I had a guest try to book my "entire space", for one night. He was having difficulties booking, and reached out to me for assistance. I could see his inquiry, and had the ability to pre-approve, but that didn't seem to matter. I was unable to help him, so I called customer support to find out why. There was no indication on either of our ends as to the reason he couldn't book.
The customer service rep explained Airbnb's policy of not allowing bookings of entire spaces on short notice and made it known that there was no way that they could override this policy.
I explained that their blanket policy was catching those of us who had hosted "entire spaces" (places like duplexes, accessory dwelling units, separate areas on the same property, basements, etc) and that parties would be unlikely, considering hosts were always on site. Her advice to me was to go in, change my listing type, allow the booking, then change the listing type back.
I vehemently explained to her that I was not going to jack around with my listing because a multi billion dollar IT company couldn't figure out how to fix code.
So the guest tried from his side to rectify the problem. Because the policy denies bookings for entire listings with any of the following guest "shortfalls", short notice, local, few or less than stellar reviews or under the age of 25, the customer service rep explained Airbnb's policy and made it known that there was no way that they could override this policy.
This guest was a 4 review / 5 star guest, booking for 1 night (mid week), 7 days away, lived in the same state, and under 25.
Her advice to my potential guest? Wait a day or two, change his profile to show he was older than 25 and try to rebook.
Now why is the solution to a screwed up policy NOT to have a human review the case with the ability to override, but to circumvent the policy by lying about listings and profiles?