AirBNB threatened to suspend my account **

[Douglas353]

I just received a notice from AirBNB threatening to suspend my account for **.  The AirBNB support person told me **

WHY IS AIRBNB TELLING ME **?   THAT'S NOT RIGHT !

In addition the information on AirBNB's web site about short term stays is WRONG and violate current short term rental laws.  

I have bookings I don't want to lose.  Why would AirBNB suspend my account when I have active bookings? 

Anyone else having the same issue?  How do I contact the AirBNB advocate/liaison person or someone at AirBNB to discuss this issue?

Thank you

**[Content redacted due to its misleading nature]

[Douglas353]

@Emilia42   This is the problem with Airbnb's reservation system.  People won't see my listing in Airbnb searches and can't book a stay.  This is Airbnb's solution but now they are threating to suspend my account.  Do you have a solution? 

[Emilia42]

@Douglas353 Guests searching for a two-week timeframe will be able to see you in search and those are the guests you want since they will be prepared to spend the most money. At least make your minimum seven nights to capture those longer-staying guests. It blows my mind that you would tie up 14 nights on your calendar for pennies. Move out of California already! 😄

[Douglas353]

@Emilia42   If I do what you say then I lose out on hosting opportunities.  What if someone wants to stay for 5 nights which is very common?  They would not see my listing.  

Can I blow your minds a bit more?
Studio apartments 500 sq feet rent of $3,500 mo.

Million dollar houses are going for a million over asking price.

Berkeley rent control laws are such people have to sell their house with someone living in the bedroom.  Can you imagine buying a house and having to share a kitchen and bathroom with someone you don't know? 

Evictions are very difficult.  It's not unheard for property owners to offer $50,000, $100,000 and even up to $250,000 to get someone to move out of an apartment.  And the tenant refuses.  Can you imagine being offered $250,000 to move and you refuse?  

Move where? 

[Lisa723]

@Emilia42 @Mike-And-Jane0 I think @Douglas353  is offering a discount, so the guest essentially books for 14 nights at the price of 3. And he is trusting that the guest will honor the informal agreement not to stay for the full 14 nights, which does seem like asking for trouble, to me-- but may be the best he can do between Berkeley's law and Airbnb's limitations.

[Douglas353]

@Sarah577   NO!  That is NOT what I am doing.  I am NOT declining anyone.  I instead give them a special offer for 14 nights with adjusted pricing for 14 nights.  I’ve had no problem with guests accepting the offer and staying with me.  And I’m NOT declining a stay for the guests who are not staying with me, but they don’t respond to the special offer so why would Airbnb threaten to suspend me?   I’m not declining the offer. 

[Emilia42]

@Douglas353 Call it what you want but that is not how the system works.

When you send a special offer that does NOT put the onus on the guest and take the pressure off you. It is still your responsibility to accept or decline. And when you do nothing but simply send a special offer, THAT ACTS AS A DECLINE if the guest does not accept within 24 hours. 

According to the Airbnb algorithm, you have declined every single reservation request where the "special offer" did not turn into a confirmed booking. The end.

[Douglas353]

@Emilia42   I follow what you are saying, and that would make sense, EXCEPT why didn’t the “expertly trained” customer service rep at Airbnb tell me that after he called me back 5 times? 

He finally told me to call Airbnb customer support and have them force cancel the booking request on behalf of the guest.  Do you know if this is counted as a ding against the guest?  If so, that’s not right.

[Lisa723]

@Douglas353 'why didn’t the “expertly trained” customer service rep at Airbnb tell me that after he called me back 5 times?'

Because Airbnb CS reps are insufficiently trained and may not even be Airbnb employees (support is out-sourced). You can ask 10 different reps the same question and get 10 different answers; many of them seem to just make it up as they go along.

Withdrawing a booking request does not count as a ding against the guest.

If the system worked the way you'd like it to, all any host would have to do to decline a booking request without penalty would be to respond only with a special offer with a ridiculously high rate that no guest would take. Bottom line: if you get a booking request and it is not withdrawn by the guest and does not result in a confirmed booking that counts against you. So you really want to avoid getting booking requests you can't convert to a booking.

[Douglas353]

@Lisa723  Lisa you make a very good point.  (I really appreciate your responses, they make a lot of sense.) 

Outsourced call center says it all.  I guess that's why Airbnb had an Airbnb employee who was an ambassador meet with us in person to discuss City of Berkeley laws and Airbnbing when the city and Airbmb were duking it out. 

Sounds like you fully understand what's going on. (Appreciated) 

Sounds like what I need to do is ask the guest to withdraw the booking even if I make a special offer.  And if the guest doesn't, call support and have them force the withdrawal on behalf of the guest.

Again, thank you for your responses, very helpful. 

[Lisa723]

@Douglas353 to be clear, if the guest accepts your special offer then you're good-- no need for them to withdraw the booking request.

I think your results asking Airbnb to withdraw booking requests on guests' behalf may be highly variable and I would not count on this as a strategy. I would really focus on making it as difficult as possible for a potential booker to misunderstand your procedure, so you don't get requests from people who don't want to deal with it.

[Douglas353]

@Lisa723   You are correct.  Or guests tell me what nights they want to stay and I adjust the nightly price to $10 discounting the other stay nights so $ wise they are paying the same $ amount.  The people who "get it" are appear to be people who live in the Bay Area or have dealt with strict rent control laws.  The ones who don't seem to be asking for very short stays.  I suspect they can't very many properties listed in Berkeley for less than 14 days.  And the ones they do find are illegal. 

The law states if in the past 10 years the property was rented for more than 14 days it cannot be a str.   In a college town how likely is that?  And the city knows and has those records with the rent stabilization board.

I think you are right, I will update to the text in the listing.  You've been very helpful, thank you. 

[Colleen253]

@Douglas353 “…why didn’t the “expertly trained” customer service rep at Airbnb tell me that after he called me back 5 times?”

Airbnb outsources it’s CS and these third party contracted workers are not well trained and often unfamiliar with even basic Airbnb policy. They give out misinformation all the time. This forum is rife with posts that show this. 

[John5097]

@Emilia42  I see a lot of local illegal str only let their listings be visible on the weekends and not during weekday business hours. Don't think its a coincidence that's also when zoning and permitting wouldn't be at work. Our city hired 3 full time enforcement officers just for STR and equipped them with special software to search listings on str platforms. However, that's all just observartion. I really don't even care what other listings do or don't do in my local area as long as they aren't waking me up, and sure don't care what all Doug is doing in Berkeley. However this topic doesn't seem to fit ABB community content policy as it doesn't ask a question and just keeps stating that ABB is advising him to break the law. 

[Lisa723]

@Douglas353 @Sarah977 @Michelle53 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @John5097 

(And if this is the case, the real problem is that Berkeley stipulates a minimum booking/stay length, rather than a maximum number of bookings/stays per 14-days.)

[John5097]

@Lisa723 Yes, I think we have extrapolated that the 14 day minimum stay is at the center of the issue in which Doug said Airbnb threatened to suspend his listing.

Although I think this would still violate both Airbnb rules and Berkley zoning. The real issue with Airbnb would be that they wouldn't want guest to send host a message for some arrangement, that the host isn't being clear about,  as the reservation would need to be altered and include some kind of refund. 

@Douglas353 Did a guest complain? Did Berkley catch up with you? Or did Airbnb just notice a pattern? 

I'm sorry but as many host have stated you aren't being clear enough so we can only guess. If you have a more specific question about booking setting I'm sure we would be more than willing to help as best we can. Otherwise the CS rep will have the final word based on Airbnb policy which you claimed your were in violation of, which was the basis of your post. 

Our city is even more strict. We have 30 day minimum and listings have to register. Our city based their policy mostly from other cities in CA. 

5-7 years ago hotel chains were buying up hundreds and thousands of houses to rent out on Airbnb. It was all STR. Still a lot rent for 30 days or longer.