Reservation Listing Deactivated

[Penny31]

Hi there.

I have a reservation coming up in Canada in July. I had made arrangements with the hosts and reserved the place back in April. Everything seemed sorted and paid for. Until yesterday, when I was finalising my plans to travel to Canada and had a few more questions for the host. 

I wrote her, didn't hear back, and then when I went to look at the listing, it's gone?! I contacted Airbnb who told me their "Safety" team had taken the hosts listings down (I would have been her first guest), they wouldn't tell me why, and when I said, "What about my reservation?" I was told my reservation was FINE. I said, how is it "fine" when the listing is no longer listed? The rep hung up on me. This is typical Airbnb customer rep experience.

So I called again, same song/dance, except this rep said he was going to reach out to the host and see if he can resolve whatever it is that made Airbnb take down her listing. Well, he called me back several hours later to say the host did not answer his call, that he'd sent her an email, but that "It's your call if you want to cancel the reservation or not". Again, I said, how is it MY call? No one had even told me this listing was pulled, it clearly NO longer exists, could they tell me why they had pulled it (no), and did they expect I'd just show up to a non-existant listing halfway around the world and be stranded? At which point, they said, well give the host until tomorrow to reach out to us, otherwise, we'll give you a refund. I feel like I'll have to put a fight to get this refund that is rightly mine - this is no fault of mine - but that's where things are at.

My question is, what in the world would make BNB take down 4 listings on a single host, when I've stayed places that were crap and reported the host and their listing remained up and running? 

And how could no one have contacted me about this earlier? And just...someone give me feedback on what this all means and what's the best way to resolve it is.

Thanks.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0 · Accepted solution]

@Penny31

There are some dodgy hosts out there - and while it might not feel like it right now, you have had a lucky escape. Nothing worse than turning up to the property and finding it does not exist. 

I do think AirBnB should be able to see when a property has been taken down by the host, or de-listed - and they should contact all future guests. Pretty basic customer service and quite appalling that they did not do this.

Call them back and get them to cancel and refund you all your money and fees, as you have already paid AirBnB and they are holding that money.

Then, if you can bear to stick with AirBnB after this mess, look for a host with lots of positive, recent reviews.

Good luck

[Penny31]

@Gerry-And-Rashid0 Thank you. In fact, Aribnb "Safety" department apparently took down the listing themselves: 4 of them, for the same host, to be exact. And yet, they never bothered to let me know at ALL. And when I questioned what happens to my listing, they said "it was fine"...like, it'd be fine if I showed up and was stranded on a small island in Canada with nowhere to sleep. Nightmare!

I asked them why they'd take down a listing (or listingS, in this case) by the host, and they said they couldn't tell me "for security purposes"...and YET, apparently there's no security to protect me, because I was either going to show up to a dodgy situation or a non-listing. Either way, I'm supposed to get a call from the same rep tomorrow, wherein he'll update me with if the host addressed their "concerns" or not.

Of course, there's no way to know when this listing was taken down? Last I communicated with the host and made the reservations was 1 month ago, so once again...had I not contacted her myself to ask some questions, I'd have been SOL and in a foreign country with nowhere to go. Not like Airbnb would step in, they'd just ask me to pay 2-3x the letting fee to stay at one of their other listings, if anything was available in the middle of summer, that is!

Unreal. I just...don't understand what would make them take a listing down like this. Very odd.

Thanks again.

[Linda332]

I am an old lady who heard good things about AirBnb...which turned out not to be true, because if there is a phone number to call and fix a problem I have been unable to find it, and my pleas to Deactivate my listing have fallen on deaf ears, nor can I find the place where I first tried to deactivate.  The site robot keeps telling me I cannot Deactivate due to "Pending Rentals", but I email each and every guest that I am unavailable due to a wrong, and very low price on the ad I have been unable to change, and the rental inquiries just keep coming every day, such that I am losing my life to the computer refusing them...HELP!! Linda owner of Alabama Condo

[Aaron120]

Linda,

What you'll have to do is go in to the section with all of your reserved bookings with guests, and go into the individual message thread you have with each of them and click "Cancel" from inside there. Then, after cancelling all of your existing reservations, you'll be able to deactivate your listing.

You do this by going to Your Listing -> Manage Listing -> Listing Status (click Edit) -> then click Unlist or Deactivate.

[Andrea9]

@Linda332 Hi,

It's not enough to simply tell guests you won't be able to host them. The booking is a contract, and if you want/need to cancel, you'll have to do it officially from your end. Go to reservation and click Cancel.

BUT, it will cost you. If you wish to stop hosting thru Airbnb completely, 3 of the penalties won't bother you - not being eligible for Super host status for a full year, having the dates blocked anyway, and having the statement "This reservation was cancelled x days prior" on your profile/review page. However, you'll also be around $50-100 out of pocket for each reservation you cancel.

It sounds like a good idea to 

  Contact Airbnb

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[Patrick684]

I have a listing and someone came and stayed last week and we did not see her leave.  The next thing I know I am being investigated by Airbnb for some claim that she made.  I was so dumbfounded as they would not discuss the accusations with me.  I have know idea if she fell, or anything.  The next day they deactivated my account without any expanation.  They just keep all of us in the dark.  Poor Customer Serivce.  If someone is making a claim about me or my property I want to know what her issue was.  I am a retired LEO, with 3 Children and 5 Grandchildren and I very upset that my integrity has been questioined and I have NO recourse.

[Anne1016]

 hi i have just discovered my listing has been deactivated with no explanation or discussion. i cannot get a response frm airbnb....any ideas?