Delisted - Long term Superhost

[Penny369]

For several years without incident or complaint we have occasionally hosted small weddings and family celebrations for residential guests at our 5-star AA listed property. We have a lovely riverside location and a small marquee and we are fully insured to do this.

Despite having a strong policy (which is printed in our listing details) regarding noise and outside lighting at night, even insisting on only hand-played non-electronic music, and that all events stop before dark, a person at Airbnb called 'Jay' peremptorily delisted our property for a month under a regulation to do with 'party houses' claiming :

"We have determined they contain advertisement or promotion of unauthorised party or party-friendly space(s)."

This arbitrary behaviour, after years of being a Super host, is extraordinary. We have never held an 'unauthorised party' and would have no benefit from doing so.

This decision was sent to us by e.mail at 08.26 

We wrote to complain immediately - which took a few minutes

At 08.57 Jay wrote back

"We have decided to uphold our original decision and we consider this decision final."

Clearly there is no 'we', this is one person making the decisions.

Apparently it is possible to re-list under Traditional Hospitality - which seems contradictory - but we have no idea how to do this and this option was not put forward to us first.

When we tried to complain about this, we spoke to another Airbnb employee on the telephone and they said they would refer us on to a 'dedicated team' and that they would call me on my mobile. When I checked the e.mail thread several hours later the case was listed as 'closed'. No-one had called on the mobile. We wonder if the case was simply referred back to 'Jay'.

Is anyone else going through this experience? Its definitely a first for us with Airbnb, until now the Customer Service was excellent.

[Ann72 · Accepted solution]

@Penny369  What a terrible story.  I have no experience like this, but please do not give up.  Keep pushing.  Don't let one "closed case" put you off.

And in the meantime, consider peerspace, an event renting platform.

[Penny369]

Thank you so much for your response and advice Ann.

It meant a great deal to me to hear from you in a bleak time, when we have lost staff, revenue and morale - now Airbnb do this and there is no reply to our protest other than the same message repeated back to us. 

Once their Customer Service was good. Now its hopeless.

I am writing to Brian Chesky today, Airbnb has clearly lost its touch., but perhaps he will get the message.

[Penny369]

NOT RESOLVED

Further to the message above, I see that Airbnb have put a tag on this message 'Resolved'.

It is not resolved.  This is quite scary behaviour on their part. They know its not resolved.

[Ann72]

@Penny369  I think you may accidentally have clicked a button that chose my response as the answer.  Don't worry, we know your issue isn't resolved.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Penny369 You are the 3rd UK host to report this. The others were actually more extreme than yours as they innocently had the word 'party' in their listings and then got suspended for 30 days!

[Penny369]

Hello Mike and Jane

Thank you very much for your reply. 

It does seem that whoever is delisting these properties is not reading the context, but just jumping on the word 'party in whatever sentence. 

We are a small rural business light years away from the big city houses, a small minority of which have caused problems - largely through their hosts not actually living there, whereas we all live and work on the estate.

Its pretty shattering for us just when we were trying to rebuild the business after nearly a year closes.

Still, it does mean a lot to us to actually hear from other hosts and we really appreciate that. I am writing an old-fashioned letter to Brian Chesky today to explain that Airbnb's once excellent Customer Service just isn't working. We left Trip Advisor for Airbnb for this reason, their poor host support, now it seems like the whole thing is happening again.

I hope all goes well for you both this Season and thank you very much for replying.

Best wishes

Penny

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Penny369 I suggest you jump on the post currently above yours to ensure all suspension issues are in the same place.

[Penny369]

Hello Mike and Jane

Thank you for this suggestion. I cannot see a post above mine, is it possible for you to send me the link?

I'd be most grateful.

Penny

[Mike-And-Jane0]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/unjustified-Immediate-listing-suspension-without-warning/td...

@Penny369 Link is above. I should have realised that by replying to your post it would move it!!!!

[Penny369]

All done Mike and Jane. I really appreciate your help. Penny

[Clair1669]

How amazing you guys are - I find it frustrating when you can't 'talk' to someone and knowing this community is out there is v reassuring.  I hope the listing gets the recognition it so deserves. Clair

[Helen3]

I think it's because you are using the word party in your listing. If you remove this, they should re-list I would hope. Is it worth you calling back to ask @Nick  can you advise? 

[Dominique738]

@Helen3 @Penny369 - The exact same thing has happened to me.

My listing has a karaoke machine, and I wrote in the description "It also has led lights to create that ultimate karaoke party night"  In no way was this encouraging out of control parties or "events." I've had that same description for the past few years.  I've even put in the house rules "No house parties allowed"

I have removed any traces of the word 'Party' from my listing. 

I received an email back today saying they have decided to uphold their original listing and my listing won't be eligible for reinstatement until the 18-04-2021. 

Can someone please direct me to a person I can get in contact with to sort this out?

Thank you in advance. 

[Penny369]

Hello Helen

'Thank you very much for writing this. I am beginning to wonder if 'Trust and Safety' - which is the department which purports to monitor this 'party' issue - is actually mechanised and simply automatically delists and confirms this whenever a sensor spots the word 'party'. There is nothing whatsoever that is personal 'Customer 'Service ' about the way this broad delisting is being carried out.

I am in the process of composing an old-fashioned letter to the management in the US because nothing I have attempted to do here has done anything but bounce off the brick wall of 'Trust & Safety' and I have been trying consistently to get something other than an automated reply.

I have also asked Airbnb how to re-list under Traditional Hospitality' because if you have the facilities we do, then you might be able to re-list and the things like a Chef, marquee etc. which have got us de-listed are actually, somewhat perversely, allowed! No answer, from Airbnb, to date.

I hope we can all get together and sort this out. If not, then Head Office in the US will.

Stay in touch.

Penny