Short story:
Airbnb suspended all my listings and cancelled all my reservations because a guest reported me and said that I entered the property without consent and filmed them while they were sleeping!! Obviously, it's a lie... I am not that stupid. I am guessing the reason why they said this is because while their booking was for 3 persons, 7 people entered my property, and they kept denying it and this might be a way to avoid payment. Airbnb are very slow to review the case - is there anything I can do? This is causing financial distress and unnecessary worry, and they are taking the guests side while taking hard actions on someone who did nothing wrong!!
Long story:
This booking was suspicious from the very start. The original booking was for 1 person, but after asking the guest to confirm how many people will be staying, they said 3 people will be staying. So I asked them to change the number of guests in the booking. They did not. So, I sent them a guest number change request - again, they did not accept. So, I wanted to cancel the reservation and messaged Airbnb to confirm that I will not get charged.
Airbnb insisted that cancellation was not an option, even though Airbnb policies state the following, and I quote: "If a Host has to cancel for a valid reason, we’ll work with them and help their guests find another place to stay, without the Host incurring cancellation fees or other consequences from canceling. Valid cancellation reasons include: Proof that a guest intends to break one of the house rules included in the Listing details." It is clearly stated in my house rules that no unauthorised guests are allowed, and that there will be extra charges in case extra guests enter the property.
All of this is happening just a few days before the reservation so I was not sure what I should do in case 3 guests show up instead of 1 - should not open for all of them? should I let only 1 in (the one with the booking) and leave the other 2 out (which would obviously go back in as soon as I left?)? Anyway, Airbnb's response was.. we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.. not very helpful.
After a lot of back and forth, a payment was made through the Resolution Centre (not a change in the booking) for the extra charge of another 2 persons. Trust was already broken by this point but I felt I had no other option than to continue with this reservation. Check-in went smoothly but on a later day, on the CCTV footage I saw SEVEN people entering the property in the middle of the night.
Side note: The CCTV camera is located on the outside of the property, just before you enter the main door, and is completely legal - it is clearly stated that there is a CCTV camera on the outside on the listing on the Airbnb listing page and there are also signs on the facade of the property stating that there is a CCTV camera in operation. Also, I have a house rule that no unauthorised guests are allowed to enter the property and that any extra guests will be charged - this is also clearly stated on the Airbnb listing and also on the printed rules / instructions I leave for all my guests.
My co-host and I went to speak to them about this 1 hour before check-out - we knocked on the door (again CCTV camera shows this - we did not just barge into the property). They got defensive and denied it, and when I showed them the evidence they would still not pay the charges for the extra guests.
Then, to my surprise I get a message from Airbnb saying that my listings are all suspended, they would not tell me why, and that they will be on leave for the next few days so we will have to talk after their leave. After quite a few days of trying to open new support messages to get a faster reply but getting immediately closed down without any reply, I get a reply from this original thread saying the reason why my listings are suspended is because the guests claim that I entered the property without their knowledge and I filmed them while they were sleeping... obviously not true...
I have told Airbnb the whole story, sent them the CCTV footage of the 7 guests entering the property, showing them this clear violation of house rules and Airbnb policies. I also sent them the footage of us knocking on the door proving that we did not just go in and film them while they slept!! They said they will get back to us.
A few days later.... and all our reservations are cancelled!! Still no word from Airbnb...
Is there anything I can do besides agonisingly wait for Airbnb's reply?
Why is Airbnb is so fast at suspending listings and cancelling bookings, yet not so fast to hear both sides of the story, take justifiable and fair actions against those that disregard and disrespect the house and Airbnb policies?
