An unfair warning about host ground rules

[Tatjana115]

Hello Airbnb hosting community,

I would like to hear your input on this situation:

Even though I have been a superhost since 2021, I received a warning from Airbnb about "listing issues": "Hosts must follow our ground rules. Your listing may be suspended or removed if additional issues are reported." They list 3 reviews from earlier this year where according to them I breached the following ground rules:

1. check in: hard to locate

2. communication: slow to respond 

3. overall rating: slow to respond

*note: 2 and 3 are from the same customer

I will share more context on each situation:

The issue in the first one was that the taxi driver overcharged the customer in the drive from the airport. That is unfortunately something out of my control. Upon booking, I send all my customers details of the check-in as well as detailed explanation on how to find the apartment, since it is slightly tucked in from the main road. I also send two videos, one of the drive to my place, and second on how to enter the building. The customer actually gave me a positive written review, and so I had missed the "2 stars" rating she gave me for location being inaccessible. 

Poor communication: 

- this customer was upset as someone broke his car windshield, case of vandalism that is unfortunate but also out of my control. The customer requested that my cohost and I call the police and deal with them for him. We politely refused to do so, after which he wrote an angry and vengeful review. I addressed this in a public reply to his review on Airbnb. 

Now my question is, do you think I can do something else to address these issues as soon as they happen? Is there something I can do to point out the shortfalls of this ground rules policy to Airbnb? I think that I am being unfairly reprimanded. If Airbnb is considering  penalizing hosts should there not be more of an audit into the listing? 

Appreciate your thoughts on this.

[Helen744]

@Tatjana115 I am not sure why you received these reprimands at all,unless they have really pulled your ratings down and if so I would try and have that particular review removed. Most windscreens are broken by rocks flying from the rear wheels of other cars. Did anyone see this 'vandalism'?There is a place near me behind a car yard up a strange driveway that every guest says is 'difficult to locate'. They rebranded as 'very private ' and are booked solid. So its not always a bad thing, if life gives you lemons as they say.It would be nice if Airbnb pointed out our good points and added them up instead of applying the thumb screws in an arbitrary and extremely secretive and distasteful way. Its not pleasant to find someones 'ill considered opinion,based on a disgruntled guests ill considered opinion' as an email, especially if the review system does not allow such personal remarks or judgements. I think better training of CS agents is well overdue...H

[Downtown6]

Their new ground rules are doing this as soon as there is a complaint or a three star or lower review. You’re given a warning but it’s really a strike against you and if you get 3 in what seems like a 3-4 month period you’re suspended then one more and your listing is permanently removed.

[David11560]

So how did it go? Were you eventually permabanned? They did this to an acquaintance of mine last November 2023 and they did her really rotten. She had over 500 great reviews. Had a around a 4.8 star average. She had been off of the platform for a few years while remodeling her entire guest suite. She dropped around $100,000 into her property in hopes of being able to charge a higher rate. Sadly, things didn't go as planned when a guest didn't show up for her booking. She finally checked in with the guest who claimed she was on her way there and would be there any minute. But instead of actually showing up, the guest reported to Airbnb that the host was unresponsive at check-in. She claimed she arrived at the location but couldn't get inside. It was a complete lie. The host was sitting there out front waiting and the guest literally never even showed up. She unfortunately had her ringer turned off from being in a lecture earlier though, so when Airbnb tried calling her, she didn't answer, but tried calling back less than a minute later. While on hold, she got a notification stating that her entire listing had been suspended due to "multiple warnings" despite receiving no warnings.

After the fact, they reversed here penalty fee, apologized to her, gave her her money back, and acknowledged that she was in fact responsive (not unresponsive.) But they refused to lift the suspension. They also made her agree to the ground rules for hosts in order to lift the suspension after 5 days.

2 weeks later, the same exact NON-guest left a horrible review with 1 star ratings for everything. This time, it triggered a permanent suspension, again due to "multiple warnings" if which there were 5 back to back "warnings" triggered by the 1-star ratings. And this time it was permanent. A permanent lifetime ban. After she had just spent $100,000 on her remodel. And there is literally nothing she can do or say to reverse it, even though the fake review and ratings were removed.

So it seems like Airbnb has really taken a turn for the worse these days.

[Downtown6]

Yes, these new ground rules are absolutely crazy and no one from Airbnb can actually tell you how they work and when you get a warning or a listing issue how long it stays on your account for and if it ever drops off. They’re basically wanting to kick off hosts at this point and they don’t care. They also don’t seem to understand that if you have a warning or a listing issue that it affects you horribly as it’s count as an offense of their new what seems to be “3 strike rule” they say oh well don’t worry it doesn’t affect your account but it does because then if you get a another one, then you can be suspended. I’ve tried to contact them numerous times seeing when these warnings drop off and no one has an answer nor can I find anything on the Internet.  They are losing hosts left and right As everyone is going to other platforms and direct booking. I think they are in trouble, especially with all the new laws being passed yet they just seem to keep kicking off hosts for things that make no sense and there’s absolutely no one you can talk to that’s on the team that handles this other than in writing. They’re going to go bankrupt soon if  they don’t change their policies soon for hosts as there will be none left.

[Downtown6]

I don’t understand How companies like Vacasa that have absolutely horrible reviews don’t lose their Airbnb accounts and they have a ton of properties that would easily be kicked off within months if you see the reviews.