RIDICULOUS!!!!Airbnb suspended my account saying I discriminated against a guest with service animal

[Nanxing0]

Story is this. I received a booking request (instant booking off) with a message saying "Visiting for work". The guest has 3 reviews on profile total rating of 4.0 so I almost immediately started the decline process and left the note in the decline telling the guest that her review rating does not meet our requirement (I don't accept anyone with rating lower than 4.5 I think that's a reasonable requirement). At the same time the guest sent me a 2nd message saying she has a service animal with her. I actually didn't see the 2nd message while I hit the decline button but nevertheless, I declined the guest NOT because of the service animal, but because of the review rating.

Then yesterday I received an email from Airbnb saying my account was suspended because I discriminated against this guest !! This is BEYOND RIDICULOUS! Does Airbnb not review the situation before punishing hosts? 

Here's the message history.

Taylor11:32 PM

Visiting for work!

Message from Airbnb Service

Request received · 1 guest, Jun 23 - Jun 24

Taylor11:33 PM

2 guests, and I will be with a service dog.

Message from Airbnb Service

Unfortunately, this Host isn't able to welcome you at this time. Any of your charges or authorizations will be refunded. Explore other places to stay

Biao11:34 PM

I'm sorry your review rating does not meet our requirement

[Nanxing0]

@Huma0 One thing I noticed some time was that Airbnb might automatically correct the user's name once he/she verifies the identity with Airbnb. I have had guests with any name who sent me booking requests and I asked them to verify their identity. As soon as the verification was done the guest's name changed which makes me think Airbnb does this correction. Not sure though.

This type of guest who assumes about discrimination is exactly the type of guest I would avoid by all means. The victim mentality of those people will drive you crazy if there's anything you have that don't meet their expectations.

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0 

I didn't know that. I do know that the guest can still change the username after verification though, so they still don't need to use their real name on the profile even if verifications show.

A few months ago I had a guest try to book with me. She had a name in Chinese, which was a regular girl's name. Her profile showed ID verified. I turned her away because she had a really awful and worrying review (apart from things like damage and late check out, mentioned the account was being used by multiple different girls) and because her communication was dire. During this time, she changed her username to Daphne. Maybe she though I was more likely to accept her if she did that? IDK. For me, it had nothing to do with her nationality.

Then, she tried to book with another account (also showing as ID verified), which had a username that translated as 'teenage girl' (she was 19). There were many reasons why it was obvious it was the same girl. The messages were also flagged as suspicious by Airbnb. I called CS, who told me to report and block her, which I did, but they allowed both profiles to remain and she has since been able to book Airbnbs using the second profile, but I guess has not tried with the first one which has the terrible review. Since then, she has changed the username again, this time it translates as 'girl, girl' (she is now 20, so no longer teenage girl).

Like I said, both profiles show ID verified, which shouldn't really happen as users are not supposed to have more than one account. 

[Nanxing0]

@Huma0 Airbnb is operating HORRIBLY on managing user profiles and multiple profile is very common on the platform. Shameful.

What makes me feel irony is that it is Airbnb who initiated the review system and they are slapping their own face on this all the time. Now the only useful thing of this review system is that bad hosts can be avoided, while guests can always make a new profile to book when they receive a bad review. Maybe this is the purpose of Airbnb -- to make hosts' life terrible while always side with guests.

[Jose6120]

@Nanxing0 how were you able to resolve the suspension so quickly? I've scoured the forums and I'm getting the same story from AirBnB Support Staff "A specialized team will look into your account..." with no answer as to why or when,

[Nanxing0]

@Jose6120 As a matter of fact they suspended all of my listings, so I guess this is different from suspending an account (not quite sure though). According to the messages from the ambassador, they only asked me to review and acknowledge the non-discriminatory policy and she actually promised to restore my account once I confirm that. I think the nature of the "suspension" was that the specialist wanted to find some trouble with me but they don't have any valid reason to do this, so they did such thing as a "threat" to me.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Nanxing0 @Huma0  accusing hosts of discrimination is nonsense. The least desirable group for any host are locals 🙂

[Nanxing0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 Absolutely! Agree 100%!