Listing masked and made invisible in search results due to a false or an erroneously-made report

[Fariha1]

I got an email from airbnb saying that they received a report of an undisclosed surveillance device  in my airbnb and that in order to fairly assess the details of the report, they says that they would like to hear from me regarding my side of the story. They also stated that right now, my account access has been limited. And that I need to respond within 3 days.

Of course I replied right away since I was so surprised about this report. I explained that we do not have any surveillance device in the whole house and that we wanted to understand why is this happening to us. After my reply, I got NO other response from airbnb. A week passed and I noticed that I did not get any reservation for my listing. It was only then that I realised that by  the term "limited account access", airbnb actually meant that my listing is no longer visible, it was masked in search results.
 
I was more worried, I called them several times, but they told me that they will make sure that the person who created the case will get back to me and clarify the situation. No one got back to me. I called them another time, airbnb support representatives told me that they that they did not understand what was happening to my listing and that the person who assigned on my case is not available.
Another two weeks later, still no reservations, and my listing still masked. I sent several notification to airbnb support in teh meantime and eventually I got another email from another airbnb support representative asking me to specify my surveillance device in my listing - even though I specifically explained in my reply and in my calls that I do not have any and that I am fully available to collaborate in any way to clear any missunderstanding that may be hapenning.
 
I have no idea how this is going to end, this is very discouraging as an airbnb host. I am currently at an average score of 4.8 and I have 180 reviews, it is sad how we strive to keep a good score and satisfy guests and how ONE false report or most probably an erroneously-made report can ban your listing so suddenly.
 
 

[Inna22]

@Fariha1 yes, it appears that your listing is currently deactivated. Have you tried tweeter or facebook? They are usually better at responding there

[Rowena29]

@Fariha1 

How distressing and frsutrating for you!

I have been on teh receiving end of airbnb failing to reply to my messages - even after faithfully promising they would and I well remember how isolated and frustrated I felt.

Very unfortunately this is probably the 3rd or 4th very similar case posted on these boards in the past few months - it appears to becoming almost a habit. ( I realise this is no consolation)

ARe you set up on other plaftorms? Now would be a good time to get yourself set up on VRBO and/or booking.com so you will never be at the complete mercy of this sort of appalling behaviour again.

As Inna says, try twitter or instagram for help - apparently the Cs reps are better via these methods.

I don't normally stir the pot, but if you have a lot of friends on FB  would you consider writing up your experience - posting it and asking people to share - with a bit of luck it might go viral and start to hold the company accountable for this dire lack of transparency and communication. ( I completely understand that they want to protect guests against illegal surveillance, but their utter lack of follow through and "guilty until proven innocent if we can even bother to remember you exist" is really breathtaking. Also very disturbing because most hosts realise "there but for the grace of God...."

Contacting the media might not be a bad option either...   ( a disgruntled guest contacted media a while back about survelliance in a place he stayed - they got a lot of bad PR, hence this over the top crack down - so the company is DEFINITELY sensitive to  negative PR

Good luck with this and do keep up posted.

[Rowena29]

Had another thought @Fariha1 

I can jsut imagine that you are stuck in a weird "holding pattern" until some robot detects that you HAVE  filled in your surveillance details.

could you perhaps try doing this? Go to booking settings, go to house rules, click edit, go to surveillance devices, tick the box and where it says describe you could enter "there are no surveillance devices of any description on our property"

It's POSSIBle just ticking the box may kick start your listing again, which is what you want in the short term.

Would possibly also add weight to any further discussions you have with them?

Just an idea