Airbnb Extortion policy

[Marc8398]

We have a question and hope someone will be able to solve this and help us.

We had a " guest " who never checked into our property. The property is an

apartment in a 24hr. Porters/ Doorman building in a luxurious 1930's Art Deco

block in arguably the most exclusive part of London ( Prime Chelsea ).

The guest collected the keys from the Porters desk in the Lobby, apparently

went into the property and gave the keys back 5 minutes later, informing us

that she imagined something different and unless we issue a full refund, she

will leave a negative review ( note that she stayed 5 minutes in the property ).

We reported the issue 3 weeks ago ie 15th of August to Airbnb and they 

agreed with us that the " guest " should pay her stay as she did not even

cancel the days ie our calendar remained blocked.

Now this threat is obviously against the Airbnb extortion policy ie leaving

a bad review unless a full refund is given. Nevertheless the so called 

"review" was posted and as a result Airbnb suspended the listing for 30

days, now we have been trying to get a reply through the original case

thread the last couple of days with no luck. The issue here is that our 

listing is suspended for 30 days now due to the fact that a " guest ",

who never stayed in our property left a " review " , which violates

Airbnb's extortion policy. This surely can not be correct, what can 

we do about this?? Thank you for your time and help in this matter.

[Dave1074]

Try fighting this on Airbnb's social media (facebook and twitter).  Post constantly and your issue will magically get escalated and you will probably be back in business. 

[Brian2036]

@Dave1074 

Interesting and valuable information. Thank you.

[Gordon-and-Lyn0]

I had some lovely guests who we got on so well with, they even referred to us as family.  These guests were booked under their boss' name so when it came to the feedback, their boss submitted the feedback and not them.  She rated us as 3 star when our track record had been 5 star for the last 18 months.  I complained to Airbnb that the feedback came from a guest who did not stay in our home and the feedback has damaged my 5 star rating.  Airbnb would not remove the feedback and told me to get back in touch with the boss who gave me the feedback.  I had already done that and she ignored my message.  I've moved on from this but Airbnb's decision was based on the Airbnb policy and therefore the policy won over a superhost's appeal. 😞

[Sarah977]

@Gordon-and-Lyn0  In your case, I would have started out by contacting the guests, who you seem to feel would not have left a review like that themselves, and asked them to tell their boss they are shocked he would take it upon himself to leave a bad review, and ask him to get Airbnb to remove it.

If that didn't work, I would have stuck to the "this review is irrelevant" argument with Airbnb CS, as the person who wrote the review never stayed.

[Angel252]

This forum is saving my sanity (a bit late, but it's something).  I had a guest add the person to the listing when it came to getting her totally unwarranted, dishonest refund, who was staying (when it wasn't her).  That was a nasty trick and she has since removed his name from her profile.  I forget what the policy is about refunds by people who aren't actually staying, but I'll remember and come back and post about it then.  There is, indeed, something.

2021 ain't that pretty on Airbnb.  They are also not allowing simple use of the resolution center(most of my payments to guests are paused for review and never get resolved). I mean come on- are you kidding. Who has time for these kind of madness?

I also cannot alter a reservation, anymore once a reservation has begun.  Huh?

[Brian2036]

@Gordon-and-Lyn0 

A good reason to refuse third party bookings.

It is a flagrant violation of Airbnb policy but apparently the beleaguered CS representative found it easier to point a finger at someone else.

 I feel sorry for them, actually. They get to catch the heat from all sides for what is probably pitiful compensation. I wouldn’t want to do it.

They should have suspended that person’s account immediately, but that might result in a loss of revenue, which is, of course the only thing that counts when you’re dealing with a corporation.

[Gordon-and-Lyn0]

Sarah, unfortunately I did not get the phone number of the guests or the first thing I would have done would have been to contact them.  I wrestled with the case manager and even asked for another one around their unfair policy, however the second case manager was using the same rule book 😞

[Sarah977]

@Gordon-and-Lyn0  Too bad. I always write down guest's phone numbers and email address, if they are open to sharing that info (I give them mine as well) off-platform. Even if it wasn't a third party booking,  info has been known to disappear from the Airbnb site. 

And yes, I know Airbnb CS is a horror show to deal with. Like talking to a robot or the wall.

[Gordon-and-Lyn0]

Yes I certainly obtain contact info next time, lesson learned.  Something else I would like a response on. Did anyone out there ever get a covid cancellation payback from Airbnb?

[Sarah977]

@Gordon-and-Lyn0   Yes, I read many posts back then where hosts did get some reimbursement. But it wasn't what most were expecting, as Airbnb's wording on this was rather misleading. What hosts got refunded was 25% of what they normally would have received had their cancellation policy been upheld. So if you had a strict policy and the guest would have been eligible for a 50% refund, you would have received 25% of 50%, so 12.5%.

A drop in the bucket for most hosts.

And hosts who had moderate or flexible policies weren't eligible for anything.

[Gordon-and-Lyn0]

Thanks Sarah for clarifying that.  We have experienced another lockdown in NZ and I lost a lot of bookings in August.  I have a moderate cancellation policy.  

[Ann10]

I had some crazy lady say she couldn't find the pole that the lock box is on. There is only one pole behind the house and it's ginormous.  She gave me a really bad review and all 1s. However, I didn't get suspended and eventually they came to their senses and took the review down. I guess since she came after check in time.

I wonder why I didn't get suspended. Seems really arbitrary. I haven't been over here for at least a year. I see they are still treating hosts really badly.

[Angel252]

Wait, so are you saying if you get all 1/s you can get a 20 day suspension?  Wth>?

What about all of those entitle, dishonest or disgruntled gusts who are doing that in retaliation for something?

[Marc8398]

So this is interesting, after three weeks we finally received a reply informing us, that the so called " review " we received from our guests was indeed in violation of the Airbnb extortion policy, but we also got warned that if we would again report such a review which is in violation of the Airbnb extortion policy, we would be removed from the Airbnb hosting platform..??? What am I missing here??

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QUOTE from Airbnb support: " It appears the review written for you by Victoria for reservation HM38AY5WEX isn’t in line with our Review Policy, so we’ve removed it.

It’s our policy that guests and Hosts are neither allowed to incentive positive reviews, nor use the threat of negative reviews, to achieve an outcome. And that’s why we had to take action.

You should also be aware that if we get more reports of reviews like this, we may have to suspend or potentially remove your account from the Airbnb platform.” 

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What?

[Brian2036]

@Marc8398 

It appears to me that whatever CS semi-illiterate responsible for the inept cut and paste job should be given some additional training.

 I suppose that the last paragraph was supposed to be addressed to the defendant guest, not the plaintiff host.

 You can’t expect CS to actually read the canned responses they send out. They really don’t have time.

This probably should be brought to the attention of a supervisor because any suggestion that a host is being penalized for identifying Violations of Airbnb policy would ultimately be damaging to Airbnb.

I doubt that anyone has the time or energy to care much though.

Both hosts and guests are angry at CS for not having the training, ability or resources to do their job. How do you think CS feels about it? I’m sure they would like to do a good job if only they were allowed to.

We need to direct our ire towards the responsible parties. These guys don’t answer the telephone, read emails, or know anything about CS.

They lounge around boardrooms chewing $100 cigars and figuring out ways to profit from people who are dumb enough to work for a living.