Help/Discrimination/Not a fraudulent listing

[Heaven12]

Can someone please help me figure out what to do. I’ve been helping my boyfriend furnish his airbnb for the past month. Before the listing even went live airbnb listed the listing as fraudulent, but we literally have proof it’s not fraudulent. At this point I feel like it was racially motivated after having to send pictures of himself and he’s a dark black man. It seems like our only step is to take legal action or turn to the media. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Heaven12 Seems unlikely to be racism. I assume Airbnb are not accepting the listing - What reason have they given?

[Heaven12]

They said in the email “you were removed because we determined the listing may be fake or fraudulent inventory.” That was the only reason given.

[Mark116]

@Heaven12  Is this a unit you own or are you renting?  Possibly if  you're renting Airbnb thinks that would be an illegal listing.  It's very, very unlikely that Airbnb, which has gone to great lengths to prevent any kind of discrimination and punishes hosts harshly if they are accused of same, is discriminating against any hosts due to their race/ethnic background.  There must either be a glitch in the listing or there is something you two have failed to provide.  

[Heaven12]

Renting and if there was something we failed to provide they didn’t ask for it or let us know. He has now been blocked from the platform, so we’re just unsure what to even do. 

[Mark116]

@Heaven12  Are you sure your lease allows you to sublet on Airbnb?  Most leases have a clause that prohibits the renter from sublets, I would guess this is the problem.  If your landlord is okay with Airbnb you might need to get some kind of formal statement to prove it.  There also could be a regulation in your area that says only owners can list Airbnb, that is how it is in our city, Airbnb listing have to have an owner present on the property.

Airbnb customer service is very disorganized, you should not even assume whatever they tell is the actual Airbnb policy, you must always check the rules yourself and have them in front of you.  Yes, it's crazy, but true.  

[Heaven12]

The lease doesn’t say sublet on AIRBNB specifically, but it does state that he is allowing the property to be subletted. After speaking to customer service they to have said they’ve never heard of this happening and sounds like something was done wrong. Even after going through the appeal process and the escalation process they simply stated that the decision is final. They are no longer replying to emails. If they needed the lease to say sublet to airbnb specifically that was all they needed to communicate. Instead communication was terrible and information to why it was listed as fraudulent wasn’t even given.

[Mark116 · Accepted solution]

@Heaven12  What state/city is the listing in? Airbnb has a history of doing this, closing the case and hoping the person will go away.  You can contact them again and ask for a new case to be opened, you may need to keep trying.  Also some hosts have reported that there are weird glitches, people have been delisted for not having their local permit, even when they have the permit and emails from the city saying the listing is legal.  Like I said, Airbnb cs is disorganized.  If the landlord is okay w/it, and the city doesn't prohibit it, keep trying, it may take HOURS of your time, but you will eventually find out what the problem is/was.  good luck.

[Heaven12]

The listing is located in Indianapolis Indiana. Thank you!!

[Lorna170]

@Heaven12   You said that he is renting the property.  He is not the owner.  Unless he has a lease with the owner that states that he may sublet or list on AirBnB or other platforms, it is a fake or fraudulent inventory.   AirBnB has the ability to look at public information like local property and tax records to establish ownership.  

Don't jump to the race card so quickly.  There are many, many different ethnicities, social classes and gender identifications represented on this platform and other OTAs.  

[Heaven12]

The 1st clause of the lease states that “the landlord agrees to rent to the tenant the property described as (the address), for use as a subletting arbitrage.” There have also been many claims of discrimination against airbnb. We did not jump to discrimination automatically. We have been through the entire process after going through all of our options this is one of the conclusions we have come to.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Heaven12 I wonder if a previous tenant rented the place on Airbnb. Do you know if was Airbnb'd before?

[Heaven12]

The current owner flipped/renovated/rehabbed the home so there were no tenants for a very long time. My boyfriend is the first tenant of the owners at this location.

[Debra300]

@Heaven12,

I have been black all of my life, and hosting on Airbnb for the past 4 years.  All of the issues that I've encountered with the platform definitely have occurred to other hosts regardless of their race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, physical and mental capability, health status, political views or age.  The color of currency is the only one they are concerned about.  It is a global company that is always looking for opportunities to expand its market share in every corner of the world.  The customer representatives, who are predominantly people of color, are not spending time looking through the photos of millions of host applicants to single out dark-skinned people for rejection.  If that was the case, then they would be excluding most of the Caribbean, African countries, Brazil (which has the second largest population of Africans outside of the African continent), Central and South American countries, Southern Asian countries, Polynesian and Pacific Island countries, and many properties in other countries.

It sounds like Airbnb did a systematic check on the property address, and your boyfriend was not listed as the owner.  So, the listing was automatically flagged as fraudulent.  Most of the customer service reps are not very well trained, and are not familiar with the various policies and exceptions in different states, provinces, territories and countries.  

If you've not done so already, I recommend trying to list on other platforms, like Vrbo.  If successful, then he will have at least one avenue to market the property.  If the listing is rejected for a similar reason, you will have confirmation that the subletting agreement is a barrier, and will have to seek a workaround.

[Heaven12]

It’s live on other platforms, so the subletting agreement has been confirmed as not being a barrier at least for other platforms.