In November I contacted Airbnb because I was receiving no new bookings from October 14, which at first I thought had something to do with it being the "off season" and people just not traveling, but it was nothing close to our previous off seasons (to which my calendars on Airbnb can attest to, which I will show in number at the end). So I decided to look into it, as we were really struggling with the lack of income. I found that when searching for a place in our town, our listing would only show up when I zoomed in, directly over our home. Strange. I have been a super host for many years, and have hosted hundreds of guests- I typically show up right away on Airbnb's search (as our listing is doing once again). So I contacted Airbnb to see what the issue may be.
The first email I sent was November 7, the person "helping" me did nothing and did not actually hear my concern, nothing was done and this person closed the case. Weeks went by and our listing completely disappeared from the search, even when directly over our home. At that time I urgently contacted Airbnb on November 24, as we were entering Thanksgiving weekend, with our room vacant, and this being one of our busiest times, and our listing was nowhere to be found. I knew something was seriously wrong.
In addition to sending a message, I also spoke with and Airbnb representative. The representative seemed to understand and gave me a sense of hope that my issue would be dealt with, and in a timely manner. She brought her manager/surpervisor over to look at the issue and they concluded there was something wrong, and it looked like a bug, or at least a tech problem they could not correct themselves. She said that someone from the tech department would need to contact me. I asked her to make sure someone contacted me that day, as I was losing out on a lot of income for the Thanksgiving weekend. She assured me somebody would contact me. Nobody did. Ever. My listing remained absent, with no way to make any income.
The representative on the message did absolutely nothing for me, at least she didn't lie, but she closed out our communication stating that it had been resolved. I responded that it had not, in fact, been resolved at all. She closed the communication anyway.
From October 14 until December 2, our listing did not show up on Airbnb's website or only showed up when zoomed directly over our home. In 2020 we made $3136 during these dates, in 2021 we made $281 during these dates, and all from bookings created before October 14.
Is there a way to protect ourselves from Airbnb treating us this way? A union would be helpful.
