Airbnb telling us to ask guest to leave as soon as possible -- no explanation

[Ana22389]

Here's a new one on us:

Yesterday we received a voicemail and an email from Airbnb.  Has Airbnb ever actually called you? Our first thought was that it was some kind of scam.  The message was to the effect that Airbnb would not "support the reservation" of a guest who had signed up on Airbnb, made the reservation, and checked in earlier the same day (we were aware of this when we accepted the last minute reservation). We were being told to contact the guest, and if they had indeed checked in already, to have them leave "as soon as possible."

Checking the reservation (at 11:00 p.m., mind you) everything seemed to be in order, i.e. payment had been made, not refunded, reservation still in place on the calendar.  We jumped through the Airbnb helpbot hoops and actually got to talk to a live person very quickly and she was very nice to talk to  and seemed to be doing her best to help us figure things out.  She was able to confirm that the phone call and the email were from Airbnb but was not able to give any explanation.  The payment had successfully gone through and was received by Airbnb.  I told her that I was not keen to go over to roust paying guests out of bed at midnight to throw them out on the street, particularly with no explanation and that we would still expect to be paid for hosting them, as the service had already been provided.  She understood, but was not authorized to make any promises and said she would send our concerns on up the ladder and a representative with authority to do something would call us later.  Of course she was unable to promise when they would be calling, whether it would be a few minutes, hours, or in the morning.

It wasn't until 4:00 p.m. the next day I received a call from some very concerned guests, that they had gotten a call from Airbnb to leave the property right away -- and NO explanation!

More calls to Airbnb, still no explanation except the [very polite] technician did advise me that she suspected the only reason that Airbnb would do such a thing is for some kind of safety issue.

Wait, what?  SAFETY ISSUE ???  What am I supposed to do with THAT?

So here I sit, two hours after another promise to have someone with authorization call me.  Wondering if Airbnb has any intention of making sure we are paid for the stay and why Airbnb has gone through such lengths to make sure both the guests and the host have something to worry about.

Has anyone else ever had such an experience?  Did you ever get any kind of explanation?  How did it work out in the end?

Any insight would be appreciated.

[Helen3]

I can understand you not wanting to kick a guest out at 11 pm but not why you didn't message the guest to confirm Airbnb had cancelled the booking and confirming they had to be out by your checkout time the following  morning. @Ana22389 

As you say now you've decided to host these guests when Airbnb have said you shouldn't you can't  rely on them for help should there be any damages/problems  etc you will have to rely on your own home insurance for STRs

it could be the guest's payment hasn't gone through, they have a criminal conviction or trashed another airbnb - you will never know.  

I don't see it as Airbnb dumping there problems on you. You are the business owner. They are flagging with you the guest is a safety risk. It's absolutely your choice as to whether you want to ignore their advice.  But you can't expect to be covered by their guarantee/get help from them if you chose to ignore their advice .

I do hope you get paid and there aren't any damages. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Helen3  As I understood, airbnb did not cancel and the payment went through

[Ana22389]

That is correct.

[Helen3]

Ah I thought Airbnb had notified the OP they were cancelling the booking . 

[Ana22389]

@Helen3 

Yes, Airbnb did actually say that they were canceling the booking.  This was after the guests had checked in.  The reservation, however, was kept in place.

We doubt it, but we will give them the benifit of the doubt, and assume that they kept the reservation in place because they had not heard back from us that we had successfully and safely evicted the guests.  We will gladly credit them for this if it is indeed the case, but because of their staggering lack of communication, we just don't know.

[Ana22389]

Airbnb's first message to us regarding this was sent at approximately 6:30 p.m., some time after the guests had paid and checked in.  We were actively online on the Airbnb app, following the progress of the transaction and everything seemed to be working well.   We had not heard from the guests that they had actually checked in, but we knew they were nearby and could contact us if there had been any problems, so we were assuming they had checked in successfully.  As it turns out Airbnb tried contacting us by phone (when has Airbnb EVER called before?  oh um NEVER) on an unknown number looking like any other scam bot, so that call went ignored.  They did leave a voicemail, but coming from an unknown number, it was left for later to probably be deleted without opening it.  Airbnb also sent an email, but it went unnoticed because everything Airbnb has ever done with us before has given us a notice on the app.  We were checking the app frequently, not checking email frequently.

It was later that night, around 10:00 p.m., we were going through messages and emails before ending the day, when we noticed the email from Airbnb, sent around 6:30 p.m.  This is where they informed us that they had decided not to "support the reservation."  Upon reading this, our first thought was that this was some kind of phishing scam.  Upon further review of the email we noticed that it had all the classic signs of phishing, i.e. an apparently American name ("Bruce") with several typos and poor grammar.  The email DID have the guests name and reservation number.  Hmm these hackers are GOOD!  Do we respond?  How can we tell if this is real?

We immediately checked the Airbnb app.  NOTHING appeared amiss.  Payment received by Airbnb but not yet sent to us, O.K., that's normal.  No messages from Airbnb.  Everything appeared normal.  We then began the task of going through the "HELP" process.

Somewhere in here, the voicemail was discovered, "Bruce" from Airbnb ... O.K. but if they hacked through Airbnb then they certainly would have that phone number.  

We were actually impressed how quickly we got through to a live person.  This person was very polite and pleasant to talk to and seemed to be trying to help us out.  It took some doing on her part, but she was finally able to confirm that the call and the email were indeed from Airbnb, whew,  O.K. so now what do we do?  She wanted us to verify that they had checked in.  Ummm its 11:00 p.m.  I had no intention of calling them at 11:00 to basically say "Hi! Are you checked in?", "O.K. thanks, bye." "Oh, umm, I'm not sure yet but I might be calling you back to tell you to leave.  Oh, well, umm , I don't know why.  K, thank you buh bye."  I did send messages via Airbnb app and the phone number the guests had provided.  The messages were to the effect of Were you able to get checked in O.K.? Is everything satisfactory?  At some point we were told we may have to go over there and "ask them to leave the property."  I made it clear that this was NOT going to happen!  It would be midnight before I could get over there and if it were me over there as were a well intentioned guest, I would NOT be answering the door at midnight!

Well our very nice service tech soon hit her head on the ceiling of what she was authorized to do.  She gave a very well practiced speech that she could not promise that we would be paid nor that Airbnb would offer any support.  She denied that she knew why this action was being taken.  She WAS, however, authorized to promise us that someone with the necessary authorization would be calling us back.  in a few minutes?  Tomorrow morning?  Do I go to bed?  Umm,  can't promise.... 

At around 6:00 a.m. the guests responded that they had indeed checked in successfully, everything is wonderful, thank you so much....

Having nothing to offer yet, not knowing where this was going, it was decided to hold off on a response to the guest until something was known.

A little after 4:00 p.m. the guests are calling saying that they received a very disturbing call from Airbnb.  It was in my next call to Airbnb where another very kind service tech let slip that it was her opinion that the only reason Airbnb would do something like this would be for some sort of "safety issue."

Yes, that raised an eyebrow.

I was forced by Airbnb to make a decision on my own.  Their representative was not authorized to offer advice.  I was still waiting for promised advice well after checkout time the following day.  I had made promises to a paying customer based on promises that had been made to me by Airbnb.

They were clearly dumping their problem on me.  They made a mistake, realized it after the fact, and hoped I would roll over and take onto myself, all the risks that their mistake had brought on them. Risks related to evicting an angry customer or the risk of damage to my property or the risk of some fraudulent method of payment, whatever.

Yeah, they raised a flag then walked away without looking out to make sure the flag was seen and understood.  Now we are left standing here waving their flag yelling out to sea that we got their message and they are standing at the rails of ship, backs to us,  occasionally looking over their shoulders to see if we are still back there.

As this situation has worked out, we did get paid, there was no damage to the property, the guests left on time as per their original reservation, and the house was left in excellent condition.  It also seems to me that Airbnb has backpedaled a little bit by sending that email from "Frankie".  Although not fully satisfying, it gives me some hope that someone at Airbnb saw that something was not being handled as well as it could be.

[Christine615]

@Ana22389 

There is so much out of whack about this stuff. I had a local guest try to book. Normally I don't allow that, but I've come to understand that on some occasions there's a good reason for it - person lives in modest lodgings and their parents are coming to town, or someone who doesn't have space and has a friend coming.

One day a young lady asked to book. As we were communicating Airbnb suddenly made the listing unavailable. I couldn't get anyone on the phone from customer service. But the young lady had a really unusual first name. So I found her on Facebook (Airbnb deleted the mention from our communication ) and sent a message. Turned out we had a friend in common, one of my husband's work colleagues. So I told her I'd book to her directly.

Two weeks later (I kid you not) Airbnb called to say the guest was a safety risk and due to privacy they couldn't say more. I told them the woman stayed with us for the weekend, hosted a small group of friends and the place was left in pristine condition at check-out. So I asked what the issue was - she paid, I saw her ID - she shouldn't have been blocked. The Airbnb rep continued to say it was a safety issue (I then checked the online state court records and found nothing amiss).

So I'm not sure what is going on with customer service. I read in a recent article that their most experienced people in safety and trust were part of the layoffs last year. If so, that's a pretty sad state of affairs.

Glad you got paid and the guests were fine.

That call must have been terrifying for you both.

[Nick]

Hi @Ana22389  I'm sorry you received no explanation about this situation. I just passed over the information you provided and asked them to take a look into this. Will update you via DM as soon as I know more.

Thank you
Nick

[Sarah977]

@Ana22389  And everyone else- Here's an interesting article about how the secretive Trust and Safety dept. operates.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-15/airbnb-spends-millions-making-nightmares-at-live-...

[Louise0]

So Airbnb's asking you to perform an action that is extremely detrimental to another human - i.e. kicking them out at midnight - and doesn't proffer any explanation?  That's bonkers.   

Maybe it's some variant of the Milgram Experiment and they are testing us hosts to find out just how 'obedient' we can made.

[Ana22389]

Ha ha!  You may be onto something!

[Inna22]

I think if Airbnb accepts a payment on our behalf and gives us no opportunity to verify it independently, Airbnb should take on full responsibility for the stay should the payment not go through until the guest has left. 

[Ana22389]

Well it is now 12 hours after check out and it seems that many of you are waiting to see how things have turned out.  We thank you all for your concern in this matter and for your suggestions and advice.

The short story is that we did NOT evict the guests.  Since Airbnb had 1) declined to provide any documentation that the guests had committed any violation of T&C,   2) declined to answer any of our questions or offer any support,  and 3) had received and accepted payment for services, we allowed the guests to stay the entire duration of the reservation.  As it has worked out, payment has been received, there were no damages, and the house was left in excellent condition.

To our thinking, we had pretty strong footing should we have the need to take legal action to receive any compensation.  We had to decide to risk the need to take legal action or risk what one of their representatives said might be a "safety issue."  We decided to risk our property rather than our personal safety.  What a position for them to put us in!

For those interested, there are a few more details concerning Airbnb and their [algorithm's] response.

Previous to sitting down to make this post, our last contact from Airbnb regarding this issue was in a phone call, initiated by us (Mon. June 14. aprox. 4:30 p.m.), a promise from them, that a representative would be calling me. [still waiting]

At some point during the day, we did see the message posted in this forum by "ADMIN Nick, Online Community Manager" that he had passed the information on up the line.  Thank you Nick for your efforts.

Just prior to preparing this post [Tues. June 15, 11:00 p.m.], I checked our email to see if there were any emails, DMs or other communications. Lo and behold! an email sent at 8:15 p.m., 9 hours after check out, from "Frankie" in "Airbnb Community Support."

Highlights:

1) "This is Frankie again."  ---   Again??  ---  Who is this "Frankie"??

      "As we did not receive a response to our email sent to you on June 14, 2021 we're going to proceed with resolving this case and presume that there were no issues regarding the guest’s checkout. If that’s not the case, please let us know as soon as possible."

O.K. , double check for a missed email on June 14.  NOPE.  The only email from Airbnb on June 14 is confirmation that Airbnb had sent us full payment for this guest's stay.  It was not from "Frankie."

2)  The email goes on to instruct us to report any damages to "Frankie" and he would "connect you with a colleague of mine from our Claims team"

Are we to assume that this other phantom email was some assurance that Airbnb may have decided to honor their obligation to "support this reservation"?  All I can do is guess.

"Frankie" then provided me with a url for more information on the Host Guarantee.

airbnb.com/terms/host_guarantee

3)  To wrap it up "Frankie" advises us to keep Airbnb involved should I decide to file a police report and gives instructions in how that is done.

And of course "Frankie" left his kindest regards.

Thank you "Frankie"

Sorry "Frankie" but I am guessing that this is merely another attempt from Airbnb to "C. Y. A."  in case any damages had been incurred.  Maybe "Frankie" has just been doing this so long that all his emails read as "Airbnb Autobot" responses.

Fortunately, this instance did work out fine for us.  Airbnb certainly has a way to go to instill confidence in their hosts.  There really needs to be a clear promise from Airbnb to hosts that Airbnb has confidence in their vetting and approval system and that they will stand by it and their hosts.  If an issue is discovered after a reservation has been made, Airbnb should cancel the reservation before the guest has received check in details.  If an issue is discovered after those details have been shared, it is then all the more reason that hosts need to know that Airbnb will have their back!  A clear system needs to be developed as to how to deal with such situations.  Backing into the shadows with vague "good luck with that" is not acceptable.  They have promised a certain level of service and accepted payment. They need to work much harder to convince their hosts that they will follow through with those promises.  They promise more than just filling our calendars.

Thank you all for following along.  Thus far it seems that no other readers have suffered such an attempt from Airbnb to cancel a reservation and their support in the middle of a stay.  Hopefully this is as rare a situation as it looks.  As yet, we can only hope that Airbnb is working to strengthen their relationship with hosts so that they can have more confidence when rare situations arise.

Stay healthy and safe!

[Rae523]

@ Ana22389

Hi perplexed,

I can relate to this --sort of---I had an enquiry for my listing at 4.30pm on 14th June for 3weeks from 15June -07Jul which I didn't answer as Airbnb sent auto msg saying my account had been in contact with an account which had violated Airbnb terms & conditions. I have clearly on my listing that I do not accept bookings closer than 1 day prior & don't do Instant book as I prefer to out requests as I live on lower floor of the property. This was a substantial loss financially however I also had an auto warning on my computer to say is this ok booking?--- I tried to contact Airbnb straight away(only Auto bot reply)re legitimacy of enquiry--because of time change I was not contacted again til 11am this morning but again received the same auto response as before as to guidelines for safety issue. The enquiry was very brief saying 3 guests wanted to close dates followed by "find me Whats App" (whatsapp was spelt strangely with an icon between each letter???) i have been trying to find out from Airbnb if this person was ok as she'd only joined June 2021 & nothing to be viewed on her profile until you accepted the booking. I still have no idea what Airbnb meant by their warning --whether it was dodgy booking or legit--all I know is they showed a total amount in Red with breakdown of cleaning & service fee but I've never received a warning before so I was hesitant in case I ended up in your position. Frustrating! I'm not great with technology either as in the age group where we didn't grow up with this instant communication Has anyone had this experience as I now feel quite anxious about letting guests stay in my valuable property.

Last time I had a problem ABB very helpful (pre Covid) but this issue putting me off. Had no idea where this person was from as no info avail on profile.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Rae523 You do not need to waste Airbnb's time with an enquiry that asks you to contact the guest via WhatsApp. This is a definite scam and you should respond to the guest with just a dot or an exclamation mark to maintain your response rate whilst also reporting the guest to Airbnb.

Provided you only operate within the Airbnb system you are as safe as it is possible to be. Clearly nothing is 100% safe but taking sensible steps you should be OK.