I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this, because we’re honestly at a loss with Airbnb support right now.
I’m the cohost of a new listing. The homeowners purchased the property this past spring, and we created an entirely new listing under their ownership. We’ve put a lot of work into getting the home ready, creating the listing, photos, description, etc., and it has now been live for about a month.
The previous owners of the property apparently also operated it as an Airbnb, and their listing had poor reviews. We have absolutely no connection to the previous owners, their Airbnb account, their listing, or their hosting history other than the fact that this is now the same physical property.
Airbnb has now notified us that they believe our listing is a duplicate of that previous listing and that they are removing it.
We appealed and clearly explained that the property has changed ownership. The homeowners even uploaded their deed showing that they purchased the property. After “consideration,” Airbnb still upheld the decision to remove our listing.
We are incredibly frustrated and disappointed. This is a new homeowner, a new host account, a new cohost, and a newly created listing. It feels like the current owners are essentially being penalized for the reviews and hosting history of people they have no connection to.
Has anyone else run into this recently? I’m also wondering whether some part of this review/appeal process is now automated, because it genuinely feels like the information and documentation we’re providing aren’t actually being considered. Customer support has given both of us the complete runaround, and the homeowner’s most recent response from support suddenly came through in French instead of English, which only added to the feeling that no one is actually taking ownership of the issue.
What makes this especially difficult is the timing. We’re in Vermont and trying to build momentum going into foliage season and then the winter ski season. Losing the listing now and having to start over would mean losing the little history and momentum we’ve already begun building through views and saves, all because of something that happened under completely different ownership.
The strangest part is that Airbnb told me that if I delete this listing and create it again, they will not take the new one down. But after everything we’ve been told so far, it’s difficult to have confidence that recreating it won’t trigger the exact same issue again. And more importantly, we don’t understand why we should have to delete a legitimate listing when we’ve already provided documentation showing the change in ownership.
We’d really just like someone to actually review the situation, recognize the mistake, and allow us to keep the listing we’ve already built.
Has anyone dealt with a property being incorrectly flagged as a duplicate after a change in ownership? If so, were you able to get it resolved, and is there a particular department or escalation route that finally got you to someone who could actually review the documentation?
