My account has been closed

[David126]

This is partly to say goodbye to all the other Hosts I have interacted with and also give you a heads up. Firstly thanks for all your help over the last 3 years.

I listed on ABB 3 years ago, firstly with one room, then added 2 more and finally a 4th a month or so ago.

I have had around 1,000 bookings, 700 reviews and 400 5 star reviews and my rating was 4.7.

Superhost

Had one extenuating circumstances single night cancellation 18 months ago Burst pipe.

Use instant Book from about a month after I listed, I accept Dogs etc so no issues with any of ABB policies.

I have been super busy this summer, not sure when the last time was I had a night to myself,  and last weekend was our main event in town.

Most days I get a booking, but a lot of people book a week or 2 out and of late I have not had much availability.

A week ago a guest told me that she could nto find me on the AirBnB site, everyting was working fine from my end, I logged out and searched and could not find me either.

So I contacted ABB forst through the Help function , they were very responsive, congratulated me on all my good reviews etc etc, could see there was an issue bit would need to refer it, this went on for a few hours and they could get no feeback from the team that would handle it.

Couple of days later I tried Twitter, similar deal, your Manager will contact you by email.

Yesterday I tried agian, went through the same thing.

In the meantime I had Guests stay, I was paid, reviews done. All was normal.

Then I received the standard we are closing your account and not telling you why message I have seen many times on here.

Fortunately I am pretty easy to find with a Google search and most of my bookings have already contacted me and I have made other arrangements. I knew I was exposed mainly using one provider, ABB was the only site I used, I have friends, people I know stay with me. direct

I had also looked into what to do going forward and have now put the wheels in motion.

Why, well I do not know, I can think of only 2 reasons:

- My participation on here - but that seems unlikely, but not impossible.

- There was some technical glitch on my listing that disappeared me from the search function and it was easier for the person to just delete my account than sort it. I am inclined to believe this which is of course a sad indictment.

I am realistic, even with all my booking ABB probably made $2,000 a year from me, I am hardly of consequence to them.

Fortunatley this did not happen in June, I can deal with this as things have dipped, the Schools have gone back and to be honest I need a breather, has been a long summer.

My Guests were told ABB had cancelled the bookings, there were given the standard 10% credit to be used for another ABB booking and their money back. But not why.

I told them I would honour the price but without the AirBnB fee. I will be increasing my prices.

[Letti0]

@Ute42   I agree with @Lisa723  Maybe open up even a day or two you have avaiable and give us the date to see if we can book you those dates or search for you without dates.  

[Ute42]

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@Letti0,  as I said, I don't need them.

And that slowly changes into: I don't want them.

[Ute42]

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@Lisa723, as an experiment I could call HomeAway to reopen my listing that I had with them till 2014. I have 27 positive reviews with HA. I thought airbnb would be better than they are but it doesn't look like.

if I get delisted for whatever reason, don't You think they should at least notify me? I have nothing from them.

Well, I got two invitations from them today to participate on some photothread. They must think I'm still alive.

[Lisa723]

@Ute42 well, Airbnb should do many things that it does not do (and vice versa).  🙂  I don't think we know that you have been delisted. It seems quite plausible that Airbnb, whether intentionally or not, has changed something that suppresses completely unavailable listings from search results and that if/when you want to actually get Airbnb bookings your listing will reappear. As a guest I can totally see preferring not to be presented with a lot of listings that are completely unbookable.

Yes, I list with HA too, as well as TripAdvisor, Innclusive, and Booking.com. I'll take bookings wherever I can get them.   🙂

[Letti0]

@Ute42  That's a compliment to you and your listing. They want to feature you and listing probably on the German and US forums. Rebecca in OR and Robin in Australia are two I know that have been featured not to long ago. 

[Dave-and-Deb0]

I certainly hope that Airbnb has stopped listing listings that have no availalbility.  This makes no sense to do this.  I hear it time and again from customers who are trying to find a place to stay and they are shown listings that are not in fact available.  

[Lisa723]

@David126 are you going to try to restore your listing?

[David126]

@Lisa723

There is no way I know of and by tomorrow I will have my backup plan in place, only one of my advanced bookings has not contacted me.

Should have saved all that information off the system. Just a one nighter and I have somebody else who will take that room.

[Ute42]

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Hi @David126 ,

I think the truth of the matter is, that You are just not important to them, none of us is. They have too many listings and hundreds of new listings are coming in every day, there are just too many of us to chose from. Why bother about the doom of an old customer.

They have more important things to do. Buying luxury retreats, working on their real estate program, launching an own airline.

It's depressing, but I think is't the reality.

Let's all of us not forget to thumb up David's thread so that it shows unter „top“ section on this forum.

[Fred13]

@David126, needless to say, I am sadden, for you with your no-nonsense manner have always been one my favorites here. Surely this is a glitch.

   Funny, but whomever came up with the axiom "Some things happen for the better' was wise, for in many cases it is so true. Speaking of Plan B, I can switch to 'day use' and not skip a beat, about the only thing I would miss is folks like you in this forum community. 

   If my odd life ever takes me through CO again, stopping by your place and finally meeting you will be a must.

[Tueykay0]

@David126

Sorry this happened to you.

[David126]

Assuming I was taken off the search system for 2 weeks but still allowed to operate, it seems odd that this would have been the consequence of a Guest issue, would they not delist immediately?

One issue that I had not thought of is that Shadow, my Co Host, is no longer an Assistance Animal and has reverted to being a mere Dog, not sure how he will take it, I will wait until he wakes up before I break the bad news.

[Tony134]

This is something specifically I have been wondering about David.  What you are describing is essentially a Shadow Ban.  It's called 'shadow' ban because the connotations associated with it are bad - Shady.  It's entirely innapropriate in the first place.  What bothers me more is they left other guests going to your listing after the ban started, yes?  So they used your home for more bookings, essentially still using the entire home for airbnb(becuase you didn't even know or have the choice to stop all bookings together, say at the end of a month period so you could find renters may even) but not paying for the entire thing.

You have been on Airbnb for a long time and you have probably at this point seen every shady thing they've ever done.  You probably, and this is important, relied on all their guarantees and policies and offered your home with the expectation that it would not randomly stop at any time.  You bought furniture, supplies, and hosted guests, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, probably sunk a lot of the money you made hosting back into more furniture, supplies, and house maintenance with the expectation that it was an investment in your Airbnb business.  You now have nothing further to lose, but realistically have lost pretty much all the time and effort you put into creating a BnB on their website.

Get aggressive, get an attorney, Go For the Gold.  It's definitely what Brian Chesky would do.

[Lyndsey2]

This is disturbing. And what a shame to lose such a great community member (two, actually, Shadow counts too.). 

[Emily352]

After ten years, does AIRBNB still have a heart?