Let's be honest...

[Ryan368]

You don't care in the least about your hosts or your superhosts.

I have been an AirBnB Host for about 10 years. I have been doing it at full time properties for the past 4 years. I've been a superhost that entire time. I have around 800 reviews (I think) over the years.

I always read horror stories from hosts who say that AirBnb has locked their accounts and that they have done nothing. In my head, I thought these people were just bad hosts. I assumed that they had done something and they were just not admitting their own issues. Unfortunately, that assumption was incorrect.

I had a guest last week who had never used AirBnB. A husband and wife with a dog and a baby. They had a four night reservation. I sent them the check in info. They never responded. I sent them welcome message the day before. They never responded. That's fine. Some people just want to do their own thing. All good. I never heard from them at all.

On that Friday after their reservation ended, I received an email at 3:36am from AirBnB stating that my account was being locked because of a guest safety concern and that I would be able to discuss this with the representative on Monday at 6pm when she got back into the office. MONDAY at 6PM??? They really planed to leave my account locked for 3 days because a guest with no reservation history and no reviews reported a safety concern despite the hundreds, if not thousands, of past guests who had never reported anything similar. AirBnB never contacted me. The guest never contacted me. The guest stayed in my house through the entire reservation, left on the last day and then made a "safety complaint" which triggered my account lockout without even a discussion (at 3:36am). Not even an attempt by AirBnB to reach me. That is SO disappointing. 

I called and spent about five hours on the phone Saturday morning with various AirBnB reps trying to get it escalated and resolved. All of them told me the same thing. We can escalate this, but no one will look at it until this support rep returns and they were right. I have yet to receive a call back from anyone despite replying to the case and uploading pictures and evidence against this guest's claim. I am locked out of messaging. I am locked out of reservations. My calendars shows as blocked out on all properties, not just the property that was reported. The house in question is our highest rated at 4.95 and has back to back reservations. It has had 3 vacant days in the past six months. I have had three new guests check in since they locked it. I have had to track back through past communications to find their phone numbers and reach out to them directly. It's worked out okay. Not ideal, but it's worked. 

To top this off, when I went to the house after I received the email, it was trashed. The king size mattress and comforter were covered dog urine and the tub looked like they had bathed their dog multiple times. It was covered in hair and scratches. It was obvious they left their dog in the house unattended while they went out for the day. However, I can't file a damage claim because my account is locked. When I called support about it, they told me they also couldn't file one on my behalf for the same reason. This guest reported me. He did so to get out of paying for the obvious damages and bad review he would receive. I believe he knew that if he was first to complain, they would take his side. No questions asked. That's a problem. AirBnB did absolutely no due diligence. They didn't look at my positive host history or the fantastic reviews of this house. They didn't contact me to discuss the situation. They didn't even give me the opportunity to call in to speak to anyone because my rep was "out for the weekend". They just made a judgement and shut my account down. I am having to spend extra time working on resolving this, and I cannot even make a claim to recover the damages this guest did before they called in to get my account shut down. Why would AirBnB side with someone who has a brand new account over a person with ten years of history before even looking into the situation or speaking with me? Why? Because they just don't care about their hosts. 

This will get resolved, hopefully today. I don't plan to stop using AirBnB, though I do plan to re list it on other sites and see how that experience is. I love AirBnB. I love using AriBnB. I travel with AirBnB. I am rethinking all of that. This experience has been awful and this policy of making one sided judgements is beyond unreasonable. What is the point of building a solid hosting history and maintaining superhost status if something like this can happen?

I've always done right by AirBnB. Unfortunately, they haven't reciprocate with a mutual level of respect.

Look, AirBnB asked me to be a local host ambassador a couple of months ago, and I would have done it if I had time. I run a large host alliance group that covers the front range of Colorado. I worked with the City of Colorado Springs on regulations and fought to keep AirBnB legal in Colorado. I have been invested and spent years promoting the benefits fo AirBnB.

Why?

[Helen3]

I am sorry you had such a dreadful experience.

Clearly Airbnb do not follow their own policies of asking the host about the issue before deciding whether to intervene when the guest says the listing isn't as described. What did the guest claim was a safety issue?

Personally I don't take dogs because of concerns about damage, but if you have house rules that state the dog should not be left at the property by itself definitely your guests should honour this.

You are correct to list on other platforms, it's always risky practice business wise to be reliant on one main marketing channel to promote your business.

I do hope you get your account unlocked soon @Ryan368 

[Ryan368]

Th house is in downtown Colorado Springs and next to breweries, restaurants, etc...

The guests complaints:

1: Security cameras outside. Yes, there are and I thought they were in the listing but I can't verify that since I can't review the listing. I have multiple properties, they all have the same cameras and they all have them listed to my knowledge. They cover the parking areas and are there for guest safety. They are all motion lights primarily.

2: Black mold. We don't have black mold in the bathtub. In fact, it is almost impossible to have black mold in Colorado Springs at 6500 feet of elevation and almost zero humidity in the winter. That said, we did have a bunch of black dirt and grime all over the tub from him washing his dog in it over and over. It was filthy. Still, if you thought there was black mold in a tub, and it was unsafe, would you stay through your entire reservation and use that tub and then only report it after you left the house on the last day?

3: He said the door opened by itself at 2:30 in the morning. He didn't realize he had to use the deadbolt to keep it closed and it was unsafe for their infant son. The door does close and stays closed with or without the deadbolt, but if you were in a downtown neighborhood that you didn't know anything about, would you leave your infant son next to an unlocked door to the street? I didn't realize that I needed to teach people how doors work in order to avoid a safety complaint. 

These were his three totally bogus complaints, that were made after his reservation was complete, and that AirBnB used as a reference for why it made sense to lock my account without contacting me and leave it locked for 72 hours.

Seem reasonable to anyone else?

[Ryan368]

...and I also only list it on AirBnB because it stays busy 100% of the time. I've never had a reason to look elsewhere until now.

[Helen3]

I would say it's not just about whether you get enough bookings from a single marketing channel @Ryan368 

But whether it is risky business practice (as you have found) to rely on one channel for all your bookings, in case there is an issue with the channel or you being able to use it (as has happened in your case).

[Ryan368]

Yeah, I am not too worried about that but I do understand your point. I have rented this house medium term to nurses in the off season in the past and can do that any time I want. I just haven't had a reason to since my AirBnB has been so busy. Still, I see your point and just misrepresented my situation. I don't only have it on AirBnB, that is just the only STR site I have been using and only because they were remitting taxes on my behalf. So, it saved a step.

[Lisa723]

@Ryan368 thanks for the cautionary tale. Any host with all of their eggs in Airbnb's basket should read this.

[Ryan368]

Just to be clear... we don't have all of our eggs in AirBnB's basket. We have long term rentals and short term rentals and some in between. We also have regular day jobs that have nothing to do with our rentals. This is by no means the end of the world and I don't want to make it sound that way. I just want to point out to other hosts the experience I've had with AirBnB in this scenario and make it known that if it could happen to me (and I have a ton of experience hosting, being a superhost, and representing the virtues of AirBnB to city and state officials) then it can happen to anyone. Just be ready for that day when they rule against you for basically no reason and have a plan. That's all.

This has made it more obvious that I need to be downloading all of my reservation data to a secondary resource. If they ever decide to lock me out again, it will be irrelevant. 

[Kelly149]

@Ryan368 vrbo submits our state taxes for us (as well as ABB)... so maybe you have more options than you thought

[Ryan368]

Yeah, I have other properties on VRBO too. I just don't have the listing for this one active. VRBO just started submitting it earlier this year. I just haven't had a reason to use my listings on their site... until now.

[Heather1086]

Sorry this is happening to you... had a similar experience this summer where my account was locked due to the guest reporting my listing.  She tried to get me for not disclosing outdoor security cameras (which was clearly identified in the listing) and my house ended up being locked for I think 2 weeks before they finally resolved it.  The most frustrating part was the rep could clearly look at my listing and see the disclosure yet chose to lock my account for investigation.  Why not look prior to the investigation???  Hope this is resolved quickly for you!

[Ryan368]

Thanks.

[Ryan368]

Or even more so. Just ask if they are there and can be added to the listing. I would have said yes and yes. Case solved. I'm not hiding anything. They are giant while floodlights with cameras. Anyone who sees them would realize what they are. So, if this was an issue, they could just ask and I would say yeah, they're there and yeah I thought they were mentioned in the listing already. To just lock my account at 3 in the morning and then go on a long weekend leaving me stranded is pretty infuriating.

She is even supposed to be back in the office now and I've called and still can't reach her.

[Bob297]

what a terrible example of airbnb abuse of power

[J-Renato0]

@Ryan368 

What a nightmare! Total lack of consideration! Airbnb should offer you a compensation!