AirBnB Cancels our traveler Booking mid-stay, and turns off host listings - no explanation

[Brent19]

Hello AirBnB Community,

**All AirBnB messages pasted at bottom**

I’ve been a very active member of the AirBnB platform for the past 5 years. This is my first time posting. However - our situation has become very dire and I'm reaching out to you all before taking further action. A bit of background on me, I‘m an 8-time consecutive super host.  As a host, I have over 170 reviews and a blended average rating of 4.95. I know what it takes to be a great host and a great guest.

17 days ago my wife and I began a 36-night stay as travelers at a home. At the same time, we’re still hosting multiple guests at multiple locations that we manage. Since the beginning of this 36-night stay, we’ve had problems. Many features of the house that we expected to work have not been functional. A lot of items were not provided clean and there was absolutely no documentation during check-in. Whenever we have communicated with the absentee owners, they have been very defensive and reactive. We have since stopped even communicating our concerns and just living with the issues that include no hot water, no filtered water, no dishwasher, no functional spa, etc. This booking cost approximately $9000 so it wasn’t cheap.

Suddenly 2 days ago, we get a message from Airbnb telling us that the reservation has been canceled. “That Airbnb can no longer support this reservation.” No explanation. Keep in mind we are on day 17 of our 36 day stay. AirBnB demands that we check out immediately. Of course, we are in the middle of the highest demand time of the year in Santa Barbara and there’s nowhere to go. Furthermore, my wife is 8 months pregnant and we are concerned about Covid.

It took all day but we finally reached Airbnb. We spoke to someone who barely spoke English. They gave us no explanation and told us we must check out immediately. They said that the booking has been canceled and they were going to conduct an investigation and only until after we check out will they tell us why the booking was canceled. Again I would like to remind my community here that we have been impeccable guests and have followed all of the guidelines even though there were very few provided. Yes, we did let the owners know in the first week about some of these problems but that was our duty as responsible guests and as paying clients.

Airbnb continues to send messages telling us to check out and until we do they can’t tell us what’s going on. On top of that, we discover that they have disabled all our listings we manage as hosts !!!  Our listings are now no longer visible on the platform. We have a few reservations that are still active in the future but no new reservations. We again escalated this to Airbnb sending emails and calling but no one has gotten back to us.

We contacted the host Owners and told them about what’s happening. They told us they contacted Airbnb and requested that the contract be canceled because we broke the house rules. I asked them what House rules are not being followed and they agreed ultimately that that wasn’t exactly true. That it was a “misunderstanding”. We recorded the entire conversation. We let Airbnb know that we have this documented and recorded and that we have not broken any rules and the host simply wanted to cancel the contract.

Still, nothing from Airbnb and our listings are all still inactive. I cannot believe this is happening. I am in such disbelief that there has been no communication and no dispute process whatsoever. The notion that our 36-day booking can be arbitrarily canceled and on top of that our active listings disabled is preposterous. We have done nothing wrong. We have been great users of the platform. I am taking this step communicating with all of you to find out what to do and how to reach someone at Airbnb who can actually address this problem.

Please let me know. We really appreciate your help in advance.

Brent Masters

Here are the messages from AirBnB - curious that they state "there may be a potential breach of our terms of service by your host."

**[Sensitive information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

[Lisa723]

@Brent19 so sorry this is happening to you. It does seem like once Airbnb's trust and safety system is triggered, things generally go Kafka-esque pretty fast. Seconding @Helen3 's suggestion to try contacting them on Facebook and Twitter.

[Linda108]

@Brent19   You are staying over 30 days and therefore are no longer a short term guest but you are in there as a tenant.  More rights available, but also more hassle.  As a paralegal in the real estate field I would imagine you know much more than most of us.  So you are planning to stay in the home even though it is not suitable and your current focus is on unblocking your 2 listings.  Since one of them appears to be your home, I can understand your dilemma. Not sure why your two listings would be blocked unless there is concern about your adherence to current Santa Barbara regulations.  Hopefully all is well there.  

[Brent19]

@Linda108 

agreed. The fact that it’s over 30 days changes everything. Also agree with you that it’s a very bad situation. We don’t have any place to go right now. Our number one goal is to get our listings reactivated. I’m sure eventually we can provide evidence and data that will demonstrate that the host has been completely incompetent and provided us with a property that had a lot of problems and non-functional components. But that’s the second priority to getting our listings reactivated.

[Ann72]

@Brent19  It's clear from your posts that you did nothing wrong, and even Airbnb said the HOST may have violated terms of service.  ("Airbnb has been made aware that there may be a potential breach of our terms of service by your host.")

I agree with others that you should make public posts on social media, but to contact them that way, direct messages to @Airbnbhelp on Twitter often get response.  However, the ranks of customer service reps has been severely reduced so wait times are more common.

There are some admins here you might try to reach out to.  @Aisling manages the global Community Support Team.

[Brent19]

Thank you @Ann72. I just created a twitter account and tweeted tagging the @airbnbhelp account.  I will also reach out to @Aisling for assistance.  Aisling - please help us with this bizarre and extremely troubling situation.

[Ann72]

@Brent19  On Twitter, look for an envelope icon.  That's where you can send a direct message to @Airbnbhelp.  They'll ask you to confirm your name as well as the email address and phone number associated with your account.

Clicking on @Aisling's name brings you to her community profile, where you can choose to send her a direct private message as well.

[Brent19]

@Ann72  - this is what I see on twitter.

[Brent19]

@Ann72 - I found the envelope on the left and sent a DM.

[Tina6782]

Try adding @Airbnb as I see others using that and getting a prompt response.  

[Brent19]

I just posted on Facebook and Twitter, DM and Public.  I hope this works.

[Ute42]

.

Hi @Brent19 

whenever I read a story like this I'd always like to hear the other side. But airbnb doesn't say anything and I don't know who your host is. So I have to work with what I have.

Right now I can see that You have 182 reviews and 2 of Your listings are visible, they are both deacticated. One of these listings has an average 5,0 rating, the other one has a 4,86 rating. So I assume You can't be such a terrible person really.

If I was in Your shoes I would just sit it out. Wait what happenes next. Maybe someone calls the police to throw You out. On what legal grounds – bc You put 2 bycicles into an open door garage? That's not enough.

When the police shows up, show them the airbnb message that „there may be a potential breach of our terms of service by your host“. Really? That sounds stupid and is no reason to take action against You. Show the police that You have paid $9000 for the place and see what they think about it.

You are now on day 17 into a 36 night reservation in a place in Santa Barbara and that's in California. 13 more nights to go and You have gained tenant rights in that state. I think it is high time for Your host to come up with an explanation what he told airbnb about You.

If You get to the 30 days You turn from a guest to a tenant, and this whole thing can turn out to a financial nightmare for Your host.

Don't move out, that would be the biggest mistake You can make.

[Brent19]

Everyone. I have an update. First off, a great support specialist named Zachary from @Airbnb made contact with us and confirmed that we absolutely did nothing wrong in terms of a "Privacy Violation" which the host claimed. So, he has re-activated all our listings which was our first priority.  Secondly, they are continuing the investigation.  AirBnB has still cancelled the booking so we are looking for an alternative but in Santa Barbara, there are very few options for extended stays at this time.

Lastly, here is my conversation with the host from yesterday which is self-explanatory. I am the first speaker. I just sent this to Zachary to add this to the investigation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kU8tpzqakXLLhCvc9PiP5TsKYuELk6FW/view?usp=sharing

The main takeaway is that AirBnB cannot allow a host that is so incompetent to take bookings and when they do and they have a problem, AirBnB must do a much better job of analyzing what is really happening. 

Thank you all for such amazing support and positive words... @Ute42 @Tina6782 @Lisa723 @Helen3 @Linda108 

[Ann72]

@Brent19 So glad you're working things out!

Couldn't view the file, which is disappointing because we all love bad host stories around here.  🙂

[Helen3]

Fantastic news @Brent19 

Did they respond as a result of you posting on social media? 

I do hope you find alternative accommodation soon so you can focus on the forthcoming arrival of your little one.

We can't access your link so you would need to do this as a screen shot if you want us to see the conversation.

[Brent19]

Hi @Ann72 - does this work?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kU8tpzqakXLLhCvc9PiP5TsKYuELk6FW/view?usp=drivesdk