Unrecognized Address

[Dennis22]

I got a letter saying my address is unrecognized.   I live in my home and am the owner.   I put my address on the app, but now it says Chicago doesn’t recognize it.   I don’t have a registration number.   I came downtown to Business Affairs, but they tell me it’s AirBnBs fault.  He told me they need to relist.  I call AirBnB and they can’t help.   Chicago tells me I have seven days to take down my site. I’ve been hosting two years.   Can anyone help?

[Aisha0]

Dennis,

I got the same notice this morning too. 

We have owned our home for 10 years - and city says they dont recognize the address !!!!!

Talked to City and they told me the same - its Airbnb's fault and it's a simple remediation by changing address or relisting same property but register with FULL address (like - street direction, whether multi unit, single family -- blah blah... I hate this city regulators - 🙂

Am trying to get a hold of Airbnb now ..

Will keep you posted - and do let me know if you make any progress as well.

Thanks,

AB

[Dennis22]

 I was able to get Airbnb to switch my address. But when I go on to register, I am still blocked because it says the city has declined me. City told me to go  back to Airbnb. Airbnb told me to wait 24 hours to see if my new address changes anything    

[Carolyn208]

Did Airbnb contact the city with the "new address" cause all they told me was to take down my listing, lose the resos and superhost status and start all over again !!  That still dosen't  gaurantee they will approve the next registration attempt.  GO TO YOUR ALDERMAN, 

thats what I did (48th ward).  They said they got a letter from Consumer affairs telling them NOT to help Airbnb people with these rejections !

[Dennis22]

No.  In fact, they haven’t responded to my online request from three days ago.  I spoke to a representative yesterday morning.  She promised to check with tech support and call me back in an hour.   It’s now 24 hours.  I did reach out to my Alderman, but they won’t speak to him either.  Most likely going to delete my listing come Monday.   Very disappointed 

[Libby42]

Hi Dennis and everyone else who got The Letter,

I didn't include the unit number. I sent my letter to the AirBnB person I spoke with on the phone and am hoping she can help. It's good to hear you got a call back from the city. The letter actually says don't contact them! It's ridiculous! 

[Gerry31]

Same issue here, 2-flat, we live in one unit, second unit has been on Airbnb for a year. Just recieved same rejection email letter from the City yesterday, "unrecognizable or incomplete address". In my case when Airbnb submitted registration information the "Apartment Unit #x" was left out of the address. New ordinance, since 2016, only allows for one Airbnb rental in a 2-flat building, so I'm sure this is why the City is saying the address is incomplete.  Call Airbnb support and person on the other end was not sure of the process for resubmiting the registration application to the City of Chicago. I'm following up with Airbnb support via email. They need to activate something at their end so we can resubmit the registration with the corrected address. Waiting for response from Airbnb. 

[Dennis22]

 Thank you for your responses. Let’s all stay in touch over the next day or two. My letter said I had to shut my site down within seven days.     I have several guest booked through the end of the month. Hopefully, I can still accept these bookings. 

 I reached out to my alderman‘s office. They contacted somebody  in City Hall. That person gave them the Airbnb phone number.   Very frustrating 

[Gerry31]

Dennis, I'm fairly sure you'll be able to honor all of your future bookings. Take a look at point 22 on this link:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1495/chicago-home-sharing-registration--frequently-asked-questio...

My understanding is the info in this link is Aribnb's interpretation of the ordinance passed by the City in 2016 legalizing Airbnb type rentals in Chicago. My guess is this is 100% an accurate interpretation since it was airbnb who really wrote the ordinance for the City 🙂

Also, in the same situation here with many future bookings... but I'm not worried. Airbnb has much at stake ... so I'm sure they are scrambling to try and figure out the issue with the City of Chicago registration.

[Patricia1346]

I agree with everyone here. We are in the same situation. I own a two flat and didn't include the apartment number. Airbnb will not assist. City hall will not assist. It is baffling. I keep begging Airbnb to tell me who at their organization works with the city of Chicago. Someone at Airbnb manages the relationship with the city, but no one will say who it is. I'll let you know if I find anything.

[Carolyn208]

Hi Pat, me too.  Everytime I call Airbnb they some how find the same guy Renzo to shut me down. He told me to close my listing and NEVER offered to contact the city to change the address problem. I sent him a copy of the letter from the city to say "This is what they are asking for-simply tell them unit 1, unit 2 in the address line, but he says no, he thinks it would 

be better if I shut doen my listing....

I swear there is a handful of customer service peole for Airbnb in a room in Mumbai and they all have heavy accents and crappy phone connections.

Complain to your alderman, I did.

[Dennis22]

 I just received a call back from the city of Chicago,    It was someone from the shared housing division. At first, he told me to go back to Airbnb. I asked him if the city of Chicago tech department can communicate with the Airbnb tech department since Airbnb hosts are bringing in countless tourist into the city. He told me to give him 24 hours.    If they can get their tech departments to work this out, it would save them a lot of time. He told me there are over 2000 letters that went out. 

[Patricia1346]

Wonderful! I was just saying that - I want to literally just talk to whoever submits the data to the city. 

[Patricia1346]

Hi Dennis, 

Do you have the name of the person who said that there were 2000 letters sent out?

I'm trying to get a hold of an attorney at Airbnb. I would like to tell her who to call in Chicago.

I think that Airbnb can fix this if they realize what a disaster this is if there are really 2000 people in this position. I was so much more worried when I thought I was the only one who had an error, because then it is easy for Chicago to single me out and say I should have just stopped hosting. However, if there are really 2000 letters, then Airbnb needs to contact the city and have the city send a new email saying there is a 2 month window where it will get worked out or something. I honestly think that it likely took someone in Chicago a TON of time to review all of these registrations, comparing addresses to city records. If Airbnb resubmitted things today, I don't think the city could possibly review everything fast enough.

[Patricia1346]

I found a link to an appeal form - Strangely I found it though digging around Airbnb community posts, not from the city or from Airbnb.

https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/Small%20Business%20Center/Shared_Housing_A...

I will likely fill that out, but regardless, I have been telling Airbnb repeatedly that they need to get a legal team on this immediately to fix this. 

I want to update my address on Airbnb (to add the apartment number), but I kind of doubt that will help. If there were a real-time or even 24 hour system to check addresses, then it wouldn't have taken them a year to review my registration, and they wouldn't have sent 2000 letters on one day.