Suspended! What Happens Next

[Lisa990]

If anyone can share their experiences after having been suspended by AirBnB, I would appreciate it. My place was recently lowered to 4.7 stars due to recent reviews. AirBnB got my attention by suspending my listing. The suspension will be lifted tomorrow. I will say that the suspension got my attention to take care of a few things that may have contributed to unhappy guests. The things that I can do without really making changes, is communicate even more with guests. It seems that guests these days don’t care to respond to messages much less read the house rules, description of my place and past reviews. I will change my booking listings so that same day bookings need to submit a request to book. One recent negative review came from a same day booking when the guest booked my place when I was at work. I do have an automatic message telling them how to reach me directly, but they didn’t see that information. At the moment, I still have one review to make but I am hesitant. I did make a point to ask the guest “What would make your experience at my place even better” and “Your opinion and suggestions are important to me”. The guest gave me some honest advice that I took action on right away. Anyhow, I don’t like the feeling of being driven to get always get high ratings, but I can ask people to communicate and express their opinion to me so they feel like they are being considered. I mistakenly have been hosting for 5 years now, assuming that people would just read about my listing and decide. I did not realize a low star rating would lead to being suspended. I understand that I can improve communicating with my guests but now I feel obligated to contribute “delightful amenities” culture of AirBnB that, unfortunately, adds to the cost of guests staying at my place. I will follow up with a report on how the lifting of the suspension goes!

[Lisa990]

This is what happened: This is the day that I was told my suspended status would be lifted. I went to my AirBnB dashboard and there was a link to reactivate my account. The link took me to a page where I could tick 2 boxes: 1. Agree to AirBnB ground rules 2. Reactivate my suspended listing. There are articles to read and then a message saying that it would take approximately 7 minutes for my account to be reactivated. Fine. 

[Helen3]

You've certainly had lots of frank feedback from guests. What sort of improvements are you putting in place to help improve your guest feedback?

Do highlight in your listing how you have addressed the issues your guests have raised so future guest can see the improvements you have made to give them more confidence in booking.  @Lisa990 

[Lisa990]

Thanks  for your response. I immediately purchased a brand new queen sized bed and mattress and will be doing maintenance and repairs that have been mentioned by guests along with some extra cleaning. I was given advice from support to respond to every review, so I will do that from now on. I also adjusted my booking settings to avoid mishaps like when someone books the same day and I am at work. I just found out to day from AirBnB that they are planning on deactivating my account and removing my listing. I have until June 22nd to appeal and I already submitted my appeal. I am hoping that this is just part of the process of making sure that hosts are taking care and making corrections. I am human, so I make mistakes,  but I can make changes.

[Lisa990]

Yesterday I received an email and a alert on my AirBnB dashboard saying that my listing will be removed on June 22nd. I appealed. AirBnB has an appeal process and a representative outlined what I need to do to keep the process of appeal moving forward. I will need to respond to the email "providing (us with) supporting documentation which shows the completed renovation or remediation alongside a statement that describes how it resolves issues that led to the ground rules violations reported for (my ) listing. Today, all of my open dates were blocked by AirBnB. I have a plan with documentation. Although the primary problem areas have been resolved (bed, ceiling repaired and painted, brand new linens, extra attention to dishes and cookware), I am concerned about things that I cannot get to until next week. 

[Kia272]

 @Lisa990  What I gathered from your post is that you're okay with running a mediocre AirBnB, and that it's up to the guests to read your description and reviews and make a decision to book based on that. Unfortunately, that's not what AirBnB wants. 

You seem unwilling to make some very simple and inexpensive fixes to improve the guest experience. Doing these things is a cost of doing business, and since you have pretty consistent complaints about the bed being uncomfortable, it makes sense to buy a mattress. Your description now says "new bed," but does that mean the mattress or the bed is new? TVs are also really inexpensive now. Just buy a smart TV. That's a small thing that will vastly improve your guests' experience. 

$5 for stains on the bedding? Good luck proving and enforcing that. Your instruction not to throw comforters or blankets in with the other bedding leads me to believe you don't wash them every time you have a changeover? Please tell me that's not so. Yuck. 

Really? Your note that if a guest booked May 18th you're having a ceiling repair done? Common sense would dictate that you block that day. How's the guest experience going to be if there are workmen in the property they rented? 

You also have consistent complaints about your check-out procedures. You can't have guests clean your entire place for you, period. It's not their job. You also charge a cleaning fee, so that adds insult to injury.  Your guests are on vacation or a getaway. They shouldn't have to spend their time cleaning your property. You are the owner and host. It's your job to clean the place. 

If you want to improve your hosting experience, you might spend some time looking at local, successful listings and making note of what those other hosts are doing. You could also reach out to try and find a mentor of sorts. Good luck. 

[Paula]

Hi @Kia272 

Thanks for taking the time to weigh in on @Lisa990's suspension issue.  

It looks like they were looking for similar suspension experiences rather than a critique here, and I just wanted to remind you of our Community Center Guidelines specifically around being respectful and encouraging.

It sounds like OP has taken the time to do some self reflection on how to make her guest experience better, and I feel it’d be more productive to focus on that.

Thanks!

Paula

[Mark116]

@Paula   I'm looking for some clarification, your post seems to infer that Kia's post somehow was  in breach of the CC guidelines? Was that your intent?  Could you explain exactly how that post is against the rules?

It reads as respectful AND helpful to me, but alas, I no longer have much of a handle on what is and is not considered appropriate for this forum.

Thanks in advance.

[Lisa990]

Thanks Paula. I really appreciate your response. Everything you say makes sense. 

[Eloísa1]

something similar to what happened to you is happening to me. I am in the process of making improvements, and presenting evidence of this.
Could you tell me if your case was resolved favorably and your listing was reactivated? If so, how long did it take?