My son has been banned, but we can't understand the reason.

[Anthony1251]

My son (a third year university student) has been banned from Airbnb for "soliciting third party services" we are at a loss to understand why. He is studying film at university, and for his third year project he has to produce a short film, for this he needs locations to film, it can't be at relatives homes etc as he needs to prove he can get all the proper permission. For his film he needs an outside (seaside) location and an interior location (near the sea). He has got an outside location and been approved for filming there so he started to approach the owners of a few Airbnb's to see if they would give their permission for a group of six students to film in their properties. He wasn't asking for a reduction to the price of the properties, in fact the group are more than happy to pay the full price to film for a few days. I am struggling to understand this ban, it has seriously affected his ability to create a final year project. Can someone help?

[Emilia42]

I had someone contact me once inquiring about an indoor filming location. Airbnb shut down their account moments after I read the message. The system obliviously flagged it.

As a side note, when private homes are used for filming/photoshoots, rental costs can be in the thousands of dollars per day. So to say your son and his crew were more than willing to pay the host their nightly Airbnb rate doesn't really add anything to his case. And what did filming students do before the creation of Airbnb? Did they not complete their projects?

[Anthony1251]

It is acceptable to shoot a film - long or short - on private property, without a permit, but you cannot shoot in someone’s house without their permission. That's all he asked for, it hardly warrants a lifetime ban! They will be filming actors in a house, it's a student film, it won't be released commercially, and I am very aware that there are other avenues they can explore, but seeing as Airbnb is the largest avenue you'd think it would probably be the best bet. There's absolutely no need for sarchasm. 

[Sarah977]

@Anthony1251 Airbnbs are for accommodation purposes, not the 'largest avenue' for other purposes.

Some hosts have had these types of requests, and accepted them, but this type of use of an Airbnb is outside what would be covered under the host's insurance, and the film crew would need to have their own insurance to cover any damages to the property.

Reports from hosts who have had these types of bookings indicate that there was a large amount of cleaning and damage from this activity. Things moved around and not put back, floors scraped up from moving furniture around, etc.

Saying he is willing to pay the normal rate is clueless- this type of activity requires a higher fee than a normal accomodation booking.

[Anthony1251]

@Sarah977 It's a student film, they won't have heavy equipment, so they won't be "scraping floors" it's not a large scale production! There will be 1 (handheld) camera operator, 1 lighting director, 2 actors, 1 sound recorder, a director and an editor, that's it.

NEVER call me clueless, that is very disrespectful.

All he has done is ask for permission to film, if the property owners then came back and asked for more money because of the activity then fine, the fact is no-one did come back with that request, all that he got was an email from Airbnb stating he was "soliciting third party services" he wasn't therefore he should not have been banned, also, it would've been nice for Airbnb to let him know BEFORE his account was blocked, so he could've asked questions to try and find out why.

[Colleen253]

"It's a student film, they won't have heavy equipment, so they won't be "scraping floors" it's not a large scale production! There will be 1 (handheld) camera operator, 1 lighting director, 2 actors, 1 sound recorder, a director and an editor, that's it".

@Anthony1251  it's never this simple and clean. Student filming crews have created major damage, headaches and cost for many Airbnb hosts. But I think in this case, that is beside the point. It sounds like his communications simply triggered a flag of some sort. If it's automatic, then he wouldn't get any notification or explanation. He would have to now speak to someone at Airbnb to find out more details. That may not be an easy endeavor, unfortunately.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977  I have hosted these a few times with no issues. Less cleaning0 they do not use bedrooms or showers (we of course clean everything anyway but far less effort). They need to be vetted properly for size of crew, electrics requirements etc so does any guest. They are always happy guests and leave a good review

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  Nice to hear you've done this with no hassles.

In the case of the OP's son, though, 4 of the 6 students were also planning to sleep there. So a bunch of 21 year olds not only filming but using it as accommodation.

[Colleen253]

@Anthony1251  He must have used language or included something in his message to hosts that triggered a flag, or a host reported him. Hard to say, without knowing exactly how he made his inquiries and what he said/asked for.

[Anthony1251]

@Colleen253 How can asking for permission to film at the property flag anything, he was (and always is) respectful his messages, this is the wording from his message...Hello, I'm a 3rd year university student studying at Middlesex university, I have to produce a film for my final year, I wonder if it would be possible to hire your property and film inside of it for (x) days? There will be a total of 6 people in the house, but only 4 will be staying at the property overnight, if that's not fine I completely understand, but could you let me know either way, thank you in advance etc.

Does that sound wrong? It certainly doesn't to me, it sounds quite respectful, it tells the owner exactly what he wants to do.

[Colleen253]

@Anthony1251 There simply is no way for any of us to know what triggered the flag, or why it was triggered. From the text he used, I can't see any reason. The Airbnb system is a mystery at times to all of us. You can only now try reaching out to someone at Airbnb to find out more. Good luck.

[Anthony1251]

@Colleen253 He tried reaching out to them, he got a copy & pasted reply every single time (it was the exact same message) it hardly seems fair that he has been banned. As admins from Airbnb are all over these messageboards you'd have thought one of them might have an insight. 

[Colleen253]

@Anthony1251 That's what I was getting at when I said not an easy endeavor, getting answers. With one or two exceptions, the admins you see on this forum are mods for this community board, they are not Airbnb staff.  Going directly to Airbnb CS is really the only way to find out more.

[Sarah977]

@Anthony1251  Your son's message to hosts is straightforward and polite, but some of the hosts may have flagged the messages, because this is not an activity which Airbnbs are designed for, and hosts get fed up with having to spend time answering inappropriate requests.

As far as scraping up floors, I wasn't referring specifically to the equipment causing damage, but that a film crew will move furniture around to accommodate the shots they want.

I didn't call you clueless, I said the notion that the booking price wouldn't be higher for an activity like this is clueless. There's a difference.

All your son can do to try to get his account reinstated is keep trying to talk to Airbnb customer service.

As far as cut and paste responses and closing an account without warning or negotiation, that's Airbnb's MO. They do it all the time to hosts and guests alike. It's one of the things users complain about a lot. It's very disrespectful.

[Anonymous]

@Anthony1251  Airbnb is a private business, and reserves the right to decide who it doesn't wish to transact with. If they don't want your son's money, he can take it elsewhere, right?  He may well be a mature and responsible adult, but it's hard to make the case for that when the parents are coming in on a helicopter.

I'm not sure you've heard about this before, but a LOT of hosts have discovered that their homes have been used to shoot porno films or commercial projects, when the "guest" has misrepresented their intentions. Airbnb doesn't offer adequate protection or insurance to hosts for this kind of misuse of their property, nor does it have a pathway to compensation when the rule against commercial usage has been violated.  So it would be irresponsible for Airbnb to facilitate film location rentals through its service, even if the hosts happened to be open to it. 

And that's not even touching on the Covid issue - a film crew is still fundamentally a large mixed-household group, which presents a bit of a problem.

I guess it's commendable of your son that he was upfront and honest about his plans, as every day you have dozens of Trojan Horse guests sneaking in large groups of people under false pretenses that are only discovered when police are called or extreme damage is found. But unfortunately, his ban was well justified. I hope he accepts it as a learning experience - producing a film of any size is nothing if not a challenge of scaling seemingly insurmountable logistical blockades.

I'm really fortunate to know a lot of really talented filmmakers, both through work and through living in big artsy cities. They all have some crazy stories about the obstacles they've had to navigate to get even one shot. It's hard to picture any of them whining to their parents because they got banned from Airbnb (though some of them had filmmaker parents themselves, who could have advised them against attempting this route in the first place). If you truly believe your kid has potential in this business, I strongly suggest you let him make his own mistakes and keep your nose out of it. And if you think he's just a student goofing around for a few years before settling down in a desk job and a flat above a shop, maybe find a friend or family member who would be happy to accommodate the shoot in their own home (actually, you'd be amazed how many well-known directors made their first projects this way).