Suspension

[Marcus457]

My account was suspended. I was never notified by Airbnb and I have no idea why. I have called Airbnb and talked to the Superhost team. They told me that they could not tell me why I was suspended. There was a special team handling the case and they would get in touch with me. Four days later and I haven’t heard from them. I have called multiple times. I literally have no idea what is going on or why this has been done. Does anyone know a way to circumvent the gate keepers and talk to someone who has an idea about why this happened. I’ve been an Airbnb host for years and never had a single problem . I am completely clueless but they’re putting me out of business. Any help would be appreciated thanks

[Sarah977]

@Marcus457  That was just a random example of something it would be be easy for Airbnb to verify immediately. 

The guest could say the place was filthy, or unsafe, that there were no sheets or towels or hot water, that the host made inappropriate sexual advances, that they were discriminated against because of their race or because they are gay, or that there were bedbugs, or whatever nonsense these scammers make up to try to get a refund or take revenge on a host. 

Or, like Andrew mentioned, it might have nothing to do with a guest reporting you. I remember a post from a host whose listing had been suspended because she used some slangy term (which I can't remember) in a review she had left for a guest, that was actually a compliment to indicate that the  guest was fantastic, that the Airbnb algorithm picked out as being deragatory or something. 

[Kristin1300]

I have 0 cameras on any property. 

[Marcus457]

IA guest did throw a pretty big house party that weekend. My agent saw about 15 people coming in through the external cameras. We revieved a noise complaint from our neighbor. So we made them leave. In an hour they accumulated 16 bags of trash. I would suppose maybe they complained. But I would hope that Airbnb would contact me to hear our side of the story. This is in Atlanta where there have been so many complaints about house parties in the city has passed a pretty aggressive rule against Airbnb‘s.

[Sarah977]

@Marcus457  Yep, that sounds like exactly what it was. Revenge from the guest for getting booted out, or Airbnb holding you responsible for having a "party house". 

[Anonymous]

Well now @Marcus457 , I mean no disrespect here but you kind of pulled our legs a bit when you said you "never had any problem." Obviously, if you had to kick out a group of 15 people, you definitely had one really big problem and a whole bunch of angry party people (plus maybe neighbors) hungry for revenge. "Maybe they complained?" Maybe? Come on, now. You weren't born yesterday, you know they did. And they probably knew exactly which lies they could tell that would hurt your business the most.

At first glance, Airbnb's party policy appears to penalize guests for breaking hosts' rules and throwing disruptive, destructive parties. But when you take a closer look, what it really does is penalize hosts for failing to prevent them. Even hosts who take all the reasonable measures like you did, to keep the home under a watchful eye and quickly remove the offending guests, are ultimately going to be the ones who have to suck up the responsibility when they lose control of the house. It's not your fault that this happened - these people really abused your hospitality - but once your listing is associated with parties, it has an indelible stain on it. The community regards it as a nuisance, the risk of bad viral story in the press (see also: Orinda) skyrockets, and all of your excellent hosting skills are suddenly called into question. 

In my personal opinion, this is the wrong way for Airbnb to go about it. They make hosts feel too scared to decline risky bookings, they keep us in constant fear of a bad review if we push back against bad behavior, and as a result they create the humid environment where these toxic guests can thrive. But then it's the hosts who have to accept the losses when it goes wrong. I feel for the hosts who see their listing service as a business partner, because that means they're in an abusive relationship with a sociopath who's gaslighting them.

[Marcus457]

I just do not understand the process. I have never had any trouble before like this in any of my properties. This is our first party issue. We were able to get the problem handled very rapidly.

I assumed that someone with a clean record would at least be told what the issue is. I would think they would at least talk to me prior to suspending my account. Airbnb turned off my business without even telling me why or giving me a chance to respond. I am not a habitual offender. We really try hard to stay within the rules. These party houses really cause trouble in Atlanta.

The lack of response is really nerve-racking. It seems like they could at least give you an idea of what’s going on.

[Anonymous]

@Marcus457  You're right; you deserve an explanation and a real human contact when an action like this is on the table. But the reality is that the interface between Airbnb and its customers is no longer a person-to-person kind of thing. Your cry for help goes to an outsourced call center, gets pawned off to overworked contractors who know less about Airbnb policy than you do, and all they can do is move your ticket around in circles from one clueless person's virtual desk to another. What I'm telling you here is that there's nobody at the wheel. The decision to suspend your listing very well might have been made by AI - as dystopian as it sounds, that's already the world we're in now - and there probably isn't a human in the company who has the information and autonomy to explain why. 

The suspension will probably be reversed, eventually. You won't be compensated for the lost income. You probably won't get a satisfying explanation or apology. This is not unique to Airbnb; it's how most tech products work now. Be careful how you harness your livelihood to them.

[Sarah977]

@Marcus457

You don't understand the process because you are thinking like a sane, logical person and expect that there is a sane, logical process. There isn't. Andrew has summed it up well. There are no sane, fair, logical adults in charge. 

"What's Kafkaesque [...] is when you enter a surreal world in which all your control patterns, all your plans, the whole way in which you have configured your own behavior, begins to fall to pieces [...] What you do is struggle against this with all of your equipment, with whatever you have. But of course you don't stand a chance." (Frederick Karl)

This is the realm in which you now find yourself with Airbnb.

[Orhan24]

HELLO @Marcus457 , 

My account was suspended too, and no reason was given. They didn't answer when I called. I have a big loss. Did you find a solution?

[Sybe]

Hey @Marcus457 , I'm so sorry to hear about your account suspension.

I wanted to quickly confirm that we've raised this with the team and someone will be in touch with you shortly. Hopefully we can get this sorted for you, please do let us know how you get on!

Sybe

[Marcus457]

The suspension has been lifted. I was suspended over some confusion about internal and X ternal cameras. We never had any internal cameras. However I never spoke to anyone Directly about the problem. We called many times Then one day it was lifted. It was kind of an interesting situation. So my only advice to anybody just keep calling and hope it gets resolved

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Marcus457 Good to hear your listing is back. 

[Kendra114]

@Sybe  The same thing has just happened to me. 6 of my listings suspended because 1 guest who caused $200 worth of damage retaliated. I believe she has claimed that we have recording devices inside which we absolutely do not. We have cameras with sound outside and everything is disclosed multiple times in our listings and on-site.

Please help! I have contacted Airbnb multiple times to try to get through to someone who can actually do something and I am getting nowhere.

[Heidi717]

Without any communication or notification or warning, I've been suspended as a super host because I declined six reservations.  This was unjust because two separate people both submitted two requests to stay with pets when I clearly state that I have a NO PET policy.  I am highly allergic to pets and cannot break this policy for my own health.  The other two were requests to stay from people with no reviews and first timers to the site who wanted to negotiate prices that were not acceptable to me.  Therefore, airbnb must have an algorithm that decided that because I declined six requests (from only four persons) that I must be suspended.  This is after 4.9 and super reviews and continuous superhost rating for four years with four properties listed.  All my properties are suspended.  

I have called the help number.  The rep tells me they have escalated me to supervisor attention.  No call back.  I called again.  Same story.  No call back.  No message back.  They can't help me but will add to my notes, please contact her quickly.  No call back.  It's been days.  This is ridiculous.  I have printed the transcripts of the booking requests so that I have proof of this.  I cannot find anywhere on their site that says that six declines means you will be suspended.  

I do see that under instant book, you can opt to accept only guests with positive reviews and recommendations from other hosts.  This option is not available if you have instant book turned off.  I like the option of reading the booking requests before accepting them because that is how I caught the four requests to bring pets even though it is clearly against my house rules.  Help me, airbnb.  Where is the human supervisor?  Where is the logic?  Why am I so penalized when I am a super host with an excellent track record? @Admin6  @Admin5  @Admin7  @Sybe  

[Emiel1]

@Heidi717 

When looking at your profile and homepage i can see you own 4 listing. They are all active and in the search system.

https://www.airbnb.com/users/122874421/listings

They can also be booked. So it seems there is no suspension (anymore ?).