My property manager locked me out of my own listing and isn't responding to texts, calls, email

[Amber1091]

Hi, my husband and I own a property several hours away from where we live and we rent it on airbnb. We hired a local manager to run it for us, but she has locked us out of the property's airbnb account, isn't responding to our messages, and hasn't sent us our payouts in 2 months (meanwhile we're still paying the mortgage and utilities).  When we try to get into the airbnb account, we can't because she's made herself the primary host (we're the co-host) and the verification numbers all go to her cell and her email. Is there anything Airbnb can do to help us get control back of our account? 

As far as we can tell from the public side of the listing, the property is still renting and running appropriately. 

[Frances3408]

@Amber1091. As hosts we are in the people business, but its still a business.

[Amber1091 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE: We were finally able to get back into our airbnb account and switch around the hosts. It's unclear what ultimately worked. My husband just got back on the phone with a different person from airbnb support than we'd worked with before and this time we got in. In the past we couldn't get past the verification step (since airbnb was sending those codes to the fraudulent manager's email and phone). This time, when he tried logging in, the verification requirement didn't come up and he was able to move things around and change the contact info. So now that that's resolved, we have only to go down and change the locks and get the last 3 months of payouts from her...

[Helen3]

That's fantastic news @Amber1091 so pleased for you.

But surprised that you didn't go in and change the locks when this first happened .

Hopefully you've already sent a letter before action so you can take the cohost to small claims court for three months income you've lost. 

[Frances3408]

@Amber1091. Great news! Now just make sure you have notified termination of her services in writing with causes. And I assume you have already changed the payout info to your own bank accounts?

[Emilie]

That's a relief to hear @Amber1091, thank you for keeping us up to date!

I hope it all goes smoothly from here; have you started the process of lock changing and payouts recovery already or is that on the to-do list for this week? 

[Amber1091]

Thanks, Emilie. We’ve changed the payout info and completely kicked her off the account. My husband is taking time off work and driving the five and a half hours to the property today to do all of the lock changing etc. we both work full time (plus some) and have a young baby at home, which has complicated our speed and ability to do any of this sooner (to respond to an earlier comment about why we didn’t just go to the property sooner). 

[Miguel2308]

@Amber1091 Do you have anymore insight to what worked?  I'm in a similar situation where the property manager was the primary host and completely locked me out.  I had 8 upcoming reservations that I now don't have access to.  My former property manager says he asked them to cancel but I'm not getting much clarity from AirBnB except to have the property manager call in to resolve.. which is obviously not happening.  I've spoken to several AirBnB ambassadors and finally got connected with someone from a specialized team who in short said they can't do anything and hope I can resolve this matter with the property manager amicably.

[Amber1091]

@Miguel2308 Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that Miguel. I think you have to keep calling Airbnb support and talking to different people until you find one that actually helps you. We were told by several support folks that they couldn't help us because the manager "owned" the listing since she had installed herself as the primary host. But finally, after several calls, we happened to connect with a support staffer who understood what we were saying and suddenly we were able to get back into the account and had permissions enough to remove her as the primary host ourselves (we still had the password, but it was asking us to verify our identity and we couldn't because all of the verification codes were going to the managers email and cell. Whatever airbnb support finally did not only just let us log back in without verification codes, but gave us full access to be able to remove her even though we were only listed as the cohost). 

We still don't have our payout money from the manager, but are actively working with a lawyer and pressing criminal charges since she's embezzling money (by being entrusted with our payouts and not sending them and/or sending us less than she should have).  We may or may not be able to get our money back because I suspect she's spent it. But hopefully we'll get legal justice at least. 

[Amber1091]

Oh! Another thought just occurred to me,  it was going to be my next step if we didn't get through and it's not ideal because I think you might lose the existing listing profile and have to start over from scratch, but I think you should also be able to report the listing to airbnb support and that will hopefully trigger a more useful conversation with airbnb support wherein you can prove that it's your property and someone else is listing it without your consent. That should at least result in the listing being taken down and you can start over fresh. 

[Miguel2308]

That’s helpful, I’ll keep trying, thank you so much.  It’s incredibly frustrating and I’m obviously feeling pretty dumb to allow the property manager so much power when setting it up.  

yes, I’ve actually already created a new listing but it’s tough starting back up from scratch with so many reviews built up…. He delisted the profile we’ve had the last couple years so it may be too late to report it as it won’t come up in search anymore.

Was it the ambassadors in India which helped or the escalation team in Ireland.  I’ve had no luck with the first level team so far and the escalation team told me to resolve it with the property manager - unfortunately they only communicate via email so it’s hard to talk it through with them.