Banned for life - Absurd reason - Can't reach managment

[Ban777]

Airbnb banned me for life for offering to pay cash to a host.

Low level management did not consider unique circumstances to see no rule was broken.

Even if a rule was broken, it is excusable due to once in a lifetime pandemic circumstances. 

At the start of the pandemic Airbnb blocked reservations until June 1 2020.  I had a ten day stay in Mexico City starting May 27.  Airbnb platform would not allow me to book the full 10 days.  I booked the 7 days I could. 

Airbnb does not claim a right to tell any guest that they cannot stay with a host even if Airbnb refuses to book it through their platform.   Since Airbnb would not allow me to book those days it should have no objection to other arrangements.

This was the best course from a health and safety standpoint.  During those chaotic times there were no clear right answers.  A hotel was and still is far riskier.  An Airbnb would instead be sheltering in place with just one other person.  Airbnb customer service was unreachable.  I waited on hold over an hour. The send email button disappeared from the website, clearly related to the overwhelming chaos at the time.    I was on my own to arrive at the most reasonable and safest course of action.  The vast majority of your customers would agree I took the most reasonable course of action.

It would be safer for everyone … me, the general public, and my host, even Airbnb company (less Covid19 exposure), if I were to stay in the Airbnb for the full 10 days.  It was more profitable for Airbnb to earn a 7 day stay instead of zero day stay.   

Staying in a hotel 3 nights until the Airbnb website allowed me to make a booking would cause unnecessary Covid19 exposure.  Airbnb has punished me for taking the safest course of action at time when news broadcasts showed people collapsing in the street like a Zombie Apocalypse.  Airbnb continues denying me a safer course of action because of Airbnb’s monopoly on the home share market. 

I did not offer cash “IN LIEU OF” an Airbnb booking.  Airbnb was not offering bookings in May.   I broke no rule at Airbnb.  It is impossible to “circumvent” what isn’t offered in the first place.

It’s not surprising that the manager on the phone who sounded and responded as if 20 years old would mechanically apply a rule.  What’s surprising is the difficulty getting real management at Airbnb to look at this. The “appeal” just re-applied the rule against cash payment again giving no thought to the circumstances.  There was no appeal. 

I understand that Airbnb must receive many requests for reconsideration, but this is truly a very simple case.    I must persist indefinitely to every reachable manager at Airbnb until I receive an intelligent response.   

 Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

@Ban777  In its Terms of Service, Airbnb gives itself broad latitude to terminate an account at any time without providing a reason or an appeal process. It's very unlikely that your cash payment offer was the sole factor that triggered the ban, as nobody at Airbnb would be aware of this unless the host reported you.  There was almost certainly another reason, but there's nothing you can do to make them disclose it.

Anyway, I'm a bit puzzled by why you want so much to have your account reinstated by a business that doesn't want you as a customer. Airbnb is not the only game in town - if they don't want your money, why not just spend it at one of their competitors? 

[Emiel1]

@Ban777 

I have some questions after reading your post:

"Airbnb blocked reservations until June 1 2020".

Why ?  Whas this a specific action regarding all Airbnb hosting in Mexico city ?

How did Airbnb discover you paid directly to the host for 3 nights which were not available on their platform ? And did the host also receive penalties for allowing it ?

[Helen3]

Perhaps listings were blocked because people were not meant to be travelling under Covid regulations in Mexico City during that period. @Ban777  @Emiel1 

If that is the case Airbnb had every right to tell you that you couldn't book through their platform.

[Ban777]

Mexico is like the only unrestricted country in the world .... always has been.

[Sarah977]

No, it was Mexico which blocked the month, and Airbnb just followed what Mexico had instituted. You are misinformed. @Ban777

[Ban777]

Finally!  I may be on to finding the reason! 

However stepping back to see the forest for the trees, I did not knowingly break any rule.  Why kill customers when they cannot even foresee they are breaking a rule?   A warning is all that is needed from airbnb, not a lifetime ban for whatever I did.  I would treat airbnb with utmost respect in the future even to an excessive degree as if they are the Stasi Police. 

But Sarah977,  I frankly you don't know what you are talking about.  I've been in and out of Mexico a dozen times.  "WHAT BAN DID MEXICO PLACE?"  Please illuminate me~!  

Let me get this straight... Mexico was open for business to book a hotel .... but they told airbnb to disallow rentals for less than 30 days?  Please let me know what you are smoking.  

[Sarah977]

" Mexico was open for business to book a hotel .... but they told airbnb to disallow rentals for less than 30 days?"

Yes, that is exactly what happened. That same scenario happened in other places i the world, as well. Hotels allowed to stay open, private strs not. 

The fact that you have been in and out of Mexico a dozen times is irrelevant. I live here, and have done for almost 20 years.

@Ban777

[Ban777]

I can't see that being the reason for the ban.  Airbnb still complied with the ruling.  the cash pmt was outside of airbnb.  

My focus here is how to get a response from management.  

[Helen350]

... but it strikes me as highly unreasonable for Airbnb to ban @Ban777  for going off platform, when they made it impossible to book ON platform, @Helen3  - You yourself suggested workers booking off platform here in the UK, when the blanket ban was re-introduced in November, as did I, on the basis that if they can't book thru Airbnb, they can book through SpareRoom in the UK, so what's the difference? 

If this was the ONLY reason Ban was banned, then I couldn't agree more with his statement above.

[Helen3]

I have never ever advocated guests breaking Covid legislation by making bookings off platform when it is illegal for them to travel. @Helen350 

What I clearly said at the time is that when Airbnb blocked us from taking bookings from key workers as hosts with shared homes,  when this key workers were legally able to travel under Covid so they could work at healthcare facilities, then we should take direct bookings from them.

@Ban777  has not indicated that s/he was an essential health worker travelling so he/she could help in the fight against Covid.

Were you travelling as a key worker @Ban777  or for leisure purposes?

By the way @Sarah lives in Mexico so I am sure is familiar with how Covid legislation regarding STRs works in her own country @Ban777 

[Helen350]

Well we don't know what country Ban is from nor where s/he was travelling, so travel for leisure purposes may be allowed, same as it is here in the UK from/to Tier 1 &2 @Helen3 . I get the impression that leisure travel is still allowed in parts of the US & probably a lot of other places as well...

[Ban777]

It was a worldwide airbnb lockdown on booking anything in May less than 30 days.  I tried to test the issue.  

There never has been any restrictions in Mexico, it's like the only place in the world unrestricted. 

I openly mentioned it in another matter as it seemed like such a rational thing to do.  Host received no penalty, perhaps  because it was my suggestion. Perhaps there were other issues, but I have carefully considered them.  

[Lisa723]

@Ban777 no it wasn't.

[Ban777]

I tested other listings perhaps only in mexico, I don't recall 100% if I tried other countries.  In any case any listing in mexico was allowing a 30 day booking starting in May but not a 10 day listing.  

I banged my head on the wall on this at the time for over an hour.  I remember it very well.