AirBnb continuously cancelling our reservations in Toronto, ON

[Luke560]

So here we go - hopefully I'll get more answers here than I have been from AirBnb.....

Throughout this ENTIRE year, once a month AirBnb will automatically cancel all my reservations for the remainder of the year - usually in the area of 20 different reservations. The cancellations happen immedaitely and all at once - there is no call from AirBnb or the City of Toronto.

The cancellations cite that our listing: 

• 10 - Your listing is in violation of an applicable local short-term rental law.

This is simply not the case - I have spoken to the Toronto Short Term Registration department many times and they all confirm verbally and via email that our short term registration license and code are both valid and not due to expire until December. When I call AirBnb, I'm met with total and utter confusion and lack of support - every single time this has happened (5 times) I have a long talk to a superhost ambassador, who says they'll put a note on my account, and this wont happen again, and so sorry - but then it happens again 3 weeks later.  Then when airbnb can't seem to find anything wrong they blame it on a bug, to which they send my case to their tech team (who I never hear back from at all regardless of me asking for an update every day), or they blame the city of Toronto, to which the City then says that they don't send requests to cancel to airbnb, they reach out directly to the hosts.

What is happening? Does anyone have any tips that have worked for them? I'm losing guests because for some of them, this has happened 3 times - and then airbnb sends them a message that essentially says that we aren't following regulations and can not host in Toronto at all. Our poor guests don't know what to do - it's not very reassuring if you're coming overseas to stay somewhere, so we've had guests decide that they are going to book a hotel or another Airbnb.

Is anyone from the Airbnb tech/support/ambassadors programs there and listening to actually give us any answers instead of the usual "It's been sent to our ____ advisors, who you can't talk to or reach at all, and will maybe message you back with a fix if they find one, or most likely won't bother to at all. But no matter what it's not our fault its yours or Toronto's". Getting super tired of the scripted answers and no results, and as a superhost that has an Airbnb PLUS listing, I've dedicated a lot of time and resources into making our unit specifically airbnb friendly and we always make sure to follow local regulations to the T - just doesn't seem fair that as a platform who says they value their guests and host, we're getting the cold shoulder because they just can't seem to figure out a bug.

Really hoping that this will yield some sort of fix - we just can't keep hosting on a platform that does this to their hosts or to their guests.

[Luke560]

@Jonathon58 @Please make sure the host is not double charging the cleaning fees, as they need to be included in special offers from hosts to guests. 

[Hannah1055]

I’ve been trying to pay the extra 235 none of my cards are being accepted I’ve tried everything and idk what to do at this point! I’m just exhausted I’ve been up trying all day/night 

[David8879]

@Jonathon58 

It might be due to change in currency exchange rate and not to evil host's wrongdoing 

[Karine-and-Hamilton0]

This happened to us last month and again this month.  They keep saying it’s our fault but our registration number is in there etc. Both times we had to “fix it” by re-entering and no help from airbnb or call back either times. This time we are not letting it go. They expect our guests to wait 15 days for a refund and to rebook. 

[Denice0]

I've been reading about a lot of hosts complaining of glitches lately.  @Luke560 , hopefully someone on here, will address this one soon.  It sounds dreadful for you and your guests.  Keep writing on here until it is resolved, so CS can't ignore you.  When I wasn't getting paid for a booking - I wrote daily until it was resolved.

[Jonathon58]

Hi All is it true they have also upped the Torornto Occupancy Tax ? 

[Luke560]

@Jonathon58 @We have not been notified of any increases but that would make sense - I’ve had a couple guests that have tried to rebook at the same price per night say that their total cost was $200 higher than before, even with all the same prices taking into account. 

Hosts need to be Informed of increases if prices like this. 

[Kamran19]

Federal government added 13% to bookings starting July 1. That maybe the increase people are seeing. And I’m getting no where with air bnb help, they keep quoting needing a license refusing to recognize the problem 

[Nar3055]

I had all my reservations cancelled 5 times now with close to 100 guests affected each time this happens. Unfortunately, customer support is helpless. The city of Toronto blames Airbnb. Airbnb blames the city of Toronto. I really hope that Airbnb fixes the issue and stops the auto cancellations as It impacts hundreds of hosts in the in our city and thousands of guests. So far I had these “auto cancellations” made twice in April, once in May, once in June, once in July.

I have also reported this issue on another community thread called: “Airbnb keeps canceling my bookings!!!” But the thread was removed by Airbnb just a few days ago after collecting multiple guests and hosts complaints.

[Tara946]

I've had the exact same issue for 1 year now, this is the 3rd time my account was blocked and everything was in order and 100% accurate. I am surprised the Press isn't reporting on all the corruption happening in the City of Toronto... because that is what it really is. They are raising our property taxes, and stealing money, and then kicking us off Airbnb. Also, they hide behind their screens, with no face-to-face office for people to complain. Complete cowards, if they are screwing people over, at least have the decency to look people in the face, instead of hiding and ignoring your emails. 

[Kaitlyn117]

We had a booking July 26-31st.  On July 23 we received an email from Airbnb cancelling our booking. When I contacted the host @Nar3055 he explained he did not know why but went in and made it so I could rebook.  When I rebooked the cost all of a sudden went up by $569 - I called Airbnb to see why there was a difference in the price and I was told my host upped the daily rate.  So of course I was upset, took it to resolution and have been trying to get an answer from them directly.  @Nar3055 informed me that it was the City of Toronto that implemented Occupancy Taxes - basically I am screwed out of $569 because of the city and Airbnb

@Airbnb needs to be held accountable for cancelling bookings last minute and making us rebook for a higher cost

[Alden23]

@Luke560 Did you upload your permit number on the Airbnb site by chance? We just had to do ours in Ottawa a couple of months ago and that seemed to stop the cancellation threats. 

[Alex9367]

Hi,  I had the same issue.

I re-wrote the listing description many, many times and even had our space inspected by the City.

No luck.

What did work was making sure that the listing address is IDENTICAL to what you used to register with the City of Toronto. In my case the City registered "Rd." for road and my airBNB listing had "Road".

Since I had active reservations I could not change the airBNB address on my own so I asked support and they did it.

Since then no issues but before I was getting flagged and deactivated every 36 hours.

[Meng-Yuan0]

Hi everyone, was the problem properly solved? We are having the same issue. Out of no reason, Airbnb cancelled all our guests booking, and helpline was not helpful at all, kept on saying our license requires local government approval, but it was approved a few months ago and still valid. After so long, Airbnb tech teams still have not fixed their issues, and Airbnb hires all these tech support who does not understand the situation at all, would only kept on repeating useless words like robots. So disappointing.