Punished without recourse -cleanliness complaint - incident counts as a violation of the Host Standards Policy

[Eric122]

Hi,

I have been an AirBnb host Since 2016 and been a Superhost the vast majority of that time. I am booked almost solid, year round.

Guests booked my house for 8 nights. They did self check-in and spent the night. They ate there and left a full trash can with take-out stuff.

The next day I got a letter from AirBnB that guests reported a cleanliness issue upon arrival.

"shared documents of the issue and has consequently left the listing."

AirBnB canceled the reservation,  gave them a full refund and wrote me that the incident counts as a violation of Hosts standards Policy.

AirBnb then listed the cancellation as done by me, the host! That means the calendar stays blocked, I can't be Superhost for a year and other penalties.

AirBnb won't show me or even tell me what the alleged violation was. Claiming it's confidential. 

I was accused, tried and convicted without even being given a chance to try to come to an agreement with guests, offer a discount or re-clean or even see if the guests were totally making the accusations up.

I contacted AirBnB and they said that it cannot be reversed, they will not show me any proof, allow me a chance to defend myself and in fact "I work for them." 

What can I do? Does anyone have a link to the Host Standards Policy where it reads that they can cancel a reservation then say i canceled it?

Do we hosts really work for AirBnB? If so, are we independent contractor or employees?

[Susie0]

Your story is plain scary. Makes me concerned about continuing with Airbnb honestly.

There's NO WAY that Airbnb would say they are anything other than a platform, especially with an IPO coming  up. Sounds like a bunch of rogue people making bad calls. Just the other day an email went out talking about how important hosts are. Try to escalate this. Tweet to all the execs.

[Amanda1566]

soy nueva como anfitrión y de verdad me preocupa mucho todo esto.  tengo un hotel en Cartagena y algunas veces los clientes que mas molestan no dicen nada durante la estadía sino cuando van a pagar la cuenta, solo hay empiezan a enumerar cosas para no pagar la cuenta, esto es muy deshonesto de parte de los huéspedes; porque si yo vio a un lugar y no me gusta, de inmediato me iré a otro y busco otro que me llene todas mis exigencias

[Francesco1366]

@Eric122,

If you are referring to your last review in November, did you notice that the guest responded with details of the defects he found at home? At least now you know what he complained about.

They seem serious things to me, perhaps by asking the guest you could have known them before. 

It's normal that Airbnb cannot share all the guests (or hosts) comments. I hope it based its decision on photos provided by the host. It would be fair to allow you the same.

[Helen350]

That guest was a scammer @Francesco1366 ! - That is the point of Eric's  post!

- Please listen to @Eric122 's story with a little more kindness & sympathy, rather than telling him it's his own fault for not being good enough!

[Francesco1366]

@Helen350, thanks for your message. 

Please respect what I write too. Please don't tell me what points of view I have to follow everytime I write something you don't like.

In any case, as you can see, I removed my photo and the references to the ads. Offend and defame me as much as you want. Now you can invent that I abuse also men. I'm bisexual.

Since the offenses you have

repeatedly written to me, I have nothing to learn from you in this community. Please ignore me, as you told few days ago to Quincy.

Thank you!!!

[Helen350]

Not helpful @Francesco1366 !

[Francesco1366]

I agree @Helen350, not helpful for all but it should be for you! What I wrote Is true!!! You offended me because you were not agree with me! You invented bull***! You haunted me! Please stop ruining my experience here! Thank you! 

[Emilia42]

@Francesco1366 Serious things? Someone could list off similar things at my properties but thank goodness in hundreds and hundreds of reviews no one has. I hope to never get guests who are as picky as these.

[Francesco1366]

@Emilia42 I'm sure you don't offer pans with spiderwebs. I'm also sure Eric didn't. But that's written, e.g. My houses are plenty of defects, but not like those. 

To think that those who have many positive reviews cannot be wrong is not fair. It's dangerous, in reality it happens many times. Often here you get 100 reviews in 5 years or more: they cannot offer the real today situation. Anyway I am sure that in this case the guest is wrong.

[Sarah977]

Eric has pages of great reviews- all the other guests saying it was really clean and comfortable. No other guests have had a whole litany of complaints like these people did, who obviously just changed their minds about staying there and expected to get a free night. @Francesco1366 

[Francesco1366]

Thanks for your comment @Sarah977. It seemed the host didn't know what the guest was complaining about. I think it's helpful to speak about this, e.g. how did the guest convince airbnb of all those things? Why weren't you able to demonstrate proper cleaning?  I don't think we are here to agre with hosts without asking for anything.

Anyway I don't agree to necessarily consider a guest a scammer because an host said so here. I have no doubt that @Eric122 is very good host, but also the guest has reviews. 

[Helen350]

Not helpful, @Francesco1366 !

@Sarah977 's point is a very good one!

[Francesco1366]

@Helen350, so I have to shut up ?? Only you and your friends are useful? Is It useful your comment? Are you the Queen of community? The Big Boss that can offend, defame and choose what is useful?? It seems to me that your comment is not useful. Anyway please continue as you prefer. I'm not a King like you 😉

[Sarah977]

I always look at both the host's profile and the guest's before commenting on a situation. In some cases, I would definitely defend the guest as the host seemed unhinged, unprofessional, or inattentive to issues which guests mention repeatedly in their reviews.

In this case, Eric has 106 reviews, almost all of them totally glowing, with no mention whatsoever of the things these guests claimed. The guest in this instance has 4 reviews, one of which is Eric's, so only 3 to go on as opposed to Eric's 106. 

The guest's previous 3 reviews all indicate she came with a group, whereas her stay at Eric's appears to be just herself and husband and baby. So it appears to me that when she is staying with a group, perhaps the presence of others, all there to have a good time, means she doesn't spend time lifting up rugs and finding things to complain about so she can get a refund. 

@Francesco1366

[Francesco1366]

I understand but some flaws weren't under a rug. I am convinced that Eric is right but to make a correct analysis we have to consider what the customer said and not how many reviews they have. It is not so important, sometimes even with a thousand positive reviews you can be wrong. And sometimes without reviews you can tell the truth.

Thank you again @Sarah977