Airbnb Blocked My Calendar, Said I'm Under Investigation and Has Given Me No Information for Two Days.

[Leslie79]

Hi All

I am in a supremely Kafka-esque Airbnb world. 

I have been hosting since 2012. I've hosted well over 2000 people, have a 4.8 to 4.9 host rating and am a superhost. I love hosting.

Two days ago, a woman would not leave my home. When I tried to get her to leave she said I was assaulting her and called Airbnb and the police. When the police arrived, they convinced her to leave and they told me that they were familiar with her and that she was mentally ill. 

The next morning, I noticed that all of my open listing nights had been blocked by Airbnb. The reservations I already had had not been cancelled, so I had a couple of full nights. Airbnb support said that I am being investigated and would be contacted. I have not been contacted and have continued to reach out to Airbnb support. No one I have reached can tell me anything except to wait. I am now losing $200-$300/day and can get no information. 

Does anyone have any experience like this or any suggestions? Does Airbnb have an ombudsperson? 

Help, please!!! I am feeling quite desperate about this. 

[Helen3]

Hello @Leslie79 

I'm sorry to hear of your experience. When you had this situation with the guest, did you contact Airbnb when you needed to ask her to leave, so they had your side of the story before the guest contacted them?

As the police were called, could you share the police report?

And are you sure your calendar is blocked because of this guest and not because of Covid restrictions in your area - I thought there were now travel restrictions in California?

Certainly in the UK Ombudsman are for public bodies, banks and utility companies rather than multinationals.

I would just keep in touch with Airbnb daily, be calm but persistent. If there aren't travel restrictions in your area, I hope Airbnb open your calendar soon.

[Leslie79]

Hi

Thanks for your response.

I called to request the police report. Since I didn't file charges, they said there is no "police report." However, there is an "incident report," since the police did come to the house. They said it would take 10 days to received it. I did not request it, since I had been told that Airbnb would be getting back to me ASAP. I will now request the incident report, as I see I may need it.

I contacted Airbnb the next day and reported the incident. My calendar was blocked after I had made the report. 

I don't think the blocking is related to travel restrictions because the Airbnb folks told me my account was being "investigated." 

Does anyone know how to get to speak to someone at Airbnb who can resolve this kind of thing? All I can get to is the lower level customer service people who tell me that I cannot be connected with the person responsible for my case and I will be contacted ASAP. But, it's been almost two days and no one has reached out or explained.  

This is just bizarre. 

[Leslie79]

What do the "Levels" mean that are below our names in this forum? I've never used an Airbnb forum before. 

[Lisa723]

@Leslie79 the levels are just an annotation of degree of participation in this forum. If the experience of many others is any guide, you have little recourse other than to wait for the mysterious "trust and safety" unit to make its determination. Some people have reported success publicly appealing to Airbnb on Facebook and/or Twitter, though.

[Fred13]

In reality @Leslie79,  you live in a country that in a genuine sincere effort to always be just and fair, it has created endless opportunities for its true scoundrels (and even outright lunatics)  to easily 'game the system', and it constantly happens because its companies live in a world of legal fear and/or confusion that all individuals are of the same level of sanity and fair play.

   If Airbnb was made aware that the police 'were familiar with her and that she was mentally ill', it stands to reason,  you with your long proven record, should have been given the benefit of the doubt till further notice, not the other way around.

Good luck.

[Lenore22]

I have no answers, but that is incredibly frustrating. After such a long track record, one would hope that you would be given the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, you may just need to pester them to get a response. So sorry you're going through this.

[Nick]

Hi @Leslie79 

I'm sorry you are experiencing this problem. Upon reading your post, I sent all the details to the appropriate department. Will contact you via DM when I have an update. 

Thanks

Nick 

[Leslie79]

Who are you? Do you work for Airbnb? Can you tell me what happened? I manage about 125 reservations a month. Something like this will no doubt happen again. It would be great to know how to reach the organization and people responsible if I get shut down or need safety support. Thanks. 

[Helen350]

@Leslie79 Sadly, you are not the first to give this story in the CC, it happens frequently, and the word 'Kafka-esque' is usually attached!

If it's any consolation, hosts have reported being re-instated eventually, tho' it may take a few weeks.

You might find similar stories if you can type certain words into the search feature at the top of this page...

Good luck!

[Leslie79]

@Helen3 @Lisa723 @Fred13 @Lenore22 @Helen350 @NickThank you everyone. One moment my calendar was blocked and the next it was up. I'm grateful it's up and for all of your support. "Kafka-esque" is definitely the word. Very "The Trial." Anyway, happy to be up and running. BTW, I can see from their stats that I lost over 1000 views and two to four bookings. 

[5-Star-Property-Management0]

I am navigating a similar situation… I am a super host with fantastic conversion rates excellent response rates and 100% five star ratings… Airbnb decided to suspend my account without letting me know or reaching out to me due to a situation with one of my cohosts. I removed the cohost from my account as a Airbnb has suggested and yet my account is still suspended. I have reached out to Airbnb multiple times through email and phone calls and nobody can seem to give me any updates or any information in regards to my suspended account. This is extremely frustrating as I have never been in bad graces with Airbnb nor have I ever had upset homeowners and inquiries that I could not fulfill. Every time I reach out to Airbnb I have been given a runaround and my situation seems to fall on deaf ears. This suspended account is costing me hundreds of dollars and costing my homeowners thousands of dollars and unnecessary headaches! I don’t know what to do or where to go from here. I am hoping somebody has some advice or can help navigate through the situation. All I want is my account to be reinstated and back in good standing. 

[Kara-and-Jessica0]

Is your account back up and active? We have been going through the same situation this week with AirBNB. On Monday when we called, we were told the issue was on the software end of things. We called our software company and they said they would get it fixed. Then a day went by and they said nope, this is on Airbnb's end! We called AirBNB again and at that time were told we were under investigation and would receive a report regarding the investigation within 24 hours and our listings would be active again by 10:30am. It has been 3 days since that phone call. We have called 15+ times and I have talked to Erica, Cheyenne, Marvin, May, Chris, and a few more people and every single one of them has told us something different. Cheyenne and May told us they have escalated the account to urgent. The crazy thing is that Cheyenne told me yesterday that we were not under investigation and that we would have been notified prior to all 62 of our listings being suspended.... Then today May is telling us we are under investigation but she that is all she is able to tell us.  I do not see how this is legal??? We are losing thousands of dollars a day which may not be much to AirBNB but these 62 properties and the thousands of dollars we are losing is my livelihood and my 4 children's livelihood! I am at the point of just wanting to cry because I am so frustrated!

[Leslie79]

@Nick

thanks!! I was hoping someone from the company was monitoring this forum. Do you have any information or idea what happened? Do you think your intervention helped get me back up? Thanks so much for your efforts.

[Nick]

Genuinely happy to see there's been progress on this @Leslie79 

They told me they would look into it straight away, so I'm happy to see they have been prompt about it 🙂