Airbnb made an error in restricting my Airbnb

[Legacy-Dwellings0]

I am fully aware that Palm Beach county requires a business tax receipt and a tourist development tax to operate an Airbnb. I have BOTH on my listing. Out of nowhere Airbnb made my listing restricted to only long term rentals even with having the correct licenses and numbers on my listing. When I contact customer support, they say they don’t know why and someone will get back to me. This is ridiculous! I am losing bookings! Please help!! 

[Mick389]

This just happened to me on April 7th, 2021 though. Not sure if its coincidence. One week later got an email from support after reaching out everyday for updates.  The email is a link to reregister my tdt and btr number for Palm Beach County. Turn around time is 30 days! 

[Andre10185]

Having the same problem with one of my listing. Also happened on April 7th. No help woth customer service.

[Legacy-Dwellings0]

@Andre10185 @Andrea4731 

I have put something on Twitter. Try and retweet and also comment and maybe we can get their “technical team” to notice there’s an issue! 

https://twitter.com/DwellingsLlc/status/1381758671068233728?s=20

[Legacy-Dwellings0]

See this post from another user that’s helpful @Brian1613 

OK all: Here is what I’ve found out, and what you can do:

Airbnb’s Palm Beach County Page is wrong.  You don’t need a Tourist Development Tax (TDT) and BTR (Your City’s Business Tax Receipt.)  You need the TDT and the County’s LBTR.  

The county, amazingly, does not require an LBTR to get your TDT filed.  If you have your city’s BTR listed on your Airbnb account, CHANGE IT to the County LBTR. Don’t have one? You can go to the Tourist Development Tax Office in West Palm Beach, 3rd Floor, and file for one. 

Licenses and Permits:  

In addition,  you had best make sure that ALL of your licensure, and inspections, are in order.  You will need, if you have not got them:

1. A County LBTR (Business Tax Receipt Number) - You need one unique to your vacation rental.  If you have a county LBTR for another business, or home-based business, that will NOT cut it.;

2. Your Palm Beach County Tourist Development Tax (TDT) number.  You have to pay your tourist development taxes, 6%, yourself. Please see my other post about how to set up Airbnb to collect those through the Community Fees area, so they’re not coming out of your pocket. AIRBNB PAYS THE STATE TAX, BUT DOES NOTPAY the TDT in Palm Beach County. That is your responsibility to report, and pay, monthly. There are fines. You may owe quite a bit already in them. 

3. You must have a Vacation Rental license from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (https://www.myfloridalicense.com/CheckListDetail.asp?SID=&xactCode=1030&clientCode=2006&XACT_DEFN_ID... );

4. After you get your DBPR, you can apply for your City Business Tax Receipt (BTR).  
     West Palm Beach rules:
        •  Pay the fee;

        •  Schedule an inspection of the property with the City Code Compliance inspectors. DO make sure that you have fire extinguishers, and that they are stored

           securely visibly, or a marking of their location, in a cabinet, etc., in your rentals;

        • If this is a new vacation rental, you will need to contact the Zoning Department for inspection/approval;

5. If you are in a community with covenants, you may need additional permissions, and/or verifications with your City to get your city’s  BTR. 

6. If there is something that you may sell, which includes things sold at “experiences,” then you also need to file for a sales tax number, and report your sales monthly, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ZERO.  Do NOT host experiences on your property. You can wander about, take people on tours, but your Vacation Rental cannot host them on-site.

Once you have all of that paperwork:

1. On your listing, insure that your Airbnb account has the correct tax numbers in the right sequence: TDT, LBTR (ex: 000195851,40020190009);

2. File for reinstatement here:  If you've already confirmed with Palm Beach County that your TDT & BTR numbers are current, then please ensure you submit a request for Reactivation, for each listing separately, here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCUxpBnQPMxumXzAet51n3HhDuTAoZ9Y6djE_e4_waKHn6jg/viewform

Then they go back, and review your files. They have up to 14 days to then reinstate you. I landmined because I had the BTR, not the LBTR in the form. They got back to me, on the last day, and told me to go to the County to find out why the records didn’t show my number active. That’s when the TDT gal let me know about the LBTR (County). 

The Airbnb Tax Department has no phones. Will not talk to any of us, other than by email, which they do SLOWLY. 

When I called support, today, I was told that the other problem is that the 180 “glitch” is a manual fix. They have to override for each person messed up with it. Uh-huh. That will take time. 

Beyond that, I would call Airbnb Support, and ask where you can email a copy of ALL OF YOUR VALID LICENSES. Ask them to forward that to the Tax Department. That is legan proof that you are operating correctly. 

DO NOT DUMP YOUR FILE AND START OVER. If you don’t fill it out correctly, as outlined, you will be right back in the same jackpot.

This is destroying all of our businesses.  Please let us all know when you get restored, and if there is something else that needs to be done.

Brian Ross

[Brian1613]

Minor mod:  When at the TDT Tax office, ask to have the person who liaisons with Airbnb to write a letter to them explaining that you bought your LBTR and are compliant. They can’t add you to the “reactivated” list because you were never actually “activated” to begin with, since you did not buy an LBTR with your TDT license.

[Brian1613]

Hi @Legacy-Dwellings0 , @Andre10185 , I’ll be the new Airbnb Community Leader for Palm Beach County here in a few days, when Airbnb’s Facebook site for our area kicks up. I’m very familiar with this problem, because I, too, got stuck in it at the end of 2019. 

Once we get our new community page, we’re going to start gathering, and talking about what makes us succeed, and what affects us, in the county.

Clearly this is still an issue, for so many of us. I have conveyed the scope of the problem to the community team at Airbnb.  They pass it to the service professionals, and tax people, for review. I think that we can get some guidance on how best to ask the Tax Collector to also improve information on their website, and maybe have the people at the TDT office require that you buy an LBTR before filing for your TDT, to avoid this problem.

If you’re having further issues, while I sure can’t intervene with the County, or Airbnb, I have walked a mile in your footsteps, so I’m happy to help you sort it all out, and reach out to the right people, to help you find solutions, rather than all of this frustration.  Please message me, if you are running into problems, after doing what has been outlined, above.

Best,

[Legacy-Dwellings0]

Hi @Brian1613 

I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that you have been the most helpful resource thus far. It’s sad to see that after numerous calls with Airbnb customer support who I assume are all just operating remotely as a call center employee, I have received the most valuable and useful information here on the community board. 

I agree that Airbnb needs to get much better about providing information about the county and the county should also become more familiar with what hosts have to go through for Airbnb so they could better assist us. There definitely needs to be a much more streamlined process seeing that it is so common and popular. I look forward to the new community page so we could all help each other and learn from one another! 

Thanks again for all of your help! 

[Mick389]

I had my place delisted on April 7th, not sure if that is coincidental with other posts from 2020.  I sent an email to support and actually got a response.  Below is the following email I received tonight.  It's a relisting request form where I re-enter my BTR and TDT number. Turn around time is 30 days!      

**

Hope this helps in anyway. Thanks for your information too Brian. Hoping it can be an easy fix.

**[Conversation with CS removed in line with Community Center Guidelines]

[Legacy-Dwellings0]

Hi @Mick389 

I received a similar email. I called the tourist development tax office this morning and they asked I send them an email and they will send Airbnb a letter with the information to let them know everything is good to go on our end. I would reach out to them as it might be faster. They are just as frustrated with Airbnb. 

[Linda3172]

Hi Brian. Thank you for all of your helpful posting. I’m interested in participating in the PBC AirBNB hosting FB community. Thanks again. Linda 

[Sylvia635]

Same issue here , I updated my BTR number still can’t relist it, I saw Brian post , I filled out the activation form , hopefully will fix the problem 

[Legacy-Dwellings0]

Has anyone received a resolution?! I’ve submitted the google form and I’ve also reached out to the tourist development tax office who advised they would email Airbnb. I’m still waiting and it’s been over a week. Calling Airbnb is like speaking to the wall and I’m so frustrated that I’ve stopped calling Airbnb because I end up just losing my patience. Any ideas on what I should do?! @Sylvia635 @Linda3172 @Mick389 

[Sylvia635]

Nope, still waiting! 

[Linda3172]

Hi all - I did get my miniumum stay nights back to 1 from 180.  A few days after I had called TDT for Palm Beach County (I'm not in metro area, nor a convenant community) and they submitted the confirmed numbers to AirBNB, then I sent the Google Form to reinstate to AirBNB.  I didn't hear back from anyone, but I just went to test to see if I could change it -- and it worked!  So if you haven't heard from anyone, you may want to give that a try -- to test it.

[Legacy-Dwellings0]

Hi @Linda3172 that’s great that you’re up and running again! Unfortunately after doing both of those steps I haven’t been as lucky. I know of other hosts that also had a similar experience as you so hopefully my turn will happen soon.