The first one last week was because they had claimed I did not complete their “account verification” procedures, which I actually had done prior to making the active reservation I had at the time of deactivation. In fact, their app would not allow me to book without completing the account verification. It was simply uploading a picture of my driver’s license.

It took two days of silence before I heard back from them with a very short email stating they made a mistake and my account had been reactivated. The following day, their Love Team (that’s what it’s called), sent me a much nicer email along with a $100 coupon to use in the future for being inconvenienced. That was a nice thing to do as I had not asked for any compensation.

Cut to this week. I had made another reservation for a business trip. Yesterday I got emails from Airbnb stating my account was being permanently deactivated because a background check found a criminal history and my reservation had been canceled.

I was shocked. I have never been arrested in my life, let alone convicted of any crimes. I wondered if speeding tickets could get me kicked off of Airbnb. They had a link to my report from the awful background check company, which I looked at and listed in the report were three speeding tickets, all valid but expunged from my record. And one entry for a robbery committed in Baltimore in 1999 by someone with my same first and last name and birth date.

Keep in mind I have a very common name. This wasn’t me, but now I had to prove it. I have never been in Baltimore. I was living and working in California at the time this happened. But how do you prove you were not in a place on a specific date? Think about that for a minute. It’s not going to be easy proving you were not somewhere 20 years ago.

Luckily my wife had her wits about her (I was livid) and suggested I call the police department in Baltimore and maybe they have a mug shot or something that would show it’s not me. Maybe he’s a different race and the difference would be obvious. Great idea.

I couldn’t reach the police very easily, and so I called the courthouse where it showed he was convicted. A very nice woman answered and when I told her my dilemma she was very understanding and started to look for the record. She first said I think records that old were destroyed, which made my heart sink. Then she said she found it and listed the guy’s height and weight and eye color (different than me) and race, but we are the same race.

And then….his middle name. Bingo. Different middle name. She asked me to wait a couple minutes while she went to the basement to pull the report and then emailed me a full copy of the court record and police report. She was my angel.

I had emailed three executives based on email addresses someone had posted on Google, as well as the Love Team about my plight. I also messaged their Facebook account and opened a complaint with the BBB. I sent the proof showing this person who only matched my first and last name and birthday was not me. It’s appalling that only that level of match is enough to be accused of being a felon.

To my surprise, later that day I received two messages from Airbnb, one on my reinstated account apologizing and offering to help resolve the issue. Another from the Love Team with a similar message. They also reactivated my coupon and upped it to $200. Okay. I had hoped they would have rebooked my reservation and not charged me for it, but wishful thinking.

I don’t know if the amazing Inflection Risk Solutions, LLC background checking company has reviewed my evidence yet. I originally filled out their dispute form saying I wasn’t ever in Baltimore and had never been arrested in my life. That’s really all I could say at the immediate time of the dispute because I hadn’t discovered the irrefutable evidence until later in the day.

I was not allowed to modify my dispute, but I was able to upload documents, which I did and a text file as well explaining the evidence. They have 30 days, according to their response, to get back to me.

I am hoping Airbnb helps to clear the record. I am unsure whether to book again on Airbnb. I know that will surprise people, but I love the app. Their bookings are so much less expensive than VRBO, which I ended up using last week since I didn’t know if I would get my account reinstated. And their review requirements are by far superior.

I won’t use them for the business trip I have coming up because I cannot risk them deactivating me again a few days before the actual trip. I will likely use them for personal trips only. If they do it to me again, I will be done. But ultimately, they did hear me and reinstate me both times, so maybe that’s a little bit of progress.

Communicating with them is rough. Their phone customer service people are completely useless. Only after complaining loudly to the executives and the FB site did I get any results. And I have no idea if any executives actually received or read my emails.

Think hard about what happened to me and if the records for that guy’s arrest and conviction had been destroyed, how would I prove I wasn’t him and in Baltimore in August of 1999, 20 years ago. I don’t keep records that old. It is frightening thinking I would have to prove my innocence when falsely accused of something.

Background checks should never be half-assed and not use something that uniquely identifies someone, like a SSN. This company is making money using what amounts to a scraping algorithm to declare someone a felon. That should be illegal.

The post Account Mistakenly Deactivated Twice in One Week appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

As a Superhost, I wanted to make sure my Airbnb listing was maintained to my standards while we were away, so I blocked all the dates out on our Airbnb calendar for the time we were away and made sure to have my phone around, Airbnb notifications on, in case I was needed by upcoming guests or had a reservation request. I checked in on the app daily for messages just to make sure that things were fine. No new news, just two pending reviews that I would take care of on the long car ride home.

Then, from out of nowhere, there was a message from a guest asking why we had canceled her upcoming stay? “That’s weird,” I thought, “the only guests I want to cancel are the mice who had been illegally staying with grandma.”

I quickly sent my guest a response letting her know that I was on the road but I would look into it as soon as I got back, which by this time was only a day away. I got home and sat down in front of my computer where I still had no new messages from Airbnb. There were no notifications, but I couldn’t seem to view my reservations.

“Huh, so weird,” I think… “what is going on?” I looked at my upcoming earnings… and there were none. Nothing. Then the next guest I was preparing for was also suddenly gone. Something was terribly wrong. I frantically searched my email for clues, and there it was: an email that my account will be deactivated within 24 hours if I do not confirm my account sent less than a week ago.

Are you kidding me? 24 hours? An email! In my whole life as a host I have never communicated with Airbnb via email. Never. We have apps and online accounts. My partner’s number is signed up to get a text for every message, request, and inquiry. Yet they decided to contact us about something so incredibly important through an email?

There should have been a massive red bar on my account that says “Check your email for account verification or you will be deactivated in 24 hours.” There should have been a phone call. There should have been a text. Literally any additional way of getting in touch with us besides an email. To be honest had I seen the email, I may not have even trusted it because they were asking for confirmation of payment details, which seemed suspicious in and of itself.

So now I wait. No one could answer exactly why my account had been chosen for confirmation/deactivation in the first place but it’s been “passed along” to the technical people and they’ll get back to me. Eight hours and two more phone calls later, I’ve been assured it’s underway at the technical department with the highest priority.

Meanwhile, I have an apartment sitting empty and unbookable during the busiest time of the year, $4000 of cancelled reservations from Airbnb and countless lost hours of labor sending correspondence with those who had booked. I wish I could send all that mouse poop I cleaned out of grandma’s house priority freaking mail directly to Airbnb right now.

The post Epic $4000 Communication Fail in Deactivated Superhost Account appeared first on Airbnb Hell.