Got my listing Suspended by Airbnb - 3 years hosting 4.8/50 rating with over 225 reviews

[Koa26]

Hi, 

Tonight while looking our calendars, I realized our listing were suspended. we had NO CONTACT from Airbnb. We tried to contact them on what's going on and there was no transparency or answer on their behalf.  

We believe we had a booking last night at 10:30 pm from a guy that we already had in one of our listing and which ended with hookers and the Police in the listing 4 months ago, we have the instant booking option, and we asked him to directly cancel and that we are not going to host him and we reminded him what he did. We believe he may reported us as we were so mad how these people never learn and keep hurting hosts. We don't see any other reason otherwise. 

We still have 225 reviews, with 80-90% of them are 5 star reviews. How can Airbnb suspend and ignore hosts with such an experience because of 1 stupid guest booking at 10 pm to bring hookers in people house? 

[Robin4]

@Koa26 

Koa, this is one of the problems with Airbnb.....you can't cancel a booking because your past history says you may have  a problem with a specific guest! It only allows you to cancel when the guest is there and is creating the same problem they created in your listing last time!  Airbnb's talk about host protection is an advertising gimmick.....in reality it doesn't exist!

Koa, it doesn't matter how good you are and what length of time you have been a faithful Airbnb host, if a historically troublesome guest lodges a complaint, you will always be shafted. Airbnb will side with the guest and you will suffer the consequences for not allowing them to abuse your property yet again!

All I an say is, suffer your two week suspension, you have got 226 great reviews Koa, you are a class host, there is always going to be this 'loopy' that comes out of left field every now and then.....we all get them! Deal with it, don't make waves with Customer support because it won't get you anywhere. Put it down to experience and  being part of Airbnb!

Cheers.........Rob 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Koa26 if you have Instant Book then you can cancel without penalty up to 3 times per year if you are not comfortable with the guest. I suspect the guest has, because you asked them to cancel, accused you of something else such as racism.

All guesses I am afraid but would recommend a Twitter approach to Airbnb outlining the facts and you might scare them into reinstating you.

[Koa26]

Back in December, we closed one of our listing because of this guy and we needed to Cancel few bookings as we were not longer able to host in that building. Airbnb told us few weeks ago that we cant cancel anymore. In addition, we can not cancel same night booking even if we still have the 3 times cancellation. 

[Mary419]

@Koa26 

That is so ridiculous. A lot of suspension reports have come around lately and sometimes hosts can’t even guess why. I wonder what he told them!? Probably claimed you had a camera. That seems to be the one that’s getting all the suspensions. If you do get an email back from Airbnb about it be sure to keep us posted. Post a screen shot if you can. And I’d say if it’s really insulting do indeed post it on Twitter. Not many people really use this community center in comparison with Twitter lol and this stuff needs to be brought to light to be corrected 

[Robin4]

@Mary419 

There are at least 8 internet sites that I am aware of from the downright hostile like  https://www.airbnbhell.com/  to this Community Centre and each of them gets a lot of traffic.....which is to be  expected when you realise that 6 people per second book into an Airbnb listing somewhere on earth at any given moment in time!

Mary, we need to concentrate on our successes , not our failures!!!!

Look at you Mary,  you have 64 listings and have got  9,700+ reviews and you are still a Superhost! Jesus, here I am thinking I am swimming in the big league with a paltry 500 reviews!

Mary, you have a lot of knowledge and experience, don't just palm it off to Twitter, give us some of the knowledge you have obtained over the years! You are a valuable asset to the CC.

Cheers......Rob 

[Mary419]

@Laura2592 @Robin4 

Rob, Thank you for looking at my profile and recognizing that I have been around a while and had a lot of experience. 

I cannot abide by telling hosts like @Koa26  the unfair experiences they have should be accepted/absorbed and somehow appreciated  like a snapshot in time with an imperfect spouse. Airbnb is choosing to operate exactly how they see fit. They choose to do certain things differently from their major competitor and these "differences" are becoming extreme flaws. 

The reason you see me spending my time here trying to say "Airbnb,  look at this, WHY are you doing this to good hosts????" is simple. I liked this business in the beginning. I still do in many ways. I was always seeking the optimal blend of platforms to fill my calendars and make money while protecting the properties. At a certain peak for Airbnb I allowed 75% of my bookings to come through here. 

Now I have shifted it to less than 15% coming from Airbnb in record time to protect the income and properties of myself and my clients.

But I can hardly believe Airbnb is a lost cause when they had so much to build on. I am sticking around watching what feels like a train wreck. But I would like to know if and when the wreckage gets cleaned up.

I have great listings in a great destination sought after by visitors worldwide... I have a lot of experience allowing me to handle things wisely to achieve the income/safety blend. Frankly I should have what it takes to have the very best host experience. I take it very very seriously when a third party "partner" removes my ability to actually manage my own business. 

I started renting through VRBO in 2010 and Airbnb in 2012. In the interim I tried several other sites too. My goal at all times is to have successes not failures obviously I focus on the successes or I would have gone into another line of work. But the "failures" we are dissecting here are not ours, they are the company's.  Right now the greatest success of 2022 has been getting my eggs out of Airbnb's basket. But I am open minded about that changing if they actually want to keep people like me around. And all of my feedback is in the spirit of bringing things that are not working to light. So that they can be improved instead of left to fester. 

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[Koa26]

We did posted on twitter thank you. We had Airbnb immediately messaged us half an hour ago such as they have asked the team handling it to reach out again asap but we still didn't get any call. Our listings are still suspended since 12h now. 

I Believe we did a mistake texting with this guest, he started to be aggressive and pushing to stay, and as he had our address I ended up saying that if he ever come my Husband will kick his ass and also because of the Police involvement 4 months ago. 

Very horrible situation. Very sad we have to pay for guests like that. We should be able to cancel anyone we want unlimited time for safety reasons even with the instant booking. 

[Laura2592]

@Koa26 I am sorry to hear this.

We are done with ABB after 2 more stays. Its these types of policies that have made that an easy decision. We have been fortunate in that we don't rely on ABB for income but do appreciate it has helped us offset ownership costs. But if I needed it to feed my family I would never put my proverbial eggs in this very mercurial basket.

Its insane that they value the vague idea of "guest safety" so highly they will shutter hosts willy nilly but GUESTS CAN HAVE PARTIES THAT LEAD TO SHOOTINGS and that seems just fine.

[Koa26]

I got an email 2h after I realized the suspension last night : 

Hello Koa,

My name’s Leia from Airbnb’s Safety team. The Safety team's role is to help protect and ensure the safety of the entire Airbnb community.

I’m getting in touch because we received a report of an incident that took place during a recent reservation. We value your perspective and would like to hear any details firsthand from you.

I’ll give you a call at **[Phone number hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines] on 30 April between 9PM-11PM (GMT-4, Montreal time). If that time doesn’t work for you or if I should reach you on an alternative phone number, let me know by replying directly to this message. I’m in the office Saturday-Wednesday from 9.00PM-5.00AM (GMT-4, Montreal time). You can reach me directly by replying directly to this message.

We take reports like this seriously. Because of this, your account access is limited while we finish our review. While it’s limited, you won’t be able to make new reservations as a guest or receive new reservations as a Host.

We might cancel upcoming reservations as a precaution. If this happens, you won’t incur any Host cancellation penalties.

Please respond within the next 72 hours.

I hope to discuss this with you soon.

Kind regards,
Leia

[Jessica2953]

I cannot believe how downhill it has gone in terms of hosting.  I am a superhost (which I have learned means absolutely nothing) and my listing is shut down since the 16th of March 2023 when a guest refused to leave my home, things escalated and she shoved me around my kitchen with my daughter there.  She was cited by the local police for harrassment and had to be removed from my home.  There are SO many terrible things she did while here but long story short I reported her of course for violence.  She retaliates, writes a completely false review, which that I was able to get taken down, but she reported me back saying I was drunk at the listing (I don't drink or even have a drop of alcohol here!) and I was violent towards HER, and BAM my account is done.  Do you think they reached out to me about her?  NO - all I have been doing since is defending myself.  I finally was able to get the police report to them yesterday, I had to jump hoops just to get that, and then they tell me they are waiting to hear from a supervisor whether or not my family member can be a "witness" because she is 17 and not on Airbnb.  She saw everything ass it happened.  Police report states she was cited for harrassment.  I still don't have my listing back up.  I am thinking about getting a lawyer because this has happened multiple times: Guest acts badly, they turn things around and LIE their faces off, then my family suffers financially for it.  WTH AIRBNB!!!!!!

[Koa26]

Poor you. Diversify your bookings and don't get stuck with Airbnb suspension in the future, this is what I did and now have almost 50% of my bookings not coming through Airbnb. 

Airbnb will always protect a bad guest with no review over super hosts.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jessica2953 Your situation is dreadful but I do have some sympathy for Airbnb.  If violence is alleged it is very hard for Airbnb to determine the truth from a distance. Perhaps a long track record of Superhost status should count for something. Lets hope @Catherine-Powell has some ideas to sort this out.

[Bhumika]

Hey @Jessica2953,

I am so sorry to hear all this. It seems like a dreadful experience. Please be assured that I have raised this incident to the related teams for further consideration and hope someone reaches out to you soon.

[Koa26]

They called us 2h after the email : we explained them everything. the issue with this guest back in December, they tried hardly to understand if we were involved with the Police back in December. We said we have nothing to do with. This guest brought hookers and ended up arguing with neighbors in the building and Police came and kept the keys. 

This time we totally refuse to host him, we were a bit tuff with him messaging because he reminded us horrible experiences. 

This was their last communication few minutes after ending the call : Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. The safety of our community is one of our top priorities, so we take reports like this seriously. I’ll be back in touch as soon as I can once our investigations have  concluded.

She is off until Saturday. I can't believe our listing will be suspended for at least 3 days or even more because of a trouble maker guest