Airbnb witholding payments on an effectively indefinite basis

[Damien133]

I have been an airbnb host for a number of years and have a number of listings.  In the early days my girlfriend at the time set up one of the listings for one of the rooms for me and we both shared the account and the login details etc and then later set me as the co-host and primary host for the account.  We are no-longer together and not in contact so rather than re-setting up the the one listing on my own account and lose all of the good reviews etc I just continued accessing the listing and communicating with guests through my account as the co-host and primary host for the listing, even though it was still actually listed on her account (which she doesn't use at all so it's effectively a dead account).  This was all fine for a long time but then suddenly Airbnb changed something and were withholding all payments for the listing and saying my ex-girlfriend had to give them her ID and upload a selfie etc before they would release any of the funds.  This clearly isn't going to happen because we're not in contact and as far as I know she's not even in the UK anymore.  I have around 25 upcoming bookings for the room and all payments are being withheld (currently around £2000).  I've spoken to airbnb several times and no matter how I explain the situation and the impossibility of what they're suggesting to solve it, all they robotically say is to fix the problem she needs to complete the verification process... even though that's effectively impossible.  Does anyone have any ideas what I can do about this as I am on the verge of informing all of the guests they need to cancel and rebook through a new listing I'm setting up on my own account because I can't honour bookings on the other account if Airbnb aren't paying me.  Obviously I don't want to do this because everyone's going to be annoyed and even if I refund people I'm not sure they will receive the airbnb fees back, so basically it'll be a huge mess and I think I can kiss goodbye to my superhost status in the process! 

[Emiel1]

@Damien133 

You will need to cancel the bookings yourself, otherwise the guests will not recieve a full refund (incl. fees). Then you will be penalised by Airbnb, so instead of earning money you will have to pay...

What you plan to do now should have be done in the past: creating your own account and manage the (new created) listings yourself, with payout methods having (bank)accounts in your name attached.

You could ask Airbnb if they are willing to cancel the reservations penalty free.