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

[Cj61]

Trying to respond and this site deleting my responses... I am sorry you have gone through this and hope you get some helpful and supportive information from other hosts or even a positive outcome from air bnb. good luck.

[Jess78]

Dump Airbnb and rent to short term renters like visiting nurses, sabbaticals, and other people that you can vet closely and collect security deposit from. Don’t rent out your personal living space to anyone unless you can have someone personally vouch for them or know them. That’s my advice. Be certain to write a fair and detailed review of you recent trouble guest. 

[Vikas2]

As far as renting out our home again goes, we're in total agreement.  We dont plan to rent it again unless we know the person directly or through a friend. However for downstairs, we would like to continue renting the unit with Airbnb, we've never had an issue where we couldn't work through it with them and overall they have been a fantastic partner.   

[Suzanne302]

@Jess78  Curious as to why you'd come on here and tell someone to simply dump ABB? You have two listings and are a Superhost so you've obviously found that ABB works for you. It's a bit odd.

EDIT to add: Not trying to offend or be nasty, just genuinely curious why someone would say that...

[Susan1342]

Jess...

I'm doing the same thing...but I can't find good responsible people? Any advice as to were to find them?

Sue...Vegas

[Inna22]

@Vikas2 This must be very frustrating for you  and is my biggest fear – we are all are powerless should Airbnb  choose to shut us down. I’ve seen your responses on this board and I know you’re good and active host (and a pleasure to meet when you were in chicago) so this is just terrible. Also, shame on that guest for reporting you!

 I don’t have any words of wisdom unfortunately but stay strong and hopefully this will be resolved soon! 

PS

 Facebook has worked well for me for getting attention from Airbnb and might be the only reason I still remember the login To that site

[Vikas2]

Thank you for the kind words. It's terribly frustrating. I can't even leave you a review because my account "is no longer on the platform."    I appreciate the facebook tip, i have reached out there as well. Fingers crossed!

[Emilia42]

It seems that Airbnb has a no tolerance policy with cameras. It doesn't matter if you disclose them or not, if a guest reports them, Airbnb will terminate your account without any opportunity to explain. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Emilia42  yes I came to the same conclusion.

So @Vikas2  your both listings were disabled .... I wonder if your guest's account was deleted or he is still able to trash other people's homes and get a refund?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Vikas2 

You should not need to shoulder any responsibility for this guest. You have accepted a guest without reviews who lied about his intentions, complained about your accommodation as a retaliation against his expectant behaviour then finally not been supported by Airbnb who's guest it was you were allowing to stay. For them to provide the guest a refund, not to remain in communication with you and to suspend your account is ridiculous.

Being treated this way would justify the reply by @Jess78 and as a Superhost yourself you should expect a better level of service after your proven history.

I hope that Airbnb manages to resolve your situation.

[Jess78]

@Vikas2 @Suzanne302 My recommendation to dump Airbnb comes from the fact that they have suspended the accounts and cease taking any and all communication with her. The company’s way of handling situations like this, especially in regards to a level of respect and basic decency with how they treat their hosts, is despicable. I assume there are many hosts here who come to depend on air for some, part, or maybe almost all of their income? Well, can you imagine coming to work one day and being locked out of the office with no recourse or justification given, when you’ve been an exemplary employee? Maybe when one of your brand new untested coworkers accuses you of something that’s not against the rules? I would get the h*** out and wouldn’t look back. That’s exactly what I would recommend for anyone actually. 

Yes, you’ve noticed I’ve hosted continually since 2015, have been a Superhost all of that time (save for one quarter when air stripped it from me for a mistake), and have two listings. I’ve actually loved short term hosting from the pure principle of it and I find hospitality a pleasure. I also have long term rentals.  Like @Suzanne302 I was a huge proponent of air for a couple of years and thought it was great. However,  I’ve ceased taking all reservations on them and had my very last air guest in June. I’ll delete them completely as a host soon. I would absolutely not recommend in good faith that anyone I know host on this platform going forward.  It’s absolutely fine if you have a string of excellent luck with no problems and things go to plan. It’s absolutely the worst if anything like this crops up— just ONE instance of bad luck with a guest, could ruin a lot of things for you in your life being that most of us have worked very hard for our huge investments in these accommodations. The issue isn’t me or hosts not being willing or capable of dealing with problems when they arise, as they always do in any rental situation. I expect them to happen and am prepared to deal with them. The issue is that the company makes hosts impotent and takes all their power away to deal with these kinds of situations in a normal fashion. And, as illustrated here and in many other instances detailed on the message boards, they could absolutely wield their power as inappropriately as they want without needing to answer to anything. In some instances, I would imagine hosts who are suddenly banned from the platform with no due cause can suffer a LOT of financial hardship— potentially even putting their living spaces at risk of  foreclosure. This risk alone, never mind the lack of security deposit, penalizing hosts for guest cancellations, customer service ineptitude, favoring “pro” companies over their bread and butter traditional hosts, and the lie and loopholes of the “Host Guarantee” is worth seriously questioning whether we’re wise dealing with a company like that. Good concept gone bad and it’s a big shame, yes, but there’s no way I can recommend it for hosts any more. 

[Susan17]

@Jess78 

Excellent summary, Jess. Couldn't agree more with every word. You speak, both here and in your previous posts, for thousands of hosts who have borne the brunt of Airbnb's shady policies and suffered the consequences of their  despicable practices - most of whom are too afraid to speak out about it themselves, for fear of repercussions. Thank you, and the very best of luck to you in whatever you decide to do next  🙂

[Jess78]

Thanks for the kind words @Susan17. I’ve enjoyed hosting and enjoyed being part of this community and wish you the very best as well! 

[Suzanne302]

@Jess78  Well since you've left the platform but for some reason you continue to hang out in the CC, I do hope you use the knowledge you gained from ABB to help others who are still actually utilizing and profiting from the platform, instead of simply coming here with the agenda of having everyone join you in jumping ship. 

Best of luck to you.