Is this normal in Airbnb?

[Nina595]

I have been hosting for few years already and i’ve had many guests so far and i have never had any problem until i received email on Saturday July 4th from airbnb community support stating that incident happened with recent reservation and they limited access to my account and that if they don’t hear from me within 72 hours, they may remove my account from airbnb. They didn’t even call me or sent message via airbnb, luckily i opened my email on Monday morning and responded and called many times but my account can’t call and can’t send messages to airbnb support. I responded again to the email yesterday and today and i still don’t hear anything. That is so weird to happen on airbnb, i don’t know how i can get help to solve this issue or even know what it is. I will attach photo of the email. 

[Anonymous]

@Nina595  The customer support operation is largely handled by a subcontractor whose staff know less about what's going on than you do. To say it's a clusterf**k would be an understatement.

For what it's worth, I don't think you can honestly say it's "impossible" that guests who said in their correspondence that they were "happy with their stay and everything" were the ones who made a serious complaint to Airbnb. 

One guest comment: "Ididn’t meet Nina at all, her roommate F*** is really friendly, helpful and chatty. However he’s looking forward to get a relationship at the beginning which makes me feel uncomfortable."

A guest would have had to feel more than just a little uncomfortable to say something like that in a public review. It's not inconceivable that on reflection she felt your flatmate sexually harassed her or took advantage of her vulnerable position as a guest in your household, which a media-sensitive company like Airbnb would take very seriously. Also, this guest was clearly not happy with the stay after your review accused her of stealing a hair dryer, so this could have influenced her hindsight of the interaction.

Another reviewer (who based on your review sounds like a truly terrible guest) had nothing to say except:  "Double check and make sure you get what you were promised in the ad"  This person was obviously disgruntled, and may have made damning accusations in retaliation for your negative review.

When reviews like these come in, it does benefit you to post a Host Response to either provide context and clarification to the negative feedback, or to demonstrate that you're taking it in and are committed to resolving the issue. One thing that seems especially important to clarify is that your flatmate appears to be the primary host, since he's the only person your recent guests mention interacting with. It's easy to see how someone might deduce that there's a bait-and-switch operation going on here, or even that "Nina" is a fictional identity that F*** is using to mislead guests (sadly, there have been sexual predators on the platform using that tactic).

[Nina595]

@Anonymous  bro, the other roommate and me ’ve been hosting for 3 years and we didn’t have any issue. Most of the reviews don’t reflect the truth either in their positive way or negative way. I am asking here for someone to help me how to reach airbnb member who is authorized to fix my account problem and i am not asking for psychologist lol. Thanks anyway and forget about it bro

[Lisa723]

@Nina595 except now you do have an issue. And unfortunately it's a bad one. Everyone replying is only trying to help you. The experience of other hosts who have been through this indicates that with the possible exception of contacting Airbnb on FB/Twitter there is literally nothing you can do except wait for the "trust and safety" team to get back to you, and meanwhile hope that they do not permanently deactivate your listing. This is truer now than it has ever been, with frontline Airbnb CS even more overwhelmed than usual.

[Anonymous]

@Nina595  Sis, all of your listings' ratings are way below average, so you're deluding yourself if you think you "didn't have any issue." Obviously a lot of past guests have had some problems, even if most of them found your home adequate. Between that and how impervious you want to be to advice, this is probably not an "account problem" that just needs to be fixed but one or more legitimate complaints that have to actually be dealt with.

I'm more than happy to forget about it; if you ultimately get de-listed, one less mediocre host on the platform is no personal loss to me.

[Helen3]

@Nina595  it's a shame when a host who comes here looking for help is not open to advice. There aren't any other methodologies for reaching Airbnb other than the ones you are already using.

No-one consistently gets those sorts of reviews, without there being issues that you need to address as a host.

[丽萍0]

@Nina595 Hi Nina, I had the same problem twice! With my account and my daughters.

My daughter host since 2013. She had a problem goes like this:

A drunk random woman (we don't know) knocking at the door on a Sunday early morning. An Airbnb Guest opened the door (two doors) to let in this random woman who later made a huge mess with blood and all. My daughter had to clean after herself the blood (because it's Sunday, no cleaning company work here). Airbnb didn't do anything to support, but to close her account so she can not file claims. Her listings are blocked and account access also blocked. She did not get paid out ever again with a full house of guests in her property. She is a social media influencer but on Ins and Tumblr, that's not helpful to get the attention of AIRBNB. Today her account is closed still. My account is on hold because of this dispute. 

This is real. @Helen3 @Magdalena237 @Lisa723 

[Lisa723]

@丽萍0 Nobody said it isn’t real.

[丽萍0]

@Lisa723 Hi Lisa! I was referring to the fact Airbnb blocks phone number and blocks all the means to contact them when they want to avoid problems with hosts. Many hosts in this thread was saying 'oh you just call, email, log-in to your account' etc, but it was NOT possible with my daughter's account when it was blocked by Airbnb.

[Lisa723]

@丽萍0 No, what these hosts said was that there is no other method, other than social media. It is well known that Airbnb sometimes deactivates hosts’ accounts without recourse.

[丽萍0]

@Lisa723 Yes we are on the same page then! Andrew (who was responding early in this thread) was saying 'oh you just call, here are the numbers'... I feel very frustrated because when my daughter lost her account, she could not reach Airbnb in ANY MEANS, even she was a social media influencer. She has a few hundred thousand on Tumblr, but it was not the right social media to cause attention to Airbnb. People who can still call don't see to get the frustration and say 'oh you just call'...

[Helen3]

If Airbnb deletes your account you are correct in that you won't be able to contact them as an account holder @丽萍0 . The vast majority of hosts who post here do not have their accounts suspended so will be able to reach Airbnb a) by phone b) by social media c) online

I know you keep mentioning in various posts your daughter is a 'social media influencer' but this is not relevant in terms of Airbnb. You say they suspended her account (why?)  but she could easily have used her twitter or FB accounts to post about the issues she was facing. (by private message is she didn't want to make the issue public).

What advice would you offer in terms of trying to reach Airbnb?