This morning my account was suspended without any prior warning or notice. What's so concerning about this, is that this all happened in the middle of an ACTIVE reservation. Right now, I have no way of communicating with my current guest (since I'm currently overseas) - a guest that is expected to be there for another 6 days. The fact that I have individuals in my home and Airbnb is interfering with my performance and duty as host (landlord at this point) is a HUGE concern and most likely illegal.
When I called Airbnb to ask why my account was cancelled the representative's response was "I can't say, it's sensitive information" until I eventually got him to speak up. Apparently my account was suspended due to "privacy concerns". However, this "privacy concern" was triggered by ME when I called Airbnb to get clarity on a minor situation that had occurred in one of my listings. However, Airbnb took so long to respond (almost 2 weeks), that I ended up amicably working it out with the guest--the situation was quickly resolved.
The guest NEVER called Airbnb, I called.
However, in their system it got flagged as if the GUEST called, their notes can't differentiate between host inquiries and guest reports, and they escalated everything as if I had received a guest complaint. I just wanted to obtain guidance and figure out options that were aligned with Airbnb's policy in order to remedy the situation. Instead, Airbnb started an investigation which took almost 2-week to respond and never bothered to gather any evidence. According to them, they have been emailing me and trying to communicate with me, but there's NO record of emails or correspondence from Airbnb on my end. I even checked my spam folder.
It's obvious that this Airbnb investigator of "higher authority" did not perform any initial due diligence. The fact that he cancelled the listing in the middle of an ACTIVE reservation is concerning in itself since he could have at least waited for my reservation to conclude. Additionally, as soon as he called me he was accusatory and it was obvious by his tone of voice that he had not done any preliminary research on my case and was just trying to close out my ticket on his docket. By the end of the conversation, he agreed to send me an email where I can share my evidence to corroborate the story. Up to this date, no emails have been sent to me. Even more concerning is that my account has notes on my file that are incorrect and FALSIFIED - according to their notes, I told the representative to "call back at 1 pm" and then "I did not answer" - which is not true.
According to Airbnb, my account has already been reviewed by the "highest representative" and they can't guarantee a positive appeal. It was so obvious that this "higher authority" was cutting corners in his job and had not looked into my claim with any detail because he would have noticed that it was ME who started the ticket. If the "investigator" would have done his due diligence he would have also noticed that the guest and I worked it out, they gave us a great review and he was extremely happy with his stay. But that's what I get for trying to be a good host and being honest. It's like going to the cops to make a report and then you get arrested for making the report.
At this point, I'm so sick of Airbnb's complete disregard for hosts -- stifling my reputation on this platform. There seems to be a pattern of lacklustre employee training, poor protocols and sketchy policy implementation. I wouldn't be surprised there's a class action lawsuit brewing. There seems to be quite a number of posts on this topic and it appears I'm not the only one with this issue. At least that gives me sanity.
