New listing removed as a duplicate, filed appeal but still waiting after a week+ - HELP!

[Kristina-and-Aidan0]

Hi! I just moved into a new property in Flagstaff that I spent $50k renovating and building out. I have new professional photography coming next week to reshoot the property and capture all of the new amenities (new game room, hot tub, completely remodeled backyard, front yard, furniture, etc), but I used old photos the owner had of the property in the meantime. I started getting bookings, then suddenly it was removed as a duplicate of a listing the old owner had years ago (I assume because of the photos matching the old listing that's been deactivated for years)! I'm completely blown away. I didn't even know he used to Airbnb the place! I just sunk so much money into renovating and I'm a superhost at my other properties! I filed an appeal and thought it would take 7 days, but its still pending more than a week later. I'm not making any money on the property now and I might have to give it up because I can't keep making payments on it with no income coming in. I called airbnb customer support and supervisors many times but no one could help me and just said I had to file the appeal. I'm desperate, can someone please help me? The listing is for NEW! Hot Tub Game Room Arcade w/ 10k+ Games Hikes! Pending removal.

Thank you in advance!

[Helen3]

Hi @Kristina-and-Aidan0 

sorry to hear this . You can understand why Airbnb is trying to weed out hosts who set up duplicate listings to hide bad reviews . It's horrible you have been caught out by this. 

Why not use some of the other STR platforms to generate income. It would seem silly to give up on your STR business for this property so quickly when you have invested so much into it. 

I'm not sure why you would have used the previous owners photos when you did so much remodelling.

why not go over today and get your own photos done while you are waiting for the professional ones so you can upload these and hopefully resolve tings with airbnb.

[Kristina-and-Aidan0]

I manage the property remotely and only am able to get to it once every few weeks, but I do have pro photography scheduled for next week - the photos the old owners had were professionally taken and still capture most of the property well, and I added some phone photos of the new amenities too - so I didn't see any downside of using them for the few short weeks until I had the new amenities installed and pro photography taken. I do have the property on other platforms, but they just don't perform nearly as well as Airbnb and I am sitting very vacant despite incredibly low rates. It's just the reality that Airbnb is the dominant player in the space and without them, you will lose profitability.

[Helen3]

I think the fact they had professional photos of the property was a hint that you should have checked whether it had been on an STR platform. What's done though is done now. @Kristina-and-Aidan0 

i suggested you go over straight away as you indicated you needed to urgently resolve the issue with Airbnb. If that's not the case absolutely wait until next week. 

Going forward hopefully you will have a cohost who lives locally to respond to emergencies . 

[Kristina-and-Aidan0]

Hi @Helen3 ,

Thanks for the feedback - what emergency are you speaking of? Everything is fine at the property, this is a situation wholly created by Airbnb. The photos I am using were given to me by the host as they were using them to list it on Zillow in soliciting long term renters to lease to (me). Why would I automatically suspect this means they were on Airbnb in the past? Of the 10 listings I visited before selecting the one I ended up renting, 7 of them had professional photos taken for the listing as well, and none of those were on Airbnb (they all had long term tenants prior). Professional photos are now an industry standard for listing your house for rent online - I'm really missing your insinuation that this should have been some sort of red flag that this was on Airbnb.

I live close enough where I can drive to the property if needed. I have multiple teams that live within minutes of the property. I simply don't understand how this is any kind of emergency - if I delete every photo on the listing and take my own, will that automatically release the hold Airbnb has on my account? No, so what's the point of doing that? They're my photos to use, and I already have new photos scheduled to be taken next week. Airbnb erroneously marked this as a duplicate listing - it isn't one, simple as that. The listing they are referencing has been deactivated for many years, I provided documentation of me just having signed a lease in February to become the tenant of the property and of all of the money I've put into renovations.. what else am I supposed to do? 

This isn't my first Airbnb, and I work a full time job for a large online travel agency. Truthfully, I'm flabbergasted at how this has been handled. I recognize it was like AI just matching a photo with an old one they had in their system, but the evidence provided and now time that's elapsed is really worrying, and disappointing given my Superhost status, years of perfect ratings on Airbnb, and copious effort to demonstrate the clear error that was made here.

My goal in posting this was to hopefully have a community manager pick up this thread and escalate this issue, as it's been ongoing for more than a week now without even being picked up by an agent, all the while I'm losing money every day it's now sitting vacant. I'm simply waiting on Airbnb to respond and let me know what they're deliberating on so if what I provided already isn't sufficient, I can add more evidence to whatever they need.