Trust and safety unresponsive

[Vikas2]

Hello - 

I've been a superhost for 2+ years, with 5 star reviews across all categories and booked 90% of the time in Brooklyn, NY. We have a 2 unit house, a rental downstairs and we live upstairs. We always rent downstairs, and very occasionally we also rent upstairs when we plan to be away for an extended period of time.  We have very strict rules regarding guests, especially upstairs as it's the home we actually live in. 

Over the 4th of July, we rented upstairs to a single guest who was a photographer and stated he would be out all day and then just spending the night. We told him that's fine and let him book, despite not having reviews (normally a big flag for us).  We have a 3 year old and have cameras in common areas (family room / hallways), along with her nursery (a room we normally keep locked). This is mentioned in the listing and the guest has to agree that they are aware of the cameras. We also explicitly discussed this with the guest and told him about the cameras before he booked.  A few hours into his booking we get a text from our neighbor saying there are a lot of people going into our home. I check the cameras and he's having a party with about 10-12 guests. He moved the cameras, but you can still people coming. We call him, and ask him to leave. He's very polite and says he will get everyone out. Long story short, we had to threaten to call the police and then eventually he left after our neighbor went over. They made a mess, smoked pot in the house, left the backdoor open and left a used condom on one of the beds in my mother law's room (the one we rent out). Disgusting...

On Thursday (July 11th), I get an email from Trust and Safety stating that there has been a complaint about cameras in my unit and they want details on them. I replied immediately explaining that this is disclosed on my listing, along with details about where the cameras are. Normally, Airbnb is great about responding and I assumed this would quickly get resolved.  They disabled my listings and inbox - which includes my other listing that has nothing to do with this complaint. 3.5 days later  a $600+ booking on Friday was cancelled, and nobody has responded.   I've emailed 6-7x, tweeted twice, and called about 5x - no one has any idea what is going on, and can help other than saying they will escalate the situation to "urgent".   Three agents have all said this... no one from Trust and Safety has contacted me back. 

Almost every situation i've ever had with Airbnb has been super positive, on both the host and the guest side. I'm a huge evangelical for the company, and even recently listed Airbnb as one of 3 brands most influential brands in my life on a survey. Needless to say, this is quite stressful and saddening.  I would have no problem addressing the issue if they could simply reply and let me know what the concern is.   Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this or have experience dealing with this?  

Thank you so much for reading, 
Vik

[Jess78]

@Suzanne302  Best of luck to you too! I do hope you stop worrying about others’ intentions or agenda so much. @Vikas2 has been BANNED from their livelihood for no good reason without recourse. That’s the purpose of this thread. 

[Shaun69]

It pains me to say that I must agree with your thread. The situation regarding the rights of hosts is getting out of hand and is leaving good hosts out on a limb. I have been lucky regarding our guests, so it has been an easy ride but I dread the day that things go wrong and I have to rely on the CS operators. My company can manage difficult situations but when you bring into play a third party that starts of with an agenda that is pro-active towards guests then the playing field is not flat! Touch wood that we do not encounter the problem child but if we do then I can only hope that our record speaks for itself!!!!

Be Happy Shaun

[Ryan111]

I would second some of the things here for anyone hosting.  I will continue to use the platform for now but airbnb ALWAYS sides with the guest even when it is clear that the host has done nothing wrong. I have seen it over and over.  Superhost means nothing to them.  Someone with 0-3 reveiws to matter more from a revenue/pr standpoint than the hosts.  Rather shortsighted.  Without the hosts, there is no product.  

[Kelly149]

@Vikas2 it's not just you. Here's my current ABB situation:

Verified guest with good reviews IBs my place on Wednesday for following Saturday.

I send the House Rules and Rental contract.

Friday guest sends contract back with more guest names than what she has booked & paid for.

So, my 3 choices per ABB are:

   ~ let her come with more guests than she has paid for, for free

   ~ write an alteration

   ~ cancel her

Bc we are within 24 hours of the commencement of her reservation then she will be allowed to review me regardless. I don't want to chance a lousy review without being paid so option 3 is out.

I don't want to host people for free so I choose option 2, but this is where the ABB russian roulette begins.

When you alter a reservation within 24 hours of the reservation beginning, it lumps the initial payment and the adjustment together and there is no way to find out if the alteration will process until after the guest arrival has already come and gone. When that alteration payment fails then the original payment becomes frozen along with the alteration. So, as of this moment I haven't been paid the $ for this reservation that ABB has collected and outside of telling me "we're working on it" I have no communication from them about the resolution they're working on. They have exactly two jobs: present the property and collect the money. It doesn't really matter how good they are at the first job if they fail at the second job.

Now, ok, fine, things happen, BUT ABB demands that hosts are powerless to deal with these things.

1. So, I should have been able to cancel this gal without penalty (there should have been a review posted to her account that said "guest broke house rules and was cancelled" and she should not have been able to review my place)

2. Knowing that ABB can't guarantee payments within 24 hours of arrival I should have been allowed to collect direct from the guest at the door.

3. How in the world does ABB "secure" the security deposit $$ if they don't even have a hold on the small amount of this adjustment money?

4. ABB should immediately pay me the money they do have plus the add on svc fee from the first payment, bc as it is right now I hosted the guest but they're the only ones who've made any money from the deal.

5. If ABB reps and policies were reviewed and held to the same standards as hosts then this whole platform would shutter. They're non-communicative, don't hold to their own published policies and refuse to allow hosts to protect themselves.

6. I'm an 11 term SH, booked continually for the last 34 months. I'm holding up my end of the bargain, ABB should have my back.

I want to like ABB but stories like this are why that other acronym platform is my preferred vendor and @Jess78 position makes a lot of sense to me.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Vikas2 

We told him that's fine and let him book, despite not having reviews (normally a big flag for us).

I really don't understand ABB's rationale here, and its a very worrying situation for all hosts.

I recently rented to several guests who had no reviews, first-time guests for ABB, first time bookers on ABB. For growth ABB rely on booking new guests otherwise ABB stagnate with a static guest user-base. It's worrying to rent to unknown guests and in doing so, hosts take a great risk hosting these guests in their own homes and should expect some sort of support from ABB helping to increase their guest base by taking these risks for them. If at the first sign of any problem ABB will dump their SH host in favour of some unknown lying guest, then it certainly calls into consideration the hosting of any future new guests to AirBnb, ever.

[TJ53]

@ianandannmarie I have to say, I totally agree with helping new guests. It is a tough situation. I once had zero reviews, someone had to give me a chance. But after a couple of bad experiences, hosts should be allowed to pass (without penalty) when our spidey sense is tingling!

[Niel3]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  I would not be too concerned to be honest. I find a large proportion of my guests are noobs with no previous reviews and have not really had any issues to date, in fact a few of them have said as first time users of AirBNB they were a little worried about what to expect but were pleasantly surprised at how easy everything was both from communication with me and expectations etc.

From reading this forum there does seem to be a huge difference in how AirBNB is experienced between the UK and USA. The vast majority of issues with guests that get posted here seem to be from US hosts encountering problem guests who book their places for parties/use drugs & generally lie to the hosts and have no respect for the properties. I wonder if this is a type of "know how to abuse AirBNB culture" in the USA.

Similarly I sometimes find my eyes widening at some of the ways US hosts are so strict with house "rules" but then I guess if they're experiencing guests like this it is understandable. I can imagnie the response I would get in the UK if I required all my guests to sign as contract basically agreeing they will behave like responsible adults before they can set foot inside my property for example.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Niel3 

We've hosted many 'noob' groups too. Up to 8 at a time, along with re-communicating our House Rules to them (when they haven't read them), handling their sneak-ins, controlling their fights, insisting against their expectations to sway us that they can't bring pets, accommodating their hotel expectations at a home stay and have achieved SH despite navigating these re-occuring problems. Here, groups book a whole house rather than a room so maybe the guests are different? Having 8 people turn up at your door is just a party waiting to happen so this needs to be handled, which we can do if we're present, if not, and theres nobody to control the situation then who knows what happens? How do you think your guests might behave if you were not there?

One guest or a couple of guests in a shared house where the host is present is a lot different to giving a group (or individual) a set of keys and then next hearing from them when they check out, or in this case your neighbour informs you remotely that a dozen people are staying when only one booked.  

As @Vikas2 points out, her only failing was allowing a single 'noob' to book. Her history suggests she can cope with all the challenges presented by multiple guests and has done so, yet the support from Airbnb here was totally lacking. Why fail a SH like this based on her history compared to an anonymous lying guest?

If @Vikas2 guest had many reviews, and had much of that history to lose, then it would be likely that the ensuing party would never had happened. As it was, the guest was just - some guy off the street - wanting to party. Totally anonymous, no reviews, a noob.

Many noobs are fine. They are still anonymous, and pose a greater risk than a guest with history, but this risk needs to be fairly considered and handled. It hasn't been handled very well at all in this case particularly for the hosts benefit, so is this how a host should expect to be treated ?!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

Strangely @TJ53 posted almost the same obversation her:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/What-if-I-only-accept-requests-from-guests-that-have-pre...

[TJ53]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 Oddly that post was removed by the moderator as spam. So weird. I didn't think it was in violation.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@TJ53 

The whole thread has gone, not just your post. Definitely wasn't spam. Can't find it anywhere now.

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 and @TJ53 ,

Thanks for the flag! That one post was removed as their is a dedicated topic by TJ here which has the same content but much more engagement and activity. Please fee free to engage there.

We sometime do this so conversations on a subject are lost, duplicated or made confusing to the original poster as more people engage.

Thanks

Stephanie

[Vikas2]

Just an update on this, I did hear back via Facebook and then shortly thereafter heard back from the agent. They did reenable my account and relist both listings. Total time was just over 5 days. There wasn’t much of an explanation provided. My inbox still hasn’t repopulated, but I am able to now send and receive messages.

[Mark116]

@Vikas2   Airbnb should really pay you for the reservation that they cancelled, when the proof that the cameras were all disclosed was RIGHT THERE ON THE LISTING the entire time.  But, I'm glad it has resolved in your favor. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Vikas2 

Good! Things are being fixed. All you need now is:

A refund of the cancellation.

To leave an honest review of your guest.

Some apology.