Airbnb Plus-Big Frustration

[ChloeandJason0]

We’ve been running Airbnb Plus as super hosts for over 2 years, with so much hard work and efforts we kept our status well. Over the last 6 months, we got all 5 star reviews, Not even one was 4 stars or lower, we were happy with the results and encouraged ourselves to work even better for the future. However just this week we’ve got a shocking and ridiculous message from Airbnb Team saying that we will be removed from Plus bc they got several reports of issues in the few moths.

In the message,  they made an example like a guest reported cockroach in fridge, lacking of toilet paper and tea....

We knew immediately that they guests who reported these things were telling lies and we did have several very dodgy guests here who booked our property but found it was only 1 bedroom rather than 2 and then rudely required us to refund. This was purely not our fault but we still tried to be nice, buying some fruits etc for them as gifts to make them less frustrated, but they were still requesting unreasonable refund etc. We had done the best we could do and we knew they might mention something very biased and misleading to Airbnb. However we were prepared and we had also reported to Airbnb immediately regarding this matter.

There was another more serious issue with another dodgy guest most recently. It was a third party booking, whereas all people came were strangers rather than the person who booked it. Our property was taken least care of by the strangers and we lost our keys etc in this matter. The guest has even required us to full refund them and said she would do anything to put us down as a professional. After over 15 hours’ hard work of writing, emailing and calling to Airbnb, and after being transferred to the right team again and again, we finally got contacted with the case manager and it was eventually documented and proved as a third party booking which violates Airbnb Policies. Nevertheless we were still getting threatening calls from different numbers and people stating they knew how to report us and make us pain.

When we got the shocking message from Airbnb. We then realised that staffs in Airbnb are working so separately that they don’t even check the records in between and just want to finish the job quickly and move onto another one. Below are the reasons:

I was told and informed by some nice case managers who were so thankful to our report, our efforts and contributions about the fee dodgy guests’ cases, and we felt great too as we were trying to keep Airbnb Community better and better. But then 15 days later (after the third party booking case), we got told by the Airbnb Team that they’ve got reports of issues of our property and as such we will be removed from Airbnb Plus by XX date. This is kind of funny and shocking, which makes us think that the teams in Airbnb have no connection in between. The new team just purely judged from that you get a few reports of issues, while not looking at the history of the person of the report and that the guests were already confirmed as dodgy and lying etc by another case manager.

Another thing is that, if we are getting such bad reports, we would have been contacted by Airbnb immediately as this is what they do, for in 99% of the occasions Airbnb will contact the host if problems occurs. However over the past 6 months, we have not been contacted by Airbnb for any issue nor for any warnings, and we were having such amazing relationship with so many guests, with our earning all 5 stars reviews over the 6 months Not even including one 4 star review. But this so called Airbnb Team said in our Message Inbox that in the last few months they got several reports... which made us really confused. At least if you get the reports you can contact us immediately and so we can discuss about it right? But they have no warning, no sign for you to puffer or readjust, just one message: “You Are Out”. Although it says that you can rejoin the Plus program after 60 days by contacting, we knew it is not going to easy or smooth for sure. 

Honestly, we didn’t even want to conduct Airbnb anymore as we are not happy at all by this. We spent so much time chatting and greeting with our guests during the check-in, and some of them could even take 30mins to an hour. Some guests may request us to take them for a walk around and we did so and we were happy to do it. We did have worked hard in our daily management to keep our score at 4.9 in total out of more than 100 reviews, and we were never mean to purchase guests different gifts according to their country background and needs so as to have nice relationship with them. Every week we would monitor our reviews and we will make overall summary and improvement plans on monthly basis. We had done so much more...However for Airbnb it’s just that, looking at a few bad and probably not genuine reports, and then make the the death sentence quickly and it’s like that you have no more chances to talk over this. This is the least ever respect we had in anything at anytime during our lives. We have replied them in the Inbox with long messages stating the truth together with the photos as documentations, and that we will try everything we can for the improvements, we don’t deny that we have spaces for improvements and we will make it. We’ve also asked them that whether the reports were documented and whether they have checked our previous reports towards some negative dodgy guests for the full judgement. Haven’t got a reply yet but we will wait. No matter what, deeply from our hearts, we’ve been mentally exhausted and confidence almost lost totally by their haste judgement, it is totally unfair and this is how we feel.

Anyone has any similar experiences with us and would like to share anything regarding this? Thanks guys! We thought that Airbnb has got a seriously connected working procedures but from this fact it is not likely so.