Booking rejected "higher safety risks (such as an authorised parties)"

[Takehiko2]

Hi everyone, 

I recently tried to book a place for my long-awaited travel in the UK(after 2 years of no traveling) over the new year, but my booking got rejected due to "higher safety risks such as parties".

I never had this notice before and also never held a party in any of my previous trips in Air B&B.

I explained the situation to the host that I'm going to travel with my family and no intention of having a party.

She read my previous reviews and accepted my stay and sent me an invitation directly.

However, the system still didn't allow me to book a place by sending me the same rejection message for the same reason.

I then contacted customer service to resolve this issue.

He tried for two days to identify the reasons and remove the triggers but came back with no clear solution to resolve this. 

The system only allows me to book a "private room" or "shared accommodation" that doesn't fit the purpose of my family trip.

While I'm having a conversation with them the host accepted another guests who were also travelling with a group of 4 people.

I was totally disappointed.

I understand the importance to have a trigger to protect the host from potential disruptions, however, if no one can override or cancel the trigger, the system is a big failure and I lost my trust in Air B&B. it is not a friendly community anymore.

Does anyone know the answers to the following questions?

1. Why does this trigger happen and what sort of information they are based on? (i.e. why we were rejected and the other group was accepted)

2. Why the trigger cannot be lifted either by the host or help desk teams?(I.e. remove this stupid trigger if you cannot even control it)

3. Is there any solutions to avoid this in the future? (i.e. If this happens again I will definitely leave Airbnb)

I felt really gutted and booked another accommodation through Booking.com

It went smoothly and resolved my holiday.

[Emiel1 · Accepted solution]

@Takehiko2 

It is probaby because of the reasons and conditions mentioned here that the system refuses your booking:

https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-pilots-new-policy-to-tackle-antisocial-behaviour/

https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-announces-plan-to-crack-down-on-new-years-eve-parties/

[Takehiko2]

@Emiel1 

Thank you for your reply and link to the info.

It's understandable to place the precautions measure and up to them to add restrictions in the system.

However, the restriction doesn't apply to me as I'm above 35 travelling with my family. Also, my review since 2016 has been positive with no record of irresponsible acts which both the host and support team checked and confirmed. My stay was not only just a night of New Year's Eve.

Their explanation doesn't make sense in my case. 

I'm very doubtful about the trigger system, and the fact that no one can override remains an issue. 

[Mike2969]

If you follow the money, they are using this as a mask for an agreement to push requestors to hotels, which the hotels pay them for

[Sarah977]

@Takehiko2  It's really unfortunate that Airbnb applies this algorithm without any option for the host to override it. One way you could have gotten around it was to have an older family member in your group, if there was one, open an account and book under their name. 

Airbnb obviously decided that it was more advantageous to lose a few bookings than to risk the bad press they get when out-of control parties take place.

I don't know if you are aware of it but this algorithm was created after a party at an Airbnb in California a few years ago where people got shot and killed. That has, in fact, happened a few times in other locations.

There are other things in life that work like this, based on statistics. For instance, in places where I have lived, the highest car insurance rates are applied to young males, because statistically, they have the highest rate of vehicle accidents.

So even those young men who are careful, responsible drivers are subject to those high rates. As with many things in life, the irresponsible ruin things for the responsible.

[Takehiko2]

Hi @Sarah977 

Thank you for your reply.

I acknowledge the incident that happened at one of the AirBnBs locations in the past.

As the company and service grow globally, it's inevitable that this happens once in a while.

Their solution seems to exclude certain users based on simple profiling and some algorism that costs minimum.(the profiling are not even accurate as I explained above) The hosts lost the profit from the valuable dates, and users lost a chance of the tremendous local experience which they used to offer. The support team spent two days helping me resolve this, and their personal effort was wasted simply because "the computer says no".

Air BnB takes a minimum amount of risks and still earns a lot of profit from the effort of dedicated hosts, users and support teams.

It's getting a tasteless global company aims a mass, and responsible people starts to choose other platforms.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Takehiko2 If the host is willing to go against Airbnb's algorithm they can do so by changing the property to a private room, allowing you to book and then switch back again to a whole home.

I see your profile is registered in London. Allowing locals to book over weekends/New Year can also trigger the algorithm to block your booking. It seems you do not live in London so changing your profile could well help.

[Takehiko2]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Thank you so much for your comment.

I live in London and since my family travel abroad was canceled due to COVID, we wanted to change our plan to somewhere in the UK recently.

Anyway, my point is that the algorithm would not understand the situation of each individual and simply expel them out.

The amazing value of Air BnB was the uniqueness of each property and respect of individuality but now those are decaying.

Actions were monitored top-down, and imperfect algorithm rules over individual judgement. 

All small tweaks you mentioned above would work I'm sure, but only benefit people who want to sneakily deceive the system and hold a party anyway. Again this system is so imperfect and rules out all the human touches and respects which I'm mostly frustrated about.

I want to say thank each of you @Emiel1 @Sarah977 @Mike-And-Jane0  for your time and valuable insight.

Super hosts like you have been a great asset to this community and the ones I enjoyed meeting.

[Sarah977]

@Takehiko2  The algorithm is indeed imperfect, as all algorithms are, they don't register individual circumstances. There have been many posts here on the forum from hosts frustrated by this block- they couldn't even accept great guests who were repeat customers who they absolutely knew weren't any risk, simply because the booking dates encompassed holidays like New Years.