Have we entered a ‘police’ state!

[David6]

So disturbed & outraged that Airbnb have excluded my dear friend  @susan17 from this community!

Susan is a real. Susan was here from the beginning. She is a SuperHost with most amazing reviews. Reviews of the kind  we only could dream of. Guests all rave about her hospitality. She will arrange a taxi to go buy ANY THING YOU WANT. Guests on a weekend away, want her kind of hosting. 

Susan is my friend. When my apartment was trashed by a party crowd and they threatened to kill me. They caused £12,000 damage. Yes I involved the police. But Susan reached out EVERY DAY to ensure I was ok! She is most amazing asset to this community! She cares about people! She cares even more about hosts! 

I am disgusted that Susan has been excluded. This CC is turning into a police state.

No! Hosts need an outlet to express their frustration. Who are you admins to state a post is ‘negative’!

How dare you exclude a host who supported so many of us!!! Outraged! Absolutely disgusting you could turn against one of the most supportive hosts out there ! Total disgust that you hung @Susan17  out to dry!!! 

[Paul1255]

You’re welcome @Jennifer1421    ahahah 

It’s cheered Susie up too, so win-win 🙂

[Wendy1071]

This is my first visit in a while - I had more or less stopped coming to the community centre some time ago, because it seemed to be dominated by people just like @Susan17   I found her comments opinionated, extremely negative and at times verging on hysterical.  I realize she may be in a difficult position financially because of the pandemic, and I have sympathy, but the non-stop hate directed at Airbnb as the sole cause was/is misplaced in my opinion.  My first visits to the community centre started when Covid began so I maybe didn't have the benefit of earlier comments which would have been of a more helpful nature.  

[Garrett48]

No surprise what crawled out from under its rock to 'like' this comment @Mike-And-Jane0. Some slight dignity, mild self respect, guys, perchance?

[Katrina79]

@Wendy1071 I commend you for speaking the truth you know is an unpopular sentiment. Speaking the truth, well that is definitely ironic in this situation. I haven’t been in the forum much lately because of all the negativity in comments. Also I’d like to say that there is no textbook on how to navigate business in the travel industry during a pandemic. This is nobody’s fault and pointing fingers and blame all the time is not a solution. We (humans) must find a way to support each other and focus on the positives, I know I need that in times of uncertainty. Being positive and supportive may help to lift up the spirits of another host and ease these stressful times. Everyone reacts to stress differently and easing that may prevent a host from seeing things one sided in a negative light. If I ever become so passionate about Airbnb rants please remove me from the forum so I may have a break and time to de-stress! @Melodie-And-John0 I would get fired from my day job if I spoke that way about my company as well! 

[Wendy1071]

@Katrina79 Thank you.  Canada Strong!  Hang in there.

[Fred13]

Interesting observation @Wendy1071 , precisely my point.

I made no comment on Susan personally. I do consider her cause to be commendable and absolutely altruistic; it is strong people who move the world forward, unfortunately oftentimes will turn out to be  in very small increments. Institutions oftentimes tend to often be infuriating unmovable beasts.

She will serve herself well to be less constantly angry and above all to leave a little more room and exercise more patience with 180- degree opposite dissenting views. Above all, no young person should ever forget the importance of a sense of humor, which is the relieve valve in all human exchanges, no matter how 'important', we must always leave space to even laugh at ourselves. 

/Off to the island - today we are working on a cute little bar above the water; unfortunately, I do not drink, but need to be considerate of others. Have a great day all.

toehrs

[Garrett48]

@Fred13 with respect, Fred, I'm guessing you only know Susan from this forum and I acknowledge English isnt your first language so you've likely misunderstood or missed some of the subtleties but "constantly angry" and "missing a sense of humour"... you got those wrong. I know Susan... one of the wittiest, cleverest, funniest, most fun-loving and fun-to-know people you could ever come across. I wouldnt say those qualities are necessarily incompatible with a low threshold for BS or a low tolerance for fools, would you? 

[Sarah977]

@Garrett48  I don't know Susan personally, but as I posted on another thread yesterday, her sense of humor, and empathy and kindness towards other hosts was evident and appreciated. (But she didn't pussyfoot around being "nice" with responses to posts which showed a sense of entitlement or willful blindness. This was something I appreciated, but I can see that it may have offended some sensitive types) 

However, it's rather ironic that you call Fred out for misundertanding, yet make presumptions about him that are totally false. Why would you assume that English isn't his first language? Just because his listing is in Belize? Would you assume that Spanish is my first language because my listing is in Mexico?

[Garrett48]

No, nothing to do with that (and not just because English is the official language of Belize). I was teasing.

[Fred13]

You are correct, Belize's official language is English.  I moved to Belize 10 years ago, from the U.S.

[Fred13]

I too do not suffer fools easily, but over time I have learned to be a bit more patient with fellow humans, it has served me well in life.

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to come back to you on our decision to restrict Susan's access to the Community Centre.

As mentioned in several topics elsewhere, the decision was the result of repeated breaches of the Community and Content Guidelines over the last 12 months.

We have been working and talking with Susan for a long time now both publicly and privately to resolve this, however it could no longer continue. Being completely honest with you, this was a really hard decision to make, one we really hoped it wouldn't come to.  

We have enjoyed many conversations with Susan over the past few years and she is a very knowledgeable host, but, the way we act here has to benefit the overall health of the community we are all part of and unfortunately her contributions were no longer constructive. 

I'm pleased to say that it's a very rare thing to happen in the CC, and as you can imagine it's certainly not nice for us Community Managers either. 

This is everything I have to say on this, so I do hope it is helpful. Please feel free to contact me via CC DM or any of the Community Managers here. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

P.S - I hope you don't mind @David6 I've moved this discussion to the Help Board in the CC–all comments remain. 

[Mark116]

I don't ever recall any post of Susan's that would have breached the rules, she was probably the most knowledgeable poster in terms of details of airbnb's global business and business history, so she will be missed.   

[Sean433]

@Mark116 

The rules are sort of vague and open to interpretation. Conveniently structured so that a lot of controversial topics can be construed as breaching rules. I am surprised they did not cut her off a long while ago considering the amount of criticism she was dishing out. She did not fall in line so to speak. Freedom of speech exists but with restrictions. Ironic.

[Cormac0]

@David6 

Welcome to Trump's corporate America, they can forgive any indiscretion but telling the truth and holding them responsible for their actions.

America has a constitution that enshrines the concept of free speech 1st amendment, but some commentators on here think that it does not extend to a corporate website, yes, they lay out their obsequious arguments with the dispassion of a sociopath but at the end of the day Susan was one of us and cared deeply about the community as can be attest by some other contributors on here.

I think it is time that Airbnb need an executive management change as their handling of the covid19 pandemic and the company over the last number of years has been a shambles ( regular contributors could easily make a list of them).

Any company Director worth his salt knows not listening too and more importantly acting on reasonable and justifiable criticism leads to the ultimate decline of a company.

Let look at other Irish people (Susan is Irish) Bob Geldof he saw there was a major problem and did not mind raising people consciousness to the famine in Africa or Bono and his wife Ali with their fare trade Initiative. Irish people by their nature are outspoken and do not take kindly to BS no matter from what quarter it comes, but for the most part their hearts are in the right place, and I would number Susan as one of them.

Susan, needs to be reinstated or any credibility Airbnb has left is gone in my opinion.

So, I’m calling on Brian Chesky CEO and head of community to resign as he’s lost my confidence and he’s “Failed Fast”.