Kicked Off Airbnb. Thoughts?

[Efren25]

Hello all,

Wondering your thoughts on how to proceed on this or thoughts overall. Summary of events below.

1. Booked Airbnb in a condo - building has 3 other units. Entire place to myself with my assistance animal. Listing mentioned no pets.

2. Host asks if I have assistance animal through ABNB Inbox. I respond saying yes, assistance animal.

3. Host reports me to Airbnb stating I had a pet on site running around wild and other tenants have allergies. I respond to support team with the same - assistance animal. I will note other tenants did have animals (dogs).

4. Host responds asking for additional deep cleaning fee.

5. I check out of premises.

6. Airbnb notifies me that I am banned from their website due to using profanity to the Host (I did not, evident in ABNB inbox as that was only communication method used). Cancels all future bookings. No notification was made to me prior to morning of.

7. ABNB denies my lengthy appeal. Denies me access to ABNB Inbox/application.

8. Host is requesting money for cleaning and damages. I cannot respond to request. Pictures include some paw prints.

I thought I had read and followed ABNB policies and did not have to ask to bring my assistance animal. Am I mistaken? Also, I thought host had to mention if other tenants had allergies. Disappointing that ABNB will not look into this further as my account is blocked and I never receive response. I did my part to keep clean and only one spot missed, didn't think it would be a big deal if I kept the place clean.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1869/what-is-an-assistance-animal

[Ute42]

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@Efren25  

Yeah, I know. Some service dog owners are telling us all the time that a service dog is not a dog, haha.

Why don't You just book a petfriendly place?

I for one accept dogs, why? Because I have no allergies, because I like dogs and because my place is set up to accomodate dogs, tiles on the floor everywhere.

But there are other hosts who do have allergies, don't like dogs and they have a listing with a real scratch-sensitive interior. Why do You absolutely have to chose such a place for Your stay? I know You've been asked this before and Your answer was:

• There were no other listings available that suited my needs in the area that were pet friendly.

Well than cut back Your needs and get along with what pet friendly places are available.

While You're obviously not willing to adopt to what's available, You expect a no pet listing to adopt to an absolutely unwanted hosting situation with a dog. And a service dog is a dog, You know the ones with a tail on the rear end.

[Efren25]

I chose the place because ABNB policies allow me to. Aren't ABNB policies in place for a reason? I had thought ABNB suggests hosts get insurance, is that not the case or does that not cover such an expense?

Sad that those with assistance animals, even with policies meant to protect us, are being told by Hosts to disregard theses policies and instead book in pet friendly locations. Assistance animals are not pets. Considering them pets is a clear violation of local laws and ordinances mean to prevent discrimination. 

[Ute42]

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I'm so glad that I live in Germany and not in the US. The laws are different over here.

[Sarah977]

@Efren25  You obviously don't know how insurance works. It is only worthwhile to use on a large claim. There is always a deductible that the insured has to pay before the insurance kicks in. Which can be hundreds or even a thousand dollars. So if something costs $300 to repair, the insurance doesn't pay.

A guest who refuses to pay for damages caused by themselves or their animal is a bad guest who indeed should be banned from Airbnb. Decent people offer to pay for the damage they cause.

[Efren25]

Good to know! Sounds like ABNB is blowing a bunch of smoke for Hosts. Perhaps, policies need to be rewritten to take into account all of these concerns. Interesting, because Uber does pay insurance costs up to a certain amount for drivers - how different some of these companies run their platform.

I never refused to pay for damages, for the record.

[Sarah977]

@Efren25  Hosts having private insurance to cover their rentals is completely different from Airbnb covering damages. A host's private insurance has nothing to do with Airbnb. The policy is between the host and their insurance company.

When a guest causes damage, the protocol is to ask the guest to pay, and if the guest refuses, then the host has to try to get Airbnb to pay, which is a lengthy and arduous process, and more often than not, is refused. So yes, in that sense, Airbnb is not at all supportive of hosts.

But good guests shouldn't even have to be asked to pay for damages. They would let the host know about the damage and offer to pay for the repair or replacement. If I or my dog damaged something in someone else's home, that's what I would do.

[Sarah977]

@Efren25  You mention you have another case open since Dec. but you don't say what that one was about.  So it seems you have had 2 issues in 4 months. Maybe Airbnb considers you to be more trouble than it's worth.

[Efren25]

That is my hunch as well, sadly. Both claims have validity: discrimination and booking not as described at time of booking. 

Briefly, the other case was where I booked a place that looked spacious. The Host has multiple locations in the same building. They changed the pictures and told me I would be staying somewhere else (shortly after cancellation timeline). To date, the pictures have changed yet again on the same listing. ABNB was/has been unable to provide original photos at the time of booking. ABNB response in short was, "it looks almost the same". However, the layout, space and amenities are different than what I had booked initially (new place was more run down).

[Efren25]

Thanks everyone for your insight into this topic. Lessons learned indeed. Hopefully ABNB allows me back on platform as I was consistently a good guest.

[Emilia42]

@Efren25 Why would the host make up that you used derogatory language towards them and is this really enough to get you "banned"? Your stay has come and gone, it is no benefit to the host if you get kicked off Airbnb. I left a bad review for a guest once and after receiving the review they called me screaming/threatening me. I reported it to Airbnb, but of course, had no proof. Airbnb told me that would speak to the guest and tell him not to act this way again (although I don't know if they ever did.) He is still a very active guest on Airbnb.

[Mark116]

@Emilia42   There is definitely more to the story here.  This forum is full of hosts whose experience of host said/guest said cases is that Airbnb will claim w/out evidence they can't/won't punish the guest.  @Efren25  contends he never communicated w/the host off the platform, and used no derogatory language, e.g. host accusation is false, but was nevertheless banned, not even suspended.  This. Does. Not. Compute. 

I wonder if Airbnb will ever roll back their nutty 'assistance animal' policy now that the airlines have started clamping down on 'assistance animals' that are not actually trained.  Probably not, we'll probably still be living with the pointless covid cleaning theater rules for the next decade, LOL. 

[Emilia42]

@Mark116  Yes, exactly. Doesn't quite add up.