Toronto Airbnb Hosts: Registration Cancellation

[Ash51]

********URGENT ACTION NEEDED***********

Disconnection between City of Toronto and Airbnb 

Facebook group members of Toronto Airbnb Host Community are constantly reporting registration cancellation followed by all STR bookings. For last few weeks, members are in fear of losing their STR license for no reason. These are causing financial damage to hosts; guests are losing confidence in Airbnb listings. Overall the situation is damaging Airbnb's reputation.

Can someone (at Airbnb) look into the issue?

Here's a brief of the issue:

Many hosts are reporting that their City of Toronto registration was cancelled followed by all STR bookings cancelled. Some hosts were informed by the city that there was no problem in their registration. Other hosts found unsubstantiated issues. 

Many hosts shared their horrible stories in the group page. Some blamed Airbnb others to the city authority. Some also said it could be a system glitch.

Whatever, it needs to be fixed immediately.

Summary of recent Facebook Group conversations:

City of Toronto authority checks registration status and share any discrepancies with Airbnb. Without checking or verification,, Airbnb moves all those listings to long-term rental by cancelling all their STR bookings. Hours after hours sometimes days needed to fix the issue. Some had to take huge financial burden of lost bookings. Some got partial bookings back after fixing the issue.

Expectation:

>> Airbnb needs to setup a system to let the host know before cancelling STR status at least 7 days in advance. Some lost their registrations due to miss-matched information between ID and listing information that could be simple typo even. A good lead time can save everyone's time, money and reputation.

>> Airbnb needs to pay special attention to Toronto hosts for time being as it is happening very frequently.

Lastly:

Those who lost earnings because of so called glitch should be compensated for their money and time. A legal fight may not be a good idea but cannot be ruled out.

Thank you!

[Sandra-and-John0]

This weekend was a nightmare!  The city promises their was no issue with our registration yet every one of our reservations was cancelled.  We spoke to so many ambassadors and got very little help.  

[Ash51]

I hear you. It’s a nightmare situation. 

[Cornell11]

I had all my reservations cancelled last Saturday. This happened to me exactly one month ago. I finally learned that if there is any discrepancy between the STR description and the Airbnb description than Airbnb will unilaterally cancel all of your reservations. I have emailed and called airbnb over 10 times with no help offered. Other than platitudes that they are sorry I am experiencing this. My ticket is allegedly moved up to higher tier support. They claim they will email me. Thus far all my airbnb tickets have been closed with the statement that the issue is resolved. It is not resolved. I tried changing my listing on airbnb to match the description of the STR. As I have a duplex I have to have upper written in the unit number. I am unable to make this change and was instructed to contact airbnb support to make the change. They claimed they could not make the change and that my ticket was escalated. So the circle of insanity continues. If anyone from airbnb can resolve this issue I would be grateful. If this continues the STR business model will end for Toronto hosts. 

[Ash51]

Thanks for sharing your story. I’m hoping that Airbnb will be more careful about cancelling all the reservations. They cannot do it unilaterally. It’s absolutely unfair. Hosts should get a chance to defend. We also can expect a bit more from the city. This carelessness cannot be accepted. This callousness causing lot of financial damage for many hosts. At the same time, Airbnb is losing trust and confidence from both guests and hosts. 

[Donata12]

@Ash51 what is happening is horrible. I do believe that Airbnb should not act based on city of Toronto input only because it seems clear that the Airbnb platform was not designed to work with big brother government as they now are. Reservations are on the Airbnb platform and they do have a contract binding with the host. Cancelling reservations without consulting with the host prior seems a breach to me. They should act upon the city of Toronto request by contacting the host first and asking the host to review and confirm that information on the listing is correct. Maybe we should look into hiring a lawyer? It is not the hosts fault if the 2 systems do not interact properly in case there are discrepancies. But for sure cancelling confirmed reservations is a breach of contract when the host holds a good standing license.

[Ash51]

I totally agree with your thoughts. In addition to lawyer, I think we need to make this to public by letting some journalists know this mess by both the city and Airbnb. 

[Donata12]

As expected, no one from Airbnb replied or commented. I had already used this forum to report bad stuff but nothing ever happens here.

[Jenny]

Hi @Donata12, @Ash51, @Cornell11 and @Sandra-and-John0 

Sorry to hear about this.

Some of you might have seen here that we've raised the issue already and we'll share any further information that we get with you.

Thanks for letting us know that you're affected by the issue.  We'll update you wherever possible.

Jenny