Airbnb's case manager blocked my listings and accused me of being discriminating

[Abdalla2]

Dear hosts, 

I have been hosting in Jordan " Middle East " for the past 6 years and since then I have been a Superhost. 

In December 2021, I have received an email from one of the case managers stating that I have violated the non-discrimination policy because it is written on my listing description that; I only host "tourists" and I won't be able to host " Locals", and my listings are blocked until I confirm I have read the policy and removed the violation. I replied to the case manager and provided the proper documents that I got a confirmation from Airbnb to state this policy in my listing and I am not violating anything due to the " Specific Guidance for Hosts Outside the United States, European Union, and Canada". The case manager got back to me after 10 hrs of blocking my listings that She needs to confirm with other departments and will get back to me later, and meanwhile my listings will be unblocked. 

Today after 1 month, the same case manager got back to me telling me that this is a violation and will block my listings again. Ignoring Airbnb's confirmation of my policy and Airbnb's "Specific Guidance for Hosts Outside the United States, European Union, and Canada"

In my country, we have very strict laws and regulations in regards to security and safety (drugs and terrorism).  Tourists must register their address of stay, before entering the borders of Jordan via a website, and they must confirm their address of stay at the immigration desks upon arriving to Jordan. On the other hand, anyone who has an address in Jordan " i,e Local" should stay in a hotel or serviced apartments where they are connected directly to the police department to register them immediately. My Airbnb is not a hotel nor a serviced apartment.

As a host, I have the following points to address:

1- How can a case manager be subjective to any host regardless of the very clear regulations stated by Airbnb?

2- It is stated in the Nondiscrimination Policy, which was written by the Legal Department of Airbnb,  under the" Specific Guidance for Hosts Outside the United States, European Union, and Canada" the following :

    *We do not require hosts to violate local laws, nor to accept guests that could expose the hosts to a real and demonstrable risk of arrest, or physical harm to their persons or property. 

    *In communicating any such restrictions, we expect hosts to use clear, factual, non-derogatory terms. Slurs and insults have no place on our platform or in our community.

  After getting the confirmation and approval from Airbnb that I can state my listings are for tourists and can't host locals, this case manager tells me the word "Local" is a discriminative word. Hosting locals in my area would subject me and my properties to security issues by the government that I can spare myself easily.

3- Such a decision of blocking any host's listings should not be made by a single person who is clearly subjective. And despite that, I asked multiple times about the need of changing my case manager, no action has been made towards this. How can I raise my case to the legal department of Airbnb?

4- From another point of view, hosting locals would have financial privilege to me, but I prefer to spare myself all the headaches from our complicated local laws and regulations in regards to hosting a local. I receive bookings every day, how can this case manager make it up for me during this time, which is a high season after two years of no reservations, since I am not violating Airbnb's policy?

Last but not least, I have hosted thousands of guests from different Races, colors, Ethnicity, National origins, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Marital Status and none of my guests complained that I was discriminative towards them.  Shouldn't this be taken into consideration by my case manager? Shouldn't I get, at least, a notification that my listings will be blocked and I have a time limit to correct the situation?

I have raised my case to all of you in hopes of getting your opinions and perspectives and reaching the legal department of Airbnb.

Thank you 

Abdalla 

[Lorna170]

@Abdalla2   CS is outsourced and not very well educated as to the rules for foreign countries.  I am sorry that you have been punished for following the travel restrictions of your country (which is very beautiful, by the way).  Some hosts have had success by complaining via twitter and other social media websites.  If this CS decision will affect all other Jordanian hosts, you could consider filing a lawsuit  for reverse discrimination and loss of income. 

[Abdalla2]

@Lorna170 Thank you for the message and yes your opinion about the CS is 100% right.  The hosts' support service is, unfortunately, going backward and there is a clear conflict between their actions and Airbnb policies. 

It is very disappointing since we "hosts" are supposed to be an important partners to Airbnb. 

[Debra300]

@Abdalla2,

Do you know if Jordan, or the city where your property is located, has an ordinance that specifies the types of guests which can be hosted?  In St. Lucia, due to COVID our property has been certified to host either vaccinated tourists, or locals (no vaccination requirement).  The policy has been recently updated, and now we can host vaccinated tourists and locals, but we must state this information and display our certification badge.  

[Abdalla2]

@Debra300 My case is not related to covid. In our local laws if some have already has an address in Jordan and they want to for short-term rental they must stay at a hotel or a serviced apartment where they have a connection directly with the authorities. 

The thing is I explained to the case manager but unfortunately her actions were against Airbnb policy and I provided a document to her that I already got permission from Airbnb to state that this place is for tourists only but she insisted to block my listings and telling me I am discriminative. I really don't know where is the discrimination if I am following my local laws.

[Huma0]

@Abdalla2 

I think what @Debra300 was asking was, can you get hold of the government document that states that locals have to stay in hotels or serviced apartments only, and also send that to the Airbnb CS case manager?

Other than that, you could try social media, as suggested above.

[Abdalla2]

@Huma0 Thank you for your explanation. Yes, I have and I have provided a copy of the law before and got the permission to state that on my listing but unfortunately, it was all ignored this time from this CS. 

trying social media do you mean to reach Airbnb through social media or to put my case on social media?

[Huma0]

@Abdalla2 

A lot of hosts have mentioned on the CC that if you are having no luck with CS, that posting about the issue on Airbnb's Twitter and Facebook accounts can sometimes get a quicker/more satisfactory response. 

Personally, I have only tried this myself on one occasion. I never received a response on FB. I did receive one on Twitter, but only after I had finally managed to get the problem resolved with CS.

[Abdalla2]

@Huma0 Thank you! I will try Twitter 

[Donata12]

@Abdalla2 i am sorry about what you are going through. As many others have pointed out, the level of education about other cultures, habits and common sense of most CS at Airbnb is close to zero to be nice. This is something we as hosts have to fight for. It is a contradiction in terms that CS at Airbnb have probably a very poor travel experience themselves and zero knowledge of what is across their borders. Before considering a lawsuit, i suggest you take this CS publicly on Twitter. They are usually good at redirecting important concerns. good luck!

[Abdalla2]

Thank you @Donata12! I totally agree with you they think that we are living in a world that shared the same habits and cutlrues. What is also sad is that they don't know what is written in Airbnb's crystal clear policies.  I got two different answers about the same point from the same department and I got my listings blocked.