Why did Airbnb Suspend my account?

[Clayton5]

Hi,

I would like to know how to tackle this issue. 

I received an email from Airbnb 2 days ago that my account is permanently suspended and all bookings were cancelled. It was a shock for me to receive this kind of email since I am a superhost and had ony positive reviews about my listing. 

I contacted them by phone and by email but the only reply I got is by email stating that they regret that this decision has negatively affected me and that they have the final say. I did not get any reason or whatsoever. I read the Terms and Conditions but couldn't find anything that I have possibly done to get a permanent suspension. 

I asked for clarification but did not get one.

Thanks is advance

Clayton

[Leplubo0]

no there's no hackers. It's their policy. They don't want hosts to tell them what to do. They want hosts with a caracter of sheep so that they have just one single policy that applies to millions of hosts globally. Just like Uber exploiting drivers, airbnb wants to exploit hosts. If anyone is not happy to will make every possible thing to make them leave and if they don't they end up terminating their account. Why they don't care? Because there are new dumb hosts every day wanting to rent their house. We are still in the beginning of this especially in soem regions in the world and even some cities in the US. They pefer occasional hosts, they don't like professionals with attorneys etc. If you are a professional business with an attorney, your attorney will tell you to never approve airbnb terms anyway. So this is all rational and does make eprfect sense. If you are asking too many questions they won't welcome you as a host.

[François48]

Active host, licensed establishment, 4 years of great reviews (1185 in all), and after an "investigation", Airbnb decides to ban me because a dangerous and violent guest attacked my staff, collected a settlement, then left and complained, while I was out of the country.

If you're listening Airbnb, you will soon get a taste of Quebec's consumer protection system.

[Susan17]

I believe the consumer protection system in Quebec works very well, @François48. 

If you haven't done so already, you might like to contact Joey Zukran of LPC Avocat Inc (Cavendish Blvd), who was the Class Counsel of a recent successful class action suit taken against Airbnb in Quebec. You should be able to get some good advice there, or at least get pointed in the right direction, as LPC will already have the specific experience of dealing with (and defeating) the might of Airbnb's legal army. 

Best of luck! 

Settlement Approved - Airbnb Class Action, Quebec 

https://lpclex.com/airbnb/

[François48]

Dearest Susn17 from Dublin Ireland,

What a delightful response to wake up to this morning. News travels far and fast, and we live in a small world. Cavendish Blvd is a few blocks away from where I live and work. I will be sending Mr. Zukran an email shortly to organize a meeting.

Something in your message must have activated some bells and whistles in some office in San Fransisco, because immediately after I got an email from them saying this:

"My name is Charlene and I work here at Airbnb in a specialized team. I hope this email finds you well.

We understand that you would like to exercise one of your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), namely the right of access.

Airbnb is required to verify that the person making the request is the data subject entitled to the information being requested. We have implemented identification and verification procedures to ensure that we do not edit, delete, or hand over personal information to a person impersonating a data subject.

We kindly ask you to send us both of the following:

A re-statement of your request
A photocopy of a valid official government ID such as your driver’s license or passport to validate your identity and to facilitate your request

Your request and a copy of your proof of identity can be delivered by email to dpo@airbnb.com or by answering this e-mail."

What is this specialized team? What request? I thought our relationship was "terminated". Why do they want my (latest) ID info, when they already have all of this?

You can say many things about Quebec, but what is admirable is the way they stand up for regular people. It's what makes living here so pleasant. I wouldn't be surprised if Airbnb's ToS itself violates Quebec commercial law - nonwithstanding the latest digital short-term stay law which is going to wipe out 80% of its offering in Montreal this spring with fines and penalties of up to 25 000$ per listing.

Again, Airbnb, if you are listening (and it appears you are), this is the point where I offer the fig leaf. I offer you the chance to reinstate my account and remove this ridiculous blockade, and we can all forget this happened and go back to our regular lives.

[Susan17]

Good to hear that you've had some communication from Airbnb, @François48 (although legally, companies are obliged to respond to GDPR requests within a certain timeframe anyway, whether they like it or not) As for which "specialized team" the agent who messaged you belongs to, I'm not 100% certain, but I believe Charlene may be part of the Behavioural Data Science crew.

Seems a little odd that you'd get an email from SF relating to your Right to Access request though, as hosts in Canada are considered to be data subjects of Airbnb Ireland UC, as opposed to Airbnb Inc (different Privacy laws), but pehaps they do have a single centralised Data Protection office, that then redistributes the communications received, depending on the location of the correspondent. 

I've been keeping an eye on the Canadian markets for some time now, so am pretty familiar with the tightening regulatory controls in various cities there. Unfortunately though, the regulations introduced in the majority of cities worldwide - while well-intentioned - typically serve only to obliterate small, local hosts, while the heavily-funded VC-backed "mega-hosts", thrive and prosper, while simply ignoring the laws, or "buying" their way around them (for example, when the 90 day limit was introduced in London in 2016, there were around 35,000 listings. Now there are just under 80,000 - the vast majority of them in the control of corporate players)

I do hope you get sorted, and back up and running without delay, @François48! Keep us posted 🙂

[François48]

Hi again Susan! I never made any request of that sort. I was planning on keeping my account active in case I needed the information. But I plan on deactivating it so my presence is entirely removed. Actually, I think the email was a mistake. A request was probably sent internally and they thought it might have come from me.

As for the laws, I agree with what you are saying. The silver lining is that a few years ago, I pushed to obtain a license to operate from Tourism Quebec, so I have the legal right to host. The way it is set up, the BnB is is a part-time hobby for several people and is close to the center, which keeps rotation and quality high and operating costs very low. I doubt any corporation could match it, hence why we were full almost 100% of the time.

I have been taking care of guests and reservations non-stop for almost 4 years, and I am heartbroken to have witnessed all my reservations for 2020 evaporate in the span of 5 minutes. We will rebuild. Thanks 🙂

[Susan17]

So you didn't submit a GDPR Right to Access request yourself, @François48? Well now, that is very odd - and a little concerning - because only the data subject themselves (ie - you), is permitted to request access to that data under GDPR. (I considered for a moment that it might be some new phishing scam - they're becoming more and more inventive! - but the email address given in the message you received, is the correct one for Airbnb's DPO). Still though, I'd be following up with Charlene to find out exactly who submitted that data request, and why. 

I can only imagine how devastated you must be feeling right now (not to mention, furious at having all your 2020 bookings cancelled, in one fell swoop!) To be treated so brutally and dismissively, after 4 years of exemplary service to the company, is truly unconscionable. But that's Airbnb for ya. It's great that you've got your operating license, at least, so no matter what happens with Airbnb, you can - and will - rebuild. Keep pushing for reinstatement though, whatever it takes. There have been many cases of successful reinstatement - no reason why yours shouldn't be one of them (although it might require more than a little tenacity on your part! 😉) 

[François48]

That's right, I didn't. Something tells me it might be the belligerent guest who started all of this. He's the vindicative type. I'm building a dossier with his information.

Susan17, thank you so much for your time and your consideration. I means a lot to me.

I don't want to reveal my intentions on this forum, but as I said, we are several people involved here. I'll let you know how things progress.

Love from Montréal,

François

[Stephanie]

FYI @François48 , you can see that when @Susan17 writes your name it becomes blue and you will get a notification. To make sure she or anyone else sees your message, you can write @ and then the users name. Tada! Turns blue.

Thanks

[Thomas1382]

What happened in regard to this? My staff was attacked as well and the guest is saying they were attacked as retaliation... I am suspended and have never dealt with anything like this in 4 years of being in operation about 560 5 star reviews 4.97 rating overall . Any information would be greatly appreciated.. 

[Teresa1511]

Hello, 4 days ago my account was suspended, apparently. I contacted Airbnb today because I noticed my calendar was unavailable for guest to book. The gal who answered my questions said she didn’t know why my account was suspended and I would have to wait for a call back. I did not receive any email regarding my suspension and I think it’s so unprofessional of them to have this behavior. We as host are the core to their business and they fail to protect us or give us any sort of explanation. I’ve had great reviews and reply to my guest in a meaningful timely manner. I’m not sure what’s going on. Reading others reviews on the same situation has made me believe Airbnb was hacked or really is just unprofessional. It extremely affects my small business by providing for my family, making ends meet and paying for my mortgage. I’m so lost and I’m sooooo confused! Please help!! 

[Alexandra1290]

I had the same thing happen to me today - totally caught me off guard. Can't get an answer and am just so frightfully confused by them suspending my account and cancelling all of the upcoming reservations I had.  Did they ever re-activate your account as a host?  Did you ever get any kind of answer?  Thanks for posting your story, @Teresa1511 -- hope all turned out well for you!

[Thai235]

@Teresa1511 and @Alexandra1290 looks like both of you got your suspension lifted. So what happened? My account was suspended 2 days ago out of the blue.

About 1 month ago, a guest gave me 1 star for "location" (my property is in a mixed race community, with black, white, and yellow in 1 street - maybe it's the reason the guest was nervous, but it's a safe community, nothing happened. Anyway, I got 1* for "location" and 5* for all other things. Average is 4.7* for all guests. Now, 5 days ago, 1 guest checked out. I gave her 5* review, and have waited for her to give me review. I haven't got review from her yet (with 2 reminder). Not sure if she was not happy with something or not). 

Looks like many hosts here could not get the suspension lifted, just a few of you. Would love to hear your stories.

[Sarah977]

@Thai235  Plenty of guests don't bother to leave reviews, it has nothing to do with them not being pleased about their stay, so don't concern yourself with that. And guests get reminders to review from Airbnb just like hosts do. 

So while there's nothing wrong with messaging a guest once if 10 or 12 days have gone by, to say you realize they may be busy, but you'd really appreciate if they could find a few minutes to leave a review, it's not a good idea to keep bugging them about it-it could backfire and cause them to feel harrassed- they'll either leave a review or they won't.

And yes, your guest who left a 1*review probably reported that she felt "unsafe", even though it wasn't objectively unsafe, but maybe due to racist ideas. I hope your suspension gets lifted soon.

[Jayden16]

@Teresa1511 Same situation, guests contacting me saying the booking has been cancelled. Find my calendar is blocked 12 months out. Contact "customer support" no answer several days later get an email saying my account was suspended. Do some research and find out someone who has never been to my property thinks my listing photos look like they are from internal security cameras. Air bnb email saying they will investigate and get back to me in 72 hours. Nothing! not a reply. When I contact through customer support I get an instant "This support case is closed" No email, no reply no reason, just suspended. I have since listed with Booking.com, Bookabatch and Holiday Houses and am getting good results. Why would Airbnb treat us this way when we are the service providers for the guests??? absolutely crazy business policy.