Hello all,
I was recently approached by a couple who asked me to manage their property while they travel.
They previously had another manage (Amanda) who she did a bad job and therefore, they wanted to go with me. Until recently, we were unable to contact Amanda and it appears the listing was inactive.
We therefore could not take over her previous listing and set up a new listing, with me as a co-host. Air bnb have sought to remove this listing as it is a duplicate. I challenged this stating that the property was under new management and that we couldn’t contact the previous manager - no luck, they didn’t care that I was a super host for 8 years and that the previous manager would have nothing to do with this otherwise excellent property. The super host customer services team manager said that the only way this decision could be overturned was to removed the original listing. I asked whether this was the case even if Amanda had died or that the property was sold and I was (obscenely!) told that it was, new owners in 100 years time would still not be able to list this property on air bnb apparently.
We therefore sought to track Amanda down and successfully had her remove the listing.
I’ve since e-mailed the specialist team that deals with these issues to confirm that the previous listing has been removed (you must e-mail and cannot call, annoyingly). They’ve ignored my e-mails for a week now, I’ve even phoned customer support who assured me that they will also e-mail said team, still I’m being ignored. During this time, we’ve lost money by not being able to take any bookings.
What else can I do? I don’t want to put this property on BDC or another competitor however I feel like I’m being left with no alternative. I feel air bnb are in breach of their obligations under the Sales of Goods act in providing me with a service that is neither fit for purpose nor of carrying out this service with reasonable care and skill.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Rhys
