Let's be honest...

[Ryan368]

You don't care in the least about your hosts or your superhosts.

I have been an AirBnB Host for about 10 years. I have been doing it at full time properties for the past 4 years. I've been a superhost that entire time. I have around 800 reviews (I think) over the years.

I always read horror stories from hosts who say that AirBnb has locked their accounts and that they have done nothing. In my head, I thought these people were just bad hosts. I assumed that they had done something and they were just not admitting their own issues. Unfortunately, that assumption was incorrect.

I had a guest last week who had never used AirBnB. A husband and wife with a dog and a baby. They had a four night reservation. I sent them the check in info. They never responded. I sent them welcome message the day before. They never responded. That's fine. Some people just want to do their own thing. All good. I never heard from them at all.

On that Friday after their reservation ended, I received an email at 3:36am from AirBnB stating that my account was being locked because of a guest safety concern and that I would be able to discuss this with the representative on Monday at 6pm when she got back into the office. MONDAY at 6PM??? They really planed to leave my account locked for 3 days because a guest with no reservation history and no reviews reported a safety concern despite the hundreds, if not thousands, of past guests who had never reported anything similar. AirBnB never contacted me. The guest never contacted me. The guest stayed in my house through the entire reservation, left on the last day and then made a "safety complaint" which triggered my account lockout without even a discussion (at 3:36am). Not even an attempt by AirBnB to reach me. That is SO disappointing. 

I called and spent about five hours on the phone Saturday morning with various AirBnB reps trying to get it escalated and resolved. All of them told me the same thing. We can escalate this, but no one will look at it until this support rep returns and they were right. I have yet to receive a call back from anyone despite replying to the case and uploading pictures and evidence against this guest's claim. I am locked out of messaging. I am locked out of reservations. My calendars shows as blocked out on all properties, not just the property that was reported. The house in question is our highest rated at 4.95 and has back to back reservations. It has had 3 vacant days in the past six months. I have had three new guests check in since they locked it. I have had to track back through past communications to find their phone numbers and reach out to them directly. It's worked out okay. Not ideal, but it's worked. 

To top this off, when I went to the house after I received the email, it was trashed. The king size mattress and comforter were covered dog urine and the tub looked like they had bathed their dog multiple times. It was covered in hair and scratches. It was obvious they left their dog in the house unattended while they went out for the day. However, I can't file a damage claim because my account is locked. When I called support about it, they told me they also couldn't file one on my behalf for the same reason. This guest reported me. He did so to get out of paying for the obvious damages and bad review he would receive. I believe he knew that if he was first to complain, they would take his side. No questions asked. That's a problem. AirBnB did absolutely no due diligence. They didn't look at my positive host history or the fantastic reviews of this house. They didn't contact me to discuss the situation. They didn't even give me the opportunity to call in to speak to anyone because my rep was "out for the weekend". They just made a judgement and shut my account down. I am having to spend extra time working on resolving this, and I cannot even make a claim to recover the damages this guest did before they called in to get my account shut down. Why would AirBnB side with someone who has a brand new account over a person with ten years of history before even looking into the situation or speaking with me? Why? Because they just don't care about their hosts. 

This will get resolved, hopefully today. I don't plan to stop using AirBnB, though I do plan to re list it on other sites and see how that experience is. I love AirBnB. I love using AriBnB. I travel with AirBnB. I am rethinking all of that. This experience has been awful and this policy of making one sided judgements is beyond unreasonable. What is the point of building a solid hosting history and maintaining superhost status if something like this can happen?

I've always done right by AirBnB. Unfortunately, they haven't reciprocate with a mutual level of respect.

Look, AirBnB asked me to be a local host ambassador a couple of months ago, and I would have done it if I had time. I run a large host alliance group that covers the front range of Colorado. I worked with the City of Colorado Springs on regulations and fought to keep AirBnB legal in Colorado. I have been invested and spent years promoting the benefits fo AirBnB.

Why?

[Sarah977]

@Catherine-Powell  Every day there are new posts here about yet another long time 5* host having their listing suspended with no warning, based on a bogus complaint from a guest who is disgruntled over not receiving an  undeserved refund or being called out for bad behavior.

These are not isolated cases, it is clear that CS reps are being instructed to do this. It is systemic, not individual.

There is nothing whatsoever fair about this and it is nonsensical. A guest makes a complaint about cameras, and instead of the CS rep taking 2 minutes to look at the host's listing to determine that yes, the host has disclosed the cameras in their listing, and dismissing the complaint right there and then, Airbnb suspends the host's listing for some indeterminate length of time, cancelling booked reservations, harming the host's business and upsetting the cancelled guests, all based on an unsubstantiated report from a guest seeking revenge.

Correcting this outrage does not require "investigation" by some team. CS reps simply have to be instructed to stop these unfair suspensions, which it is apparent is some kind of internal Airbnb policy, and start treating hosts with respect instead of as if they are criminals and guilty until proven innocent.

[Sarah977]

@Catherine-Powell  Investigating a guest's report is fine- we are under no illusion that there aren't some bad hosts out there who should be delisted and guest reports which are legitimate.

But to instantly suspend a host's listing based upon nothing but a guest's accusation is not the way to handle these cases. Airbnb is basically arresting hosts with zero proof they have done anything wrong.

As Head of Hosting, what is your position on this? 

Because you have said nothing to indicate that you consider this unfair to hosts. "Sharing" with the "teams" isn't what we expect from someone who is supposed to be our hosting advocate.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Sarah977,

Thank you for candidly expressing your concerns. I hear you, and I understand how this can be frustrating. Please understand that we take all safety concerns and want to make sure we give the fairest and safest resolution.

I also want Hosts like you, and everyone taking part in this discussion, to feel more supported and I understand there is room for improvement in our current process.

Warmly,

Catherine

[Sarah977]

@Catherine-Powell  You didn't answer my question. I am not interested in being told that you "hear" me. Hosts are sick of this placating language.

I asked you what your position was on listings being instantly suspended based on an unproven guest complaint.

You apparently don't want to answer that, so I'm not sure what "Head of Hosting" means, as you don't appear to do anything to support hosts.

[Toetsie0]

there was a time i really felt appreciated as a superhost by Airbnb. And i too went to talks with the city counsel to make sure we would have a good chance of airbnb in the city inhouse of hosts. And that was before the pandemic! I’ll search the forum for a propper place for my steam filled story!

[Ryan368]

Here's a new example at a 5 star listing. Again, just bad service and clearly no support or respect for being a long time superhost with multiple properties and long term high reviews.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Support-with-your-bookings/AirCover-What-s-the-point/td-p/207090...