Duplicate Listing Suspension

Rach4433

Hi Community Managers,

I am hoping somebody may be able to offer some guidance or assist with escalating a case that is becoming increasingly concerning and, frankly, quite distressing for us as a small business.

My husband and I purchased a property through our existing company, C&P Barnes Ltd, via a normal legal property transaction. The property had previously operated as an Airbnb under the former owner’s account.

Prior to completion, the previous owner contacted Airbnb to seek guidance on the correct process for transferring future bookings to the new owners. Airbnb advised that a new listing should be created under the new ownership and that future bookings should be transferred across to the new listing.

We followed Airbnb’s guidance exactly.

Shortly after the new listing was created and the bookings transferred, the listing was suspended for being a duplicate listing. We subsequently became aware that the previous host had host violations associated with their Airbnb account.

This immediately raised concerns for us because Airbnb was aware that ownership was changing and had provided guidance on the process to follow. If creating a new listing was always going to trigger a duplicate listing suspension due to the previous host’s account history, why was this not identified at the point Airbnb provided that advice?

We are entirely separate owners operating through a separate company. We purchased the property itself through a legal transaction. We did not acquire the previous host’s Airbnb account, hosting history, reviews or violations.

Following the first suspension, Airbnb requested evidence of the ownership and management changes. We supplied extensive documentation, including:

• Property completion statement
• Sale memorandum
• Land Registry ownership documentation
• Identification documents for both new owners
• Company documentation for C&P Barnes Ltd
• Evidence of ownership transfer
• Information regarding our management arrangements
• Information regarding cleaning and operational procedures
• Additional supporting explanations requested by Airbnb

Despite supplying this information, our first appeal was denied.

Approximately two weeks later, however, the listing was reinstated following a further review by Airbnb.

Naturally, we believed the matter had been resolved and that Airbnb had accepted the evidence provided.

Unfortunately, the listing was then suspended again for exactly the same reason — duplicate listing.

This is where our concerns have become much more serious:

Throughout both suspensions, the appeal process has followed almost exactly the same pattern.

First, we receive an email stating that our submission contains personal information and cannot be reviewed. We then redact the documents and resubmit them.

Next, we receive a request for additional evidence relating to ownership and management changes, despite already having supplied substantial documentation.

We then provide the requested information again.

Finally, we receive what appears to be the same rejection email advising that the listing will not be reinstated.

This process has now repeated itself across multiple appeals.

What is particularly concerning is that the wording of the emails appears identical each time and does not appear to address any of the specific questions we are raising.

At no point has anybody explained:

• Why Airbnb advised us to create a new listing if doing so would result in suspension.
• Why the listing was reinstated and then suspended again for exactly the same reason.
• Which specific document Airbnb believes is missing or insufficient.
• Why documentation previously accepted by Airbnb is no longer considered satisfactory.
• What has materially changed since the review that resulted in reinstatement.
• What further action Airbnb expects us to take.

As a result, we are becoming increasingly concerned that our appeals are not being individually reviewed and are instead generating standardised responses regardless of the information being submitted.

The situation has now reached the point where we have submitted three formal complaints regarding the handling of the case.

Those complaints were submitted because of our concerns about the appeal process and the lack of clarity being provided.

However, despite Airbnb’s complaints policy, we have yet to receive a substantive response to those complaints either.

The impact on our business has been significant.

We have experienced booking cancellations, loss of revenue, uncertainty for guests, disruption to our operations and an enormous amount of time spent gathering documents, preparing appeals and responding to requests that appear to repeat themselves.

Most importantly, we still do not understand what Airbnb believes is wrong.

We are not seeking special treatment.

We are simply asking for somebody with access to the full case history to review what has happened and explain how the same property can be:

Suspended for being a duplicate listing.
Reinstated after Airbnb reviews extensive evidence.
Suspended again for exactly the same reason.

.

At this stage, more than anything else, we simply want clarity.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.