Old listing needs deactivated, but Airbnb haven't been able to help.

[Batten-Green0]

6 years of owning/hosting Airbnbs, and I have finally found an "unsolveable" issue on the Airbnb platform that is absolutely blowing my mind. Looking for advice if anyone has experienced something similar:

We bought a property with 9 units on it. The guy who owned the property several years back (two owners ago), was foreclosed on and moved away, never to be heard from again. As it turns out, his old lisitngs are still active on Airbnb.

The property is now closed as we're remodeling it, and about once a week we have someone showing up trying to check in who booked the old listing. Every time, we have them call Airbnb and explain the situation, Airbnb gives them their money back, and they go book elsewhere.

We've contacted Airbnb directly on several occasions explaning the situation - that we have absolutely no way of contacting this person asking him to kindly close his account (which was Airbnb's suggestion).

Airbnb says they have no power to shut down listings or accounts, and that all they can do is send the host a message asking them to remove their listings. Shaking with anger thinking of the numerous times my listings have been shut down in the past for weeks at a time for ridiculously stupid reasons, I explain to them that if they do not take action, guests are going to keep showing up to my property expecting to stay, and we're going to have to keep turning them away.

Airbnb simply does. not. care.

PLEASE HELP ME BY REPORTING THIS USER AND ALL OF HIS LISTINGS (WHICH ARE ALL MY PROPERTY):  https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/225569823 

[Helen744]

Batten-Green0 Its worth while talking to anyone who turns up and asking them if they have paid for the accomodation and or spoken to the host. Look up the ex hosts name through the chain of title and get in touch with them or ask the real estate agents ,they will know. Look up sold properties and see if you can find the agent who sold the property. A direct appeal to the person will allow them to remove the property. The issue is that sometimes people buy properties that have been Airbnbs with the intention to trade on the previous hosts goodwill but do not pay for it,so hosts may simply keep the listing open in their own names as the business was not bought, also they may simply not have removed the listing which is buzzing away on its own . Check the listing incognito ,online and see if it has any recent reviews and the profile of the host should be there ..... H

[Batten-Green0]

Thanks for the input.  It's unfortunately a bit more complicated than that.  The guests showing up have no direct communcation with the host, just confirmation messages from the Airbnb platform.  This particular ex-owner was foreclosed on, moved out of state, filed bankruptcy, the whole 9 yards.  I've been able to get a few phone numbers that may be associated with him but several calls have gone unanswered and no voicemailbox is active.  I'm in a black hole here!  And Airbnb is absolutely worthless!  I've talked with probably 10 different "guest support reps" at Airbnb and every single one of them, including their "supervisors", simply keep telling me there's nothing they can do and it's on me to work it out with the old owner.  Hopefully by making all of this public, I can get some more support.

[Jenny]

Hi @Batten-Green0 

I've passed this over to the team to see if we can get you some more help with this.

Someone will be in in touch once they've investigated, and I hope they can provide a resolution.

Jenny

[Batten-Green0]

Jenny - please provide details to them of my absolute desperation.  I've talked with several people at Airbnb who have all told me it's my responsiblity to "work it out" with the old owner, and that there is nothing they can do.  It's absolutely insane.  I was already thinking of quitting the platform altogether before this, and this is probably the last straw for me.  It's one of the many reasons why hosts are ditching Airbnb in droves.