Accused of Review Violation

[Valerie780]

I've been an Airbnb host for 3 years and a super host for almost from the start. Guets  love my rental and I've had very few difficulties. I received an email from Airbnb stating that I had violated their reviews policy. They claimed one or more of my reviews appear to be biased and not earned on the merit of the stay. They threatened to close my account if this happened again. But they refuse to give me any details. I have no idea what they're talking about. I have less than 100 reviews and all them are from legitimate booked stays. I've been told they can't discuss it with me and they will not even consider reversing their decision. This makes me angry because I have not been given the chance to defend myself. Has this happened to anyone else? 

[Sarah977]

@Valerie780  I can tell you what this is probably about. I looked back over the reviews you've left for your guests, not all 75, but the most recent 15 . In your most recent review, you said " Xx was a phantom guest." Of course by this you meant that the guest was out and about or kept to themselves, and the rest of the review makes it clear that this is a positive review.

But either the guest complained about the word "phantom" or some algorithm picked it up as being some sort of name-calling.

I would talk to customer service and explain that the word "phantom" was colloquial, meaning the guest was so quiet you hardly knew he was there, and it was meant to be a compliment, certainly nothing bad or biased. Be aware that you may end up talking to some less than English- fluent CS rep in the Phillipines. I would deal with this by messaging, rather than calling, as it may take some back and forth explaining, and you want a written record of the exchange.

How ridiculous.

[Valerie780]

@Sarah977 If that is it then yes it is very ridiculous. My problem is that they will not tell me exactly what review or reviews they are referring. How can I not do something again if I don't know what I did in the first place?

[Sarah977]

@Valerie780  Unfortunately, this is typical Airbnb. They have suspended or delisted hosts due to a reported safety issue, yet refuse to tell the host what the issue is. When hosts have asked how they can correct or respond to the issue if they don't know what is, they are told just to correct it or not do whatever it was they supposedly did again. 

It's like being stuck in some absurdist novel.

If I were you, I would just say that you assume this has to do with that review, because you can't think of anything else it could be, and go on to educate them about what "phantom"  means in the context of your positive review of the guest.

[Valerie780]

@Sarah977 at this point I'm over it

 already. I just wanted to know someone else had experienced this strange phenomenon.. if nothing else it has motivated me to get my property on several other platforms.  I'm a good host so if Airbnb decides to delete my account I won't be starting from ground zero. I worked really hard to build this business to have it threatened over stupidity. Thanks for your input. 

[Colleen253]

 "How can I not do something again if I don't know what I did in the first place?"

 @Valerie780 Read below. You are not alone. There are many others, but this one was memorable for it's level of ridiculousness. Sorry you got caught in the crosshairs. Hope you get it sorted.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Can-t-Trust-the-Trust-amp-Safety-Team/m-p/1232833

[Sarah977]

@Colleen253  I'm glad you found and posted that link. It came to mind as soon as I read Varerie's dilemma, but I couldn't remember the title of that post. Gonna bookmark it now.

[Mark116]

@Valerie780  Right?  You would think the goal w/good hosts would be to educate and not punish, let alone refuse to even tell you what you have done wrong.  But, this is how Airbnb does things, there are many, many posts on here where hosts have been banned or suspended and Airbnb uses the same language, we can't tell you what you did, but don't do it again.

I agree w/@sarah that you should put this on the message system in writing as you go forward to try and get it retracted. 

[Michael504]

Reminds me of dictatorship....

[Till-and-Jutta0]

I’m afraid, there seems to be something more behind:

There was a first wave five months ago, exactly that happened to me, and also to others. We have been accused of giving a review about a fake booking, which consequently has been removed.

And now we see a second wave, the first level support in DACH is full of complaints. Even reviews, which have been restored after the first complaint, are removed a second time now. Some algorithm is working again.

[Helen3]

Is this something your host advisory board is looking into with Airbnb @Till-and-Jutta0 

[Solveig0]

Same happened to me, and I can see it has happened to a lot of people here in Denmark recently. 

[Emilia42]

@Valerie780 @Till-and-Jutta0 

I received the e-mail this morning as well:

There was a little hint and I know exactly which review it was. Back in 2018, I discounted a booking to $10 per night. It was a family friend who booked and I really did not want to charge her. She should have contacted me directly and not gone through Airbnb. But the moral of (my) story is: don't heavily discount stays and expect the review to remain. 

[Valerie780]

This is absurd. I can hardly open the app without being bombarded with notifications to reduce my rate and offer specials. Because the rate was reduced doesn't mean the review isn't valid. I've offered discounted stays and even refunded a full stay in the name of good customer service. If my guest has a problem with my rental during their stay or with Airbnb which has been the case I tried to resolve it in the guests favor. I comped a guest of free night because Airbnb allowed a booking even though my calendar clearly showed that that date was not available. I had screenshotted proof so Airbnb had to message the guest and tell her her dates were not available. I celt extremely bad because the guest was coming up for a funeral. So I offered her a free night as compensation for her trouble. As the owner that should be my prerogative. Their policy would make sense if I had a host of negative reviews and then all of a sudden I had a five-star review then that's when there should be red flags. 

[Solveig0]

I completely agree, @Valerie780 . If I were to offer the price Airbnb wants me to offer, all my reservations would be subject to suspicion 😄 😄