Guest seems to be lying about someone entering the house - advice?

[Benjamin1433]

Airbnb notified me that a recent guest submitted a safety complaint but won't disclose what it is. Our home is newly remodeled and everything in it is brand new. Sits on it's own 3 acres in the woods. The Airbnb agent asked me 3 general questions:

1. Do I provide cleaning services during the reservation? (No)

2. Do I ever access the house during a reservation? (No)

3. Does anyone else ever access the house? (No one besides my cleaner after check-out)

I have 24-hour Ring camera footage of the exterior/main entrance (only way into the house) that I offered to the support agent but they've declined it thus far - it clearly shows that no one but those guests went in and out. The agent only wanted to see a screenshot of it. 

The salt in the wound is that I went above and beyond for this guest and made a 12pm early check-in happen for them. Anyway, Airbnb shut us down from receiving new bookings until it's resolved. I'd read about this stuff happening but can't believe I'm only 1mo into renting and I'm already blocked. Any advice/actions I should be taking right now? 

Many thanks in advance!

[Andrea2460]

The same thing has happened to me several times and it is very frustrating.  I no longer write  regular reviews because of Airbnb's strong bias when it comes to guests.  For example, a guest will throw a party; I saw them carrying in a case of beer at 2 am.  I call the police on them so they report a safety issue which closes me down and they also get to write a negative review.  So now I only write a review when I need to warn hosts.  I hope you write a candid review about this guest so that other hosts can be forewarned.

[Benjamin1433]

Thank for you for this - seems unfortunate that this is a common occurrence. How long was it until support reinstated your listing? 

[Sara-And-Rob0]

A guest last year tried to commit insurance fraud and claimed a fake injury.  They reported our stairs as unsafe and not only did we have our listing yanked, but the agent wrote us at 7 pm and said she was going to do it and would get back to us after she got back from her weekend!  No other agent could pick up the case. We were offline for 72 hours and then, to be reactivated, we had to add wording of her choice to our listing with even more details about our stairs, which are just normal stairs.  In those 72 hours, we discovered a string of other attempts this guest made in the past few years.  I even contacted the 5 hosts he tried to scam (they luckily wrote details in their reviews).  All in all, it was 3 days offline and no amount of fighting got us back, we had to lockstep to Airbnb's tune.  

By the way, the third-party insurance company, based on my detailed evidence, refused to pay the guy out.  I still couldn't get his review removed where he mentions the stairs because the policy for removal was not broken...even though Airbnb's insurance partner deemed his claims untrue.  As hosts, I feel we have no voice and it's all about the 14% guest fees.  

[Rebecca]

Hi again @Benjamin1433 👋

How did you get on? Has your listing been reinstated now? 

It'd be great to hear from you, 

Rebecca 🌟

[Benjamin1433 · Accepted solution]

Hi Rebecca, after 8 days, it finally did yes! Thanks for all your help - it's greatly appreciated. 

-Ben