Can’t Trust the Trust & Safety Team

[Jeremy193]

Since our community is based on trust and transparency, the really needs to be a more fair and transparent way to deal with internal safety team.

Four years of being a super host and I guess count exceeding 4000 people and the only issues I’ve ever had are with this covert team of rogue sadists.

 **[Private conversation removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

Seriously, you guys can do better than this. I’ll have in excess of $150k in bookings this year with amazing reviews and this is strategy for retaining good hosts? I would actually love to be part of the solution and addressing this.

Please let me know if I can help... Send me I’m not kicked off for doing something wrong that nobody knows what it is.

[Kira32]

I know who it was........ a guest within a guest within a guest whom you know nothing about...….Maybe Airbnb should make a movie...... I like their fiction way of thinking.

Like if you vote for a fiction movie!!! 😉

movie title?:

"Can’t Trust the creepy trust"

"Fantom of the freaky trust"

"Creeps don't trust"

" I know what you did to my imaginary guest"

"Playing with fire"The invincible guest part 1

Please don't hesitate to brainstorm Im open for business 

[Sarah977]

@Kira32 

"Kafka Found Alive, Writing Policy for Airbnb!"

"What's Kafkaesque is when you enter a surreal world in which all your control patterns, all your plans, the whole way in which you have configured your own behavior, begins to fall to pieces, when you find yourself against a force that does not lend itself to the way you perceive the world."

quote from Noah Tavlin, Youtube 

[Guillem2]

This description seems to define the team of people who claim to deal with Host issues. They deal with these issues by disregarding the Host and making sure that the Guest is happy, always at the expense of those of us who provide every single accommodation that allows Airbnb to exist.

[Kira32]

@Sarah977love it! Im going to look this up very interesting!

[Helen350]

@Sarah977  another (my) definition of Kafkaesque is "when you are accused of something, you know not what! - With ever increasing accompanying angst!" (Remembering my years studying German lit. now!)

[Guillem2]

Pardon my ignorance, but except for the name itself, I don't know what the Trust and Safety Team is, or does. Can some tell me a little about this secret "Team"?  Thanks

[Susan17]

@Guillem2 

Below is a past interview with Nick Shapiro, former Global Head of Trust and Risk Management at Airbnb, from 2015 to Sept 2019, in which he gives some rare insight into the functions and purpose of the enigmatic Trust and Safety Team

https://www.airbnbforwork.com/resources/how-airbnb-builds-trust-and-helps-keep-hosts-and-guests-safe

[Brian2036]

That article about the T&S team is mostly Nonsense but I find this significant:  

“Unlike hotels, we use predictive analytics, behavioral analysis, and machine learning to assess the risk of each and every host, guest, and listing on our platform. This real-time detection system instantly evaluates hundreds of risk signals to flag and then stop suspicious activity in the first place.”

So I conclude that nobody will tell you what offense you allegedly committed because NOBODY KNOWS.

Only the computer knows, and it’s not talking. Basically it just doesn’t like you.

[Helen744]

Helen @744. So funny . This has been going on for a while and still no resolution. i suggest that if the guests paid us first and then we had to pay Airbnb then maybe they would get the picture They work for us but they think we work for them . H.

[Maia29]

@Guillem2  Hopefully, you will never have to have interaction with this department. I suspect there are several rogue departments like this. Another one is the "health and safety team".

It appears that these teams work in entire secrecy with little to no oversight. They are also instructed to respond to you with various scripts, depending on each situation. Common sense is void from my experience in both departments. This is only my experience with the overseas departments, not US based customer service, I must add.

I agree, "how can you fix something, if you aren't allowed to know what the perceived transgression is?" I felt like I was in the twilight zone dealing with these people in these departments.

[Ellen298]

Your paraphrasing exactly sums up what I am currently dealing with. I guess you were lucky they finished the “investigation” within a few days. I’ve not been contacted again since I was accused of wrongdoing and responded that I have no idea what they are talking about. Superhost for several years, of 3 properties. They won’t even tell me which property is the “problem”. They’ve taken my properties offline, an upcoming guest notified me that they can’t find my listing! How do you reassure a guest that yes, don’t worry, your reservation is in order?! And, the safety team representative threatened that they may cancel upcoming reservations, as a precaution. But, as you paraphrased, no reason that I should know what went wrong.

Shameful!

[Emilia42]

@Ellen298 How did this work out? Did anything come from it?

[Jake370]

I'm having exactly same situation now.

This is crazy. they said if i don't answer what they want, they will remove my account from Airbnb.

LOL.

[Mary4168]

We are superhost family at the Airbnb since Sep.2019.
This is the second time around the Airbnb is sabotaging our listings.

We recently had a nightmare guest, who had horrible reviews on Airbnb. We tried to give them another chance and decided to host them.

She was a nightmare.  She Sub-rented our house to a group of film-maker and videographers to shot a commercial for Adidas, while she was away.
We saw in the surveillance camera's that a large group of filmmakers came to our house. They were taking all the furniture outside.  When i called her she didn't answer her phone calls.  After this incident, she lies to Airbnb, that her friends who were staying at a different house came to visit her.
after her check out she left a defamatory nasty review, full of insults and attacks.  lying about safety etc.

Her reviews were thankfully removed for violation of Airbnb, but the Trust and Safety department of Airbnb, which I do not trust a bit, email to go over her booking.  The last I was speaking to twisted the story around and 30 min. later she suspended all our listings.  She claims she's doing an investigation, based on the Guest's lies.  Are you kidding me? We asked to speak to another one of the untrustworthy of the "Trust and Safety", personal.  So far with Luck, this is since last Friday.  

We're planning to send the demand letter by tomorrow, and if this doesn't work, then Sue Airbnb for unlawfully framing us for wrongdoing that we haven't done.

Any suggestions??

[Sarah977]

@Mary4168  Awful situation. But have you read the TOS? You can't sue Airbnb for suspending your listing, no matter how unfair it is. It's a private company, they can suspend or delist anyone they want, for any, or no reason.