Contacting Airbnb Legal Department

Contacting Airbnb Legal Department

We are experiencing an age discrimination situation and have reached out to customer support.  Three times I have been promised calls back and no one ever calls.  They claim they take discrimination seriously.... I would like to finally get some help.  

10 Replies 10

@Karil7  Which department is appropriate for this complaint depends on what your age is (if you're comfortable disclosing that here) and what the context is. Was it that:

 

a) you believe your booking inquiry was declined by an individual host because of your age?

 

b) your request for an Entire Home property was automatically blocked by Airbnb's party-detection algorithm based partly on your age?

 

or

 

c)  you experienced discriminatory treatment during a current or completed booking based on your age?

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Karil7 Airbnb defers to local law on age discrimination.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2867/nondiscrimination-policy

 

If your age puts you in a protected class according to local law, then you have a case. Otherwise, you do not.

Yes, a host is discriminating against our 18 year old, who she considers to be underage but is not, per Airbnb policy.  

I don't think this falls under discrimination.  You can't rent a car at 18, so I don't think anyone is legally required to let an 18 year old rent their whole house.  Maybe it's region or locality specific though?

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Can you actually describe what the situation is ? @Karil7 

 

Anyone can register to have a profile on Airbnb from the age of 18. That doesn't mean that all listings on Airbnb accept 18+ at their listings. It may be that there are regulations where the host is which means guests have to be over 21 or over 25.

 

And surely if your 18 year old considers themselves an adult they should be dealing with Airbnb around this, rather than you as the parent 🙂 😁

@Karil7  What @Lisa723  told you is precisely correct, if you carefully read the actual terms of the discrimination policy she linked:

 

  • Airbnb hosts may not:
    • Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law

Everything you need to know is in those last 4 words. You may have a case if you live in a jurisdiction's laws meet both of the following criteria:

1.  Individual Airbnb properties (rather than access to the platform itself) have the legal status as public accommodations 

2.  Private establishments are prohibited from setting a minimum age for entry

 

I don't know where you live, but this combination is very unlikely. Like unicorn-level unlikely. 

 

But even if you did have a case for a complaint, Airbnb's legal team does not have the authority to force a host to rent their private home to any person they don't wish to. So there is no course of action available to you here that would actually benefit your (legally adult) child, except to help them find a more suitable accommodation such as a hotel, hostel, or campsite.

Cynthia861
Level 2
Cincinnati, OH

Does anyone know the address for the legal department for Airbnb?

Bes175
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

They hide it my ex fiancé did their computer code I haven’t seen him since 2011 but I’m about to write him surprise remember me? Your client is why a website like airbnbhell exists 

call +1 (415) 800-5959 ask for resolution team 2 to open a discrimination case but only Team 2 not team 1 and they do  harass you on the phone when you want to verify it’s team 2. You can ask for a supervisor but mostly they don’t care and try to talk

in circles or just sit in silence some act like FBI you can’t know what American company’s department you are calling?? It’s all dept 2 they just act like they Make their own rules depending on who you call they will keep you on the phone for weeks but at least they don’t wake you up in the middle of the night like customer care there’s even a website airbnbhell.com the photos I saw are the stuff of nightmares and I got scammed by multiple Hosts since early Oct bc I was new and didn’t know now they either Bombard me non stop multiple staff making me panic cry I’m disabled too and they gave a phone number for Russian customer service when I asked for legal they kept stalling for hours but I’m a refugee immigrant I can read Russian… legal has to be state side anyway this is horrific what they did to me I wonder how many others like me there are ? I’m trying to find legal myself but I was renting airbnbs alone without help from people who could help me. I reached out for help after the last 3 hosts scammed med Airbnb already found one guilty of discrimination but no one overseas they all are care about disability or understand our laws and health care. I’m getting legal advice and with subpoenas a lawyer can get every recorded call they threaten you when you ask for copies. DONT call DONT touch your account DONT msg Airbnb handle it externally I’ve been having nightmares until early Oct you will get nowhere I had so much time hours they wasted every day since and my health can’t take it anymore they call at all  hours of the night and then it’s making my health so. Bad I couldn’t call actual drs and or anyone the stress I could barely take out emotional support animals