Account suspension

[Adhina0]

Hello. I am very new to the hosting side of airbnb. I recently listed my property had no idea it had to go through review before it would be officially listed. After I waited the 24-72 hour period, I was still unable to see my property on airbnb and I got a notification that my listing was suspended??? After calling airbnb customer service , they said it was was some kind of technical issue. Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue and how long it took for them to resolve it. We’re entering the holidays and I was really looking forward to getting my listing up and running before then. Thanks so much 

[Colleen253]

@Adhina0 New listings always take a few days to go fully live, to give you a chance to make sure all the details are in place properly and bugs worked out before people start booking it. 

Re your immediate suspension, that sounds odd, but I do wonder if it has something to do with your only review as a guest. It seems you threw a party and caused some significant trouble for the host. Airbnb may think you will encourage parties with your listing.  Did your listing make mention of allowing or encourage parties and events in any way? That would flag it. Just guessing, as one never knows for sure what is behind Airbnb actions. 

https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-announces-global-party-ban/

[Adhina0]

Hello thank you for reaching out! Back in 2017 when I had an issue with a host, airbnb contacted me and assured me that my account would stay active and I would not get penalized for the issue. I also contacted airbnb before trying to list my property asking if it would have a negative impact with becoming a host. They once again told me as a host, there wouldn’t be a problem. I also made sure to make it very clear there cannot be any parties and that there is also a fine for a noise complaint. Hope that helps! 

[Sarah977]

@Adhina0 An "issue" with a host? Interesting way to characterize throwing a party and trashing a home.

[Adhina0]

Hi I appreciate the feedback. Unfortunately, my side of the story was never publicly told and that is not what I made this post to talk about. If you have further questions regarding that issue,  I’d be happy to go into detail with you directly 🙂

[Colleen253]

@Adhina0 "....that is not what I made this post to talk about." 

It may not have been the intent of your post to talk about that, but the chance it's associated with your issue is high, which is why I brought it up.

[M199]

@Adhina0 

There is an unspoken etiquette that hosts understand, but some guests don't get. Reading your single review, not good. It will be interesting to hear what your post is if/when a guest has a party against your rules.

BTW - Just a heads up!  Airbnb favors guests over hosts.  It's well known on this site.

All my best wishes in your endeavours.

[Sarah977]

@Adhina0  When a host or guest posts here, other posters will often first look at the profile, the past reviews as a host or guest, and a host's listing before responding, because there could be something relevant there to inform the response. 

A host might complain about many guests arriving thinking they rented an entire house, when it was only a guest suite, but when looking at the host's listing, it becomes evident that their photo gallery and/or listing description could easily be misleading to guests, which is what is causing the problem.

Or a guest may post here about some supposedly awful experience they had, asking for advice on how to get a refund, but when checking out the reviews they have been given in the past, and the reviews they've left for past hosts, you see that they have had a litany of complaints about every place they've stayed and gotten bad reviews from several hosts.

Or to the contrary, you see the guest has 20 reviews saying they were great guests, and the host's profile shows multiple reviews saying the place was dirty, the host was rude, and issues weren't dealt with. In that case, it would appear that the guest has valid issues and the host is very likely to have been just as bad as the guest says they were.

The more info responders have here, the  more solid their advice or opinions are likely to be.

So it is relevant to your question that your only review history is that a host said you had a party and trashed the house. While of course there are always 2 sides to every story, it would be a very rare host who would simply make up a story like that- there is nothing to gain for them in doing so. And it is relevant to your question here, because it could very well be why your listing is suspended.

[Adhina0]

Hi I am so sorry and I am new to this so I did not tag the person I was responding to before  @Colleen253 , my response was meant for @Sarah977   .

I really don’t see the need to be rude, especially based on one review 4 years ago. I understand that that is all there is to go off of on my account and from an outsider, that would be the most logical explanation. I also understand that all of you have had some negative experiences from guests that maybe triggered your responses towards me and that is completely understandable! 🙂 However, I was 18 at the time. It was a very small one bedroom apartment that was meant for my boyfriend at the time and a single friend. My boyfriend ended up inviting 5 other people not to my knowledge. It was such a small space it wasn’t exactly the party atmosphere they thought and left. Someone knocked down a candle and the wax spilled everywhere. My friend and I attempted to scrape it up using our credit cards (mostly unsuccessfully). But to clarify, no nothing was stolen like stated. In fact, I ended up contacting airbnb after the incident to try my best to apologize and explain. They ended up siding with me due to the fact that again, nothing was stolen. My phone was also on because I responded to a very angry text from the host the next day (completely understandable). I later found out that the only reason he did find out was because his neighbor ended up telling him that there was more than 3 people at the apartment. 

I really did not feel the need to go into detail about this because (and of course I could be wrong) I don’t see the relevance. Airbnb has told me it is a technical issue so now all I have to do is wait for it to be resolved! 🙂 but thanks for all the help!! 

[Sarah977]

@Adhina0  I really wasn't judging you. But now that you explained what happened, portraying it as "an issue with a host" is not really taking responsibility, IMO. And there could have been something one of your boyfriend's friends stole. Those things are hard to prove or disprove. How does one prove that some item went missing? It's basically  one person's word against the other's, unless they walked off with the big screen TV.

And as another poster pointed out, Airbnb usually takes the guest's side, as you will probably find out at some point as a host.

But the review in question is 4 years old. I definitely had the thought that you might have been young and wild or careless and that nothing like that would ever occur again if you were a guest. Or that you booked for a group and others got wild and rowdy and you couldn't control the situation. Or even that you had to leave before the booking was over and the house trashing happened by others in your group without your knowledge. None of us were there to know exactly what happened. But it doesn't seem the host lied, so it's not an unfair review. And it unfortunately can affect you going forward.

Something you need to understand about dealing with Airbnb customer service is that what they tell you is not necessarily true. "A technical issue" could mean anything. And they are very closed-mouth about telling hosts about things they may be investigating. It is, for instance, absolutely common for them to suspend a listing because a guest filed a complaint, even if the complaint is totally bogus, and refuse to tell the host why their listing was suspended. They'll even tell the host that the listing has been unsuspended, but that the host needs to make sure they don't do whatever they got suspended for again, and when the host says they have no clue why they got suspended, please tell me, they won't- just don't do it again.

It's quite insane. So sure, it may very well be a technical issue, but then again, it may not. You'll just have to wait and see if it gets sorted, hopefully soon.

[Adhina0]

@Sarah977  I could have worded my previous post a little better. I am in no way am trying to discredit the way he felt at the time. I was just in the best way possible, trying explain the situation. 

As far as the “technical issue goes” those thoughts have definitely crossed my mind about it being something other than what they’ve stated. I am quite frustrated as probably anyone would be with the amount of time and effort I have put into creating this property for almost a year, solely for airbnb. It could be a huge mistake on my part for not coming up with a better “plan b” in case airbnb did fall through. I’m doing my best to stay positive and wait things out. I did end up listing my property on a different site and got my first booking which has given me some relief on the matter. I’m hoping they will reach out soon and hopefully give me a direct response to the suspension, which it sounds might not be the case.

@Colleen253 

[Adhina0]

Just out of curiosity, is anyone able to see my listing on my profile? LOL

[Sarah977]

@Adhina0  There is an empty box on your profile page where the listing would normally be.

[Colleen253]

@Adhina0 No, it's not visible.

[Colleen253]

@Adhina0 Airbnb outsources it's CS, so the reps are third party contract workers who rarely know anything about Airbnb. They often dish out nonsense answers and misinformation. Saying it's a 'technical issue' is a convenient answer as the person who told you that likely has no idea whatsoever why you were shut down. Hope it gets resolved for you, and good luck in your hosting. This board is a great place to learn all you need to know, by the way.