Duplicate listing- NOT A DUPLICATE

Duplicate listing- NOT A DUPLICATE

Airbnb suspended our listing twice. Saying we had a duplicate listing, we appealed it because it was not a duplicate of a property with previous problems. The property was sold and the old owner deleted their listing and we created ours. They originally supported our appeal and then two months later the same thing happened, but this time they wouldn't accept our appeal and told us our listing would be removed. I deleted the listing myself after this. Has anyone else had this happen before? I am not sure what happened to Airbnb customer service but it really went downhill. A real person could never help me and I was told over and over again that a specialized team was working on it. The specialized team appeared to be an AI system that just automatically replied and would never look at with any sort of logic. ANY Human with a brain would be able to look at this and say "oh yeah, these are new owners, not a duplicte"

The hours I spent on the phone, on chat, emailing and proving to them this wasn't a duplicate only for them to say "too bad". Will we ever be able to list the property on airbnb? 

Has this happened to anyone else and how did you resolve it? 

4 Replies 4

Hi Jacquie and Leah,

 

I completely understand how frustrating this must be. Airbnb’s systems often rely heavily on automated detection for duplicate listings, especially when properties have been listed before.

 

Unfortunately, this setup can misclassify legitimate new listings under new ownership, and when hosts face these issues, the "specialized team" responses can feel robotic and disconnected from the reality of the situation.

 

Some hosts have found that providing clear documentation of the ownership transfer—such as a sale agreement or title transfer—helps, though the process can still require persistence and finding the right contact at Airbnb. Others have had better luck working with a local Airbnb ambassador or representative who understands local hosting practices and can vouch for new owners. Sometimes, creating a new listing from scratch, with a different title, photos, and description, can bypass the duplicate-detection algorithm.

 

I think this is mostly detected with the address but you can also try to take new photos  of the listing and add this new photos on your Airbnb profile/listing. Do not try to upload the previous photos you already uploaded though it is almost the same as the old one.

 

Try taking photos of other amenity that you can highlight such as other angle for the outer part of your listing, cookwares, nearby attractions, and/or local food/restaurants in the area.

 

It’s frustrating to spend so much time advocating for something that seems obvious, but staying persistent and documenting all interactions may ultimately make the difference.

 

I hope this helps.

 

All the best,

Upfish Management

Address is going to be the primary key here - they use pictures as a second line of defense. The problem is since Airbnb has a huge amount of churn whoever is sifting all these appeals is either overwhelmed, or in fact doesn’t exist.

 

At this point the Airbnb policy is that a property can only ever be listed once - change in ownership, renovation / features, management change do not matter. If you attempt to ever relist your listing will be removed.

I tried everything to get this resolved. We sent the purchase and sale agreement, the title report. Called and spoke to someone at least 15 times. Spent HOURS trying to fix this and no one could help. 

We will try again in six months but super bummed that they let these things happen. 

@Jacquie-And-Leah0 

Yes...sadly this appears to be yet another AI-driven system run amok. Perhaps one of the moderators can assist in getting this issue to the correct Team at Airbnb? There is a place for AI to do sifting out of duplicate listings and then a human should determine if it is in fact an attempt to re-list the same property with the same Host who is trying to circumvent bad reviews and other listing issues, or a legit new owner.

 

@Quincy, @Paula, @Rebecca, @Bhumika