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.

[Pete28]

I decided a while back not to shift a long term rental into Airbnb for a number of reasons. I will add this on as another.

Airbnb is just too unpredictable to take an income of $35k and move it across. Yes I would probably make more, but the constant churn, lack of real deposit or background checks, random reviews, and now this are too much risk.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Inna22 I believe the moderators needed to at least give a minimum support to David.We heard nothing from them till now. @David126 Can you please give us some updates?

[David126]

I am going to thank everybody again for their kind comments.

Because I have been a member of this forum and have seen others go through the process for some reason I was not that taken back, to be honest I felt worse for the other Hosts this happened to than myself.

The one thing that seems common to many issues, the system make its call and then there is no way forward. Nobody else I am aware of who this happened to found a way, I decided to move on and not waste my time.

The only people I communicated with, pretty sure the first one was Indian the second one was not, both thanked me congratulate me for my reviews being a Super Host etc etc etc.

Then the standard message which had a name to it, a real name probably not, first name and a letter, was it generated by a real person, who knows.

The Mods are not AirBnB employees, nothing they can do.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@David126 Thank you for the update.Concerning the mods even if they are not direct Airbnb employees i am sure they are well aware of this situation and they could at least bring some kind of support or information to you and to the community.

[Kenneth12]

I would certainly consider filing an arbitration case in a matter such as this,  or for that matter,  seeking an emergency order compelling Airbnb (you've waived your claim in law,  not in equity).

In the latter,  they have to send out an attorney to your jurisdiction,  which is going to cost them $20K minimum.  That would get an adult's attention.

The mods here aren't employees? ??   Sheesh,  I'd never take on the legal liability and they have,  with a lot of compensation.

Good luck.

[Lawrene0]

Also pretty sure there is no way forward, @David126, but I hope you are suddenly reinstated and that the apology includes a hefty credit to your account. In the meantime, I found your place on facebook and gave it a like. It is as much help as I can think to be. 

[Lois-and-Darryl0]

David:  This is truly a scenario I have never ever imagined.  I've been so so busy, particularly with our one Airbnb listing, that I haven't been here in the Community Center for quite a while.  I was returning today to get an update and to whine a bit about my recent latest response from an Airbnb rep who did not read my messages, but discussed a recent issue with others at Airbnb and then slammed me for doing things that I didn't do (he'd know if he would have read) - and then I come across YOUR situation.  I guess I'll shut up and be a good little Airbnb Host.

Good luck; you obviously are highly successful without this platform.

Lois

Mtn Haven, Randle, WA

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Lois-and-Darryl0 This is the last thing you want to do! If you shut up and be a good little Airbnb host they never will improve their services.Don't be the lamb that they can manipulate and slaughter whenever it pleases them.

[Miloud0]

Salute @David0, 

Really, i am so sorry for that. I do i hope a goodluck for you. 

Thanks, 

Miloud

[Kelly-And-Jeff0]

To all the people that are responding to this post that there must be “some good reason” for this to have happened I’d like to share my recent story of how petty Airbnb can be and how in reality they don’t actually care about their hosts.

I recently received my annual Superhost bonus where you can choose from the photoshoot or $100 travel credit.  It said the photoshoot was available in my area so I chose that and booked it. 2 days later I got an email saying there was no photographers in my area. The option to choose the $100 travel credit never came back up so I messaged support.

First I got 2 canned email responses on how to collect my reward even though I clearly said the reward was no longer there.

Then I finally started talking to a human a week later. She said she had spoken with their “specialized team” and it was their policy that once you choose a reward you can’t choose again.

But it is your system that f-ed up I said.

Sorry nothing we can do she said. 

Well actually there is something you could do. You could just give me a credit for $100.

No sorry it is against our policy you already chose a reward. You should have checked if it was available.

I did! So this happens so much that there is a policy about it??? Sure....

I’m not a little listing either. We will make 50k+ this year. Any way. My point is this particular interaction was extremely eye opening to me. 90% of our business is ABB. In the new year when work slows down I will have to start concentrating more on other channels.

[Inna22]

@Kelly-And-Jeff0 That's just wrong! 

[Pete28]

What is $20-50k to us is a rounding error to Airbnb. With too few humans and too much data science the risks of winding up in some Kafka like process seem quite real. I now keep an eye open for account closed threads and see quite a few. Does any other platform do this ?

Booking.com seems to peddle some dreadful properties (I stayed in one over the summer) and does its best to hide reviews (6/10 and they are still listed). They don't seem to shut down hosts.

[Victoria110]

You need to call and speak to someone else.Ask for a supervisor.  

[Kelly-And-Jeff0]

At this point I’m more annoyed I’ve had to spend this much time fighting for $100 that I supposedly “earned”. I’m just too busy with work right now and honestly it just makes me more angry fighting with them when I shouldn’t have to.

[Helen427]

David, I've always enjoyed reading your comments when I pop in here that you have made.

Perhaps you have been hacked by someone who has accessed your account.

It can and does happen easier than some may realise.

Have you considered that option?

Maybe you need to change your passwords etc and try see if it re activates your listing that way.

Alternatively, are you in an area where there's been legal action from local Councils and new compliance regulations that have been introduced?

In some locations that has had an impact on listings and been taken down until people get there certificates.

You may like to go back through your records and content of those who have made a request to book / enquiries made to your listings to see if they booked elsewhere, or not at all, as I suspect there's highly likely to be Airbnb "Guests" who are listed who work for local Councils who use underhanded tactics to glean info about Airbnb hosts.

It's common courtesy and would be add to the betterment of a good working relationship for Airbnb to provide an explaination as to "why" this has happened so you can also have your side of the matter heard prior to such adverse action.

All the best

https://www.airbnb.co.nz/help/article/359/what-should-i-do-if-i-think-someone-has-logged-into-my-acc...