Should I sue Airbnb? Please advice me

[Oran369]

I'm a very perfectionist host, I have been building great reviews and such a system that help me provide employment to 2-3 people. Last month I have experienced someone who booked one of my properties late at night very randomly and all he wanted is a place he can work for the whole night. He and another guy ended up leaving the apartment at 2 pm - they woke up and left with no notifications. The guy was aggressive and intense he was telling my co-host to communicate only with a specific phone number. Anyways, they have been saying there were plenty of issues with the apartment and things my co-host and I never heard about. 

Long story short, the guy who has been communicating the whole time with my co-host is an American guy who uses someone else id (Mexican person) to open an account under the other guy's name. Phone numbers and email are not related to the real person. He left an ugly review that hurt all my hard work we put on it, there are plenty of reviews before and after that we got 5 stars without any issues that he mention. It was pure a scam he just tried to stay for a night, and use someone else identity. 

Now Airbnb support are like robots, they follow rules and they don't care this was a scam, they are not wanting to remove the review. Me and my co-host didn't gave up so we went and found the guy (Mexican guy) who this person open the account on his name and identity and we have all profs that they guy didn't know anything of this and he wants to help us with removing this review that comes out of his name. But guess what, Aribnb support don't care, they are clueless to this.. We provide them all information we communicate with the real peros who has the identity and they say they won't able to call him becasue this phone number is not in the account lol.. they just don't understand the whole account is one big fake..

So they willing to keep this review and hurt my business and the 3 people who work so hard to be able to maintain the level of hosting quality i want.  That review hurt me in my time, I make $100 net an hour and I had to spend over 20 hours on this issue total while hurting my full-time job performance so much to handle this as Airbnb support people just don't care to solve this. It put my listing in a dry/dead mode for over a week+ so I had to decrease prices so much just to get it booked again. 

Is that enough for me to sue Airbnb? I have all proves and the guy with the real identity who is willing to prove that his identity has been used by someone else in Airbnb without his permission and knowledge. This has been a pain for me for such a long time now, I have an empty wall in any direction I try to go, the frustration does not leave me any choice but to sue and ask for a full compensation for all this. 

* I screenshot this and copy this forum post in case someone in Airbnb tries to delete it. 

[Brian2036]

@Oran369 

No, you cannot sue Airbnb over a review made by someone else.

In your response to the review you should briefly explain that this guest booked using someone else’s account and had no right to review.

If he has hijacked someone else’s account the victim should report that and close the account.

At this time I don’t see the review you mentioned.

 You can keep trying to get CS to delete a review and possibly they will eventually do it, but you need to keep your complaint very simple and easy for them to deal with.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  The review is there, you have to scroll down quite a bit. August 2021. And Oran already left a response. Not one that really helps him, unfortunately. 

[Oran369]

He didn't hijacked someone else’s account. He opened a brand new account using someone else identity and for god sake, the Airbnb support doesn't get it.  The Mexican guy is now aware of it and we have a document showing he wasn't giving permission and didn't know this American person will open an account in his name.

but yes you and Sara are right.. Keep it simple is one way, but we were under the impression they will understand the situation without us trying to find the person who this is his identity. It was all blur we really didn't know what's happening until we start investigating what the Support people won't really do. We just knew it's all fishy when the American guy demanded my co-host to text his +1 number and tell her he is the owner of the reservation. 

and it's not about suing them about the review, it's about the corrupted system that they can't fix a problem even that we provide all evidence necessary. 

[Oran369]

falling in between the chairs in their system, how else it can be fixed then?

[Sarah977]

@Oran369  No, you can't sue Airbnb for this. And you are getting yourself upset way out of proportion to the issue. 

Of course scammers should be reported, and removed from the platform, but I don't quite understand how this guy was able to gain access to the account holder's account and book for himself through it and write a review. It seems to me the account holder allowed this to happen. That he knows the guy.

Scammers and bad reviews happen. Your lengthy repsonse to the review was unnecessary and no future guests are interested to read a long rant about another guest- that hurts you. All you needed to say was "This review was left by a scammer using someone else's account. Please refer to our other reviews for an accurate picture of what to expect when booking with us."

You have lots of good reviews. Even if it can't be removed, it is an obvious outlier and a rant. Prospective guests will not believe it- guests aren't stupid, who would believe one bad review when all the rest are great.

Airbnb might have removed the review if you had kept everything simple, which you have to do when dealing with Airbnb support. As the account holder, Bartholome can contact Airbnb and ask to have that review removed. Users can have their own reviews removed, Airbnb will do that. So if that user is telling you he wants to help, that's all he needs to do and the review will disappear.  Much, much easier than you trying to get it removed. 

If someone has hacked Bartholeme's account, that's something he should be dealing with Airbnb about, not you. But he also may be lying to you and just let his buddy book through his account.

[Oran369]

It's an American person who came to Mexico and try to do whatever business. He opened that account under the guy who help him with translations. We found that guy and he said he have no idea, anything about this. He never talks to us via Airbnb. The American guy even upload a photo of the Mexican guy. The Mexican doesn't even know to speak English. 

He has no access to the account, he does not own the account because he never opened it and we knew it. So my co-host went all the way to find the real guy on this identity and we told him about this. Even then Airbnb supports not wanting to help with anything. They follow their rules like robots. We have documents that show he has no idea that this guy used his identity to book. They don't care. 

What you can suggest now after I clarify this information? 

[Sarah977]

@Oran369  What a weird, convoluted situation. It seems to me that this Bartheme needs to deal with Airbnb and tell them someone who he helped with some translation has used his photo and his name to set up an account and is making fraudulent bookings under a fraudulent profile. If he doesn't know how to do this, maybe you can help him.

The thing about dealing with Airbnb CS is that you can't go on long, convoluted explanations. You have to keep it as simple as possible. 

If I were this person who has had his name and photo stolen, I would contact Airbnb by message, not phone, and write like this:

"TRUST AND SAFETY ISSUE

A person who employed me for some translation work, Scott, opened an Airbnb account using my name and my photo.

I do not have any access to that account,  as it was set up by this other person, Scott, without my knowledge, until a host who had a problematic booking from this Scott person alerted me to the fraud. 

I have never had an Airbnb account before and I did not set up that account, which uses my name and photo. This is fraud.

Please advise me if you require more information regarding this cybercrime. This is a fraudulent account that needs to be shut down and investigated. Another person cannot use my name and photo to open an account, it's illegal.

I await your reply"

Now, I'm not sure how B. can send a message to Airbnb if he can't get into that account. He may need to set up a new account in order to talk to Airbnb.

[Sarah977]

@Oran369  Why did you not leave a review for this booking, to warn other hosts? That would have been an important thing to do. I would have written  "Beware- a third party booking was made through this account by someone who tried to scam a refund with bogus complaints and who left an untrue, scathing review."

[Oran369]

Because we were under the impression Airbnb will do something. We learned now that if we let someone stay the night or just touch things in the apartment he allow to put whatever review he would. Still the person who wrote it isn't the person under the identity.