What does it take to get someone at Airbnb to actually help you?

Banned by Airbnb for Fraudulent Activity

Posted on March 23, 2020

I used Airbnb for about five to six months before getting banned for fraudulent activity linked to a reservation. Now because I have not done anything like that, Airbnb would not tell me specifically what activity they are referring to. I’m looking for some assistance on who I can talk because they said that I cannot appeal this matter and it was their final decision.

I have a significant amount of credits — roughly $800 — in my account that I can’t use from previous stays, refunds, and referral credit. For the reservation they said the fraudulent activity was linked to, the host was a very nice guy. I was his first guest and he seemed really excited and happy to have be there. He sent a lot of messages to my Airbnb account. It was mostly greetings like “What’s up?”

Here’s the last email Airbnb sent me in regards to my second attempt requesting for more information on the fraudulent activity they banned me for. They won’t give me anything but a copy and paste of this email which I have already received.

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 won’t be able to assist you further with any account issues. We’ll contact you if anything changes in the future.

Airbnb Zero Tolerance and Account Suspension

Posted on January 23, 2020

Looking or thinking of setting up Airbnb as a host? You need to be careful, as your account and profile can be deleted within one second by an Airbnb case manager even if a guest lied about you. Thinking of the amount of time, money and resources you have invested in setting up an account as a Airbnb host, you can be taken granted and may not count as a valuable member of the community within a second.

Let me give you an example of my hosting experience as a case study. As a host with over one year’s hosting experience and also a Superhost, I received a call from Airbnb customer service about my availability for hosting a guest at the last minute. Please think twice before you accept any reservation over the phone from Airbnb as your safety and well being is not as important as getting a customer a place to stay.

In my own case, I confirmed the reservation and advised the guest to check in within two hours as I noticed they were already available on standby to check in within ten minutes of booking. After accepting the reservation over the phone, I notified the Airbnb customer service person to confirm the reservation with the guest and make sure the number of people on the reservation was the same at the time of check in. She said yes and also advised me she would inform the guest.

Surprisingly at the time of check in, two guests were booked on the reservation, while four guests showed up. This was not a problem at all, as it could be corrected by the next day. The major problem was as follows.

Within an hour of checking in, three unauthorized men came in and out of the apartment at 15-minute intervals. Within two hours, I was able to count about ten different men coming in and out of the unit. After investigating, it was confirmed that the guests had been using the unit for business with men and also smoking drugs which could easily be smelt in the entire house due to the central heating and cooling system.

Evidence showed all of the above and the case was reported to Airbnb. The guest needed to vacate the unit due to this reason and considering infants were also in the upper unit whose health could have been risked because of the smell and odor of drugs used.

Can you believe that Airbnb suspended my account due to this reason, claiming zero tolerance and health safety issues, while the guest in question still has an active account?

Well, as a host or someone planning to be an Airbnb host in the future, you need to be very careful. You can be treated as a nobody, may not have access to any of your profile information which you have worked hard to build, and may not even be able to use an Airbnb account for any other hosting purposes. If you think you are currently doing good on Airbnb as a host and you want to expand and add more units or spend more to invest on the business based on your current outcome, you need to be careful as you can be taken for granted within seconds.

To my surprise, I do not expect any resolution and treatment from Airbnb, as it was shocking. A guest can ruin you in half a second and nothing will be done to you. I do not see any host protection at all as anything can be said against you and so shall it be via Airbnb.

If you are a host and reading this, you need to ask why you were not considered a part of the community as well, and that there is zero tolerance against the damage of reputation against hosts in their own home. With all this, is it worth having to set up an Airbnb?

Why Airbnb is out of touch with the hosting experience

Posted on January 8, 2020

My husband and I were early adopters of Airbnb, having joined the platform in 2011. We hosted guests nearly every week of the year for eight years until December 2019, when we were banned from the platform.

The ban seemed to have been triggered by a same-day guest who left mid-day in the middle of a two-day reservation. My husband entered the unit with the guest’s permission to flip the circuit breaker twice during the guest’s day. My husband had met the guest earlier in the evening close to when they first arrived. He showed them the space and asked if they had questions. The entire interaction was cordial.

The rest of the story is quite strange. The day the guest left, I received a cryptic text from Airbnb asking if I would give the guest a refund. I inquired to the reason, and they said there was no particular reason. I had also asked if my account would be blocked. They said that my account would not be blocked. I said we could provide a 40 USD refund on a 190 USD stay for any inconvenience caused by the need to enter the unit with permission to flip the circuit breaker.

Within a day, I received a notice from the Airbnb security team that our listing was frozen. I called Airbnb and after a few strange beeps seemed to have reached someone in HQ who was a little out of it. They told me the guest indicated that we had entered the unit three times against their wishes or something to this effect. It was a strange conversation as the contact on the other end was so chill about the discussion; it sounded like he had just gone surfing. It was just a part of his job, but my entire livelihood was at stake.

I was then assigned to a safety team representative who told me to be ready for her call over 48 hours. I kept my ringer on high eagerly awaiting the call. It turns out she listed the wrong date and was out of the office for two days. We connected three days after the date she originally indicated. She spoke with me for 2-3 minutes tops. I felt like I was speaking with a high school student.

Another five or so days passed before we received a template message indicating that we can no longer host or stay with hosts on the Airbnb platform. We had 880 reviews as a host with additional reviews from our stays. I even use the platform for work and recommend it to hundreds of my graduate students.

I’m at odds with how this one incident ejected us from the platform after we formed so many connections. The process of being reviewed by Airbnb is emotionally excruciating for hosts. If you are a host, I highly encourage you to diversify your use of platforms. As we learned after nearly a decade of promoting and loving the platform, they can leave you in the dust over as much as one complaint.

The whole process has made me rethink my life and goals. I never want to be at the mercy of a corporation who carries too much power over our business. Can you imagine if your local coffee shop was shut down or suspended over one customer complaint? There is so much that happens in a business that involves people.

We had guests who had reserved through Airbnb (and were cancelled) reach out to me trying to stay. I felt so bad that they were impacted too. I’m not sure where Airbnb is headed. We could always be better hosts, but we didn’t become Superhosts without working very hard to meet clients’ needs.

We’ll probably never know what happened at Airbnb corporate or what was said about us by the guest. All we now know is that we have many questions about the future of Airbnb and the type of community they are trying to create. We also know they have little understanding of the experience hosts go through in the safety and review process.

Any guest could flag a host’s account and the host would be suspended for at least two weeks. Hosts should prepare themselves emotionally and financially for unnecessarily challenges in doing business self-inflicted by Airbnb’s organizational processes.

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.

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.

Co-Host Account Suspended, Trip Tomorrow

Posted on May 24, 2019

About a month ago, my fiancé and I booked a stay in Toronto for May 22-25. This was our first time using Airbnb. We found a listing that was in the area we wanted and it was a better deal than the area hotels, so we decided to try it out.

The morning before our trip, at around 7:00 AM, I logged into Airbnb because I was concerned that we had not received check-in instructions. I clicked on the message thread from the host (last message May 8th) and received the following error: “This conversation is no longer available because Gaison’s account was removed for violating Airbnb’s Terms of Service.”

Now, a couple of questions spring to mind, namely who the heck is Gaison? We booked this with a different host. I immediately called the Airbnb customer service number. I told her what happened and she said, “I’m sorry, we can’t give you a refund for this reservation since it’s too close to the check-in date.”

I never asked for a refund or cancellation; I just wanted to be able to message my host and I had no idea who this Gaison person is or why their account was suspended. I reiterated that I was concerned about not being able to message my host and that my host’s account was possibly suspended. Customer service told me that my host’s account had been suspended. When I clicked on her profile, she was active and listed as a Superhost.

When I told Airbnb this, they were unable to answer why I could not message the host, and how Gaison was related to the booking. When I asked what they recommended, after a long hold, they said they would refund our reservation and rebook us. I’m looking at the rebooking options in the area while holding on the phone – all of them are 20-25% higher than what we paid.

After being on hold again, Airbnb said they would email me a list of options. I asked if it was necessary to cancel, or if there was some way they could allow me to message the host. They ignored my question and said they would process the refund immediately. Again I reiterated that I would prefer to keep my original booking as long as my host is active and in good standing with their Terms of Service. Instead of answering my question she said she would email me other listings and call me back in an hour.

I waited for an email. Two hours later I received a direct message through the Airbnb site with a list of options for rebooking. In the message she offered a 10% credit toward our rebooking. All of the options were 20-25% more expensive than what we booked. I quickly sent them to my fiancé to look at, we selected one, and I responded to the message within 15 minutes asking for more help meeting our budget – perhaps waiving the service fee. No response for two hours.

I called Airbnb back again and asked to speak to my case manager. Meanwhile, I was trying to find alternate solutions, hotels in the area, etc. The second person I reached at Airbnb wanted me to start from the beginning, and was unable to connect me to my case manager. I started to explain the problem with messaging the host. The person on the phone (didn’t get her name) immediately said “we can’t give you a refund.”

I never asked for a refund; I just wanted to know if this booking was still “safe” and if it was a good idea to keep it if we couldn’t even message the host. I asked the CSR to put me on hold and take a look at my entire case file so I didn’t have to explain the entire situation again. I asked her to look at the message from the host and then my response.

Once I was off hold, the new CSR said the host will call me back “in a few hours.” I asked to speak to someone who can help immediately and am put on hold again. The CSR comes back and says she can’t transfer my case to another case manager and I will have to wait for the host to call.

Meanwhile, as I was on hold with the new CSR, the host sent me a text message saying that she was unable to send me messages. I asked the host who Gaison is. Her response was that Gaison is an account that co-hosted other properties with her. I asked her for the reason that Gaison’s account was suspended. The host’s response was that “They are a property management service and was sending messages to hosts offering their services which is against Airbnb rules. They received a warning email that required a reply from them but they did not check their email in time and Airbnb suspended their account.”

Now, having spent four hours on this problem, I am growing concerned that this is Shady City. I want to reiterate that this is my first experience using Airbnb. I’m not confident that when I land in Toronto tomorrow afternoon I will even have a place to stay. If I had not logged in to message my host, how would I have even known there was an issue with an account suspension?