Airbnb blocking "certain" whole house bookings right now, not informing host.

[Christopher187]

A legitimate guest just contacted me on VRBO, saying that they tried to book the exact same house on Airbnb but they were blocked from doing so.  I was absolutely flabergasted that I'd gotten no notification at all from Airbnb that a booking request had been blocked.  The person sent me the message that was shown to them by Airbnb.  I googled and only found one Reddit post from a week ago where a couple other people had run into the same issue.  Has anyone here encountered this?

I couldn't figure out how to embed an image in this post, so I used imgur.  Here is what the guest is seeing:

https://imgur.com/VMo6mGC

[Huma0]

@Sean433  that is worrying. Is this for a whole house, or for a private room in a shared Airbnb?

[Sean433]

@Huma0 

For a whole house. Luckily we got a better 1 month booking with someone else because this lady was not able to book but still, that is dishonest. They are not telling the guest why they cannot book except for a vague comment about safety and I had to find out why from Forums.

[Huma0]

@Sean433 

Do you know the age of the guest who was blocked? What was the age of the guest who was able to book?

Just of interest...

[Sean433]

@Huma0 

she was 22 and booking for her and her parents. The actual booking we got was from someone in his 30's or 40's but his account is from New York

Rather than telling the guest you cannot book because you are local and under 25, they are being very vague. This was not a 2 day weekend booking. It was 1 month. That would be a whole lot of partying for an entire month lol

[Huma0]

@Sean433 

So this may well have been blocked because the guest was trying to make a last minute booking (if it was indeed last minute) for a whole property and she was under 25. Seems stupid to me to have such a blanket policy, where guests who are staying for a month with their parents cannot book! Was she local?

Also, I can only guess that the reason Airbnb is telling the guest that they are blocking the booking is because it's for their own safety is that they would have a lot of outraged guests if they told people, "We are not letting you book this property because you are under 25 and we don't trust you not to throw a party and trash the place."

It is also in violation of their own policy about not discriminating based on age.

[Susan17]

@Huma0 

@Sean433 's guest was booking for April 12, for a month. Absolutely ludicrous if Airbnb are trying to suggest that this has anything whatsoever to do with preventing parties. 

Would you be able to put up the screenshots I sent you on Whatsapp of the older and newer  "search hotels instead" notifications please, just so readers can see what they look like? My little camera icon to add screenshots has disappeared! 

[Susan17]

Also, following a shooting in Toronto earlier this year in which three people were killed, Airbnb implemented a well-publicised blanket policy in Canada, whereby locals under 25 are prohibited from booking entire homes, unless they have previous good reviews. So there's no reason at all why they couldn't just tell the guest that she couldn't book because she's under 25, and local, as per their efforts to crack down on party houses. It's all just nuts...

[Huma0]

@Susan17I not sure how to do this from my phone either. Here is the earlier one (I will try to upload the other one soon):

[Inna22]

@Sean433 was that guest able to book with you? I had a 9 day request from a neighboring state and she was blocked

[Sean433]

@Inna22 

No, I asked her to try through her boyfriends account. Someone else booked a few days after. I don't think she wanted it bad enough because she did not try booking through her boyfriend.

[Mc4]

@Christopher187  Is this happening now as a part of COVID-19 or is it a part of

their new house party rule they instituted last year after those people died In California. They won’t let anyone under 25 book a house less than 72 hours before check-in.

If its a part of COVID-19, what is the link to your listing? 

[Christopher187]

There is no clear indication that it is a COVID-19 measure, except that Airbnb says "right now".

The Message from airbnb says "As part of our commitment to your safety, certain last-minute bookings of entire homes are restricted right now."

If this is an all-the-time restriction, why say "right now"?

[Huma0]

Yes, and it also says "as part of our commitment to your safety". If it was to stop partying, why would it say that either?

[Susan17]

@Christopher187 @Huma0 

See my post on this page.. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Guest-Trying-to-Book-House-but-Airbnb-Isn-t-Allowing-Due...

[Susan17]

@Huma0 

As you've figured out from the wording on the notification the guest sees, the "party house" excuse doesn't ring at all true. Also, many other users are being told by CX that it's a "public health" issue. Neither answer makes any sense, of course.