Property unlisted Airbnb will not tell us why, any ideas would be wonderful

[Bryan-And-Joan0]

We received a random email from Airbnb at 3 in the morning saying they have unlisted our property because it has been put in to the safety department, we are super host and have five star ratings on our villa, Airbnb will not tell us why or how long it will take, it is going on a week and all we are getting our brief emails saying the same thing that they are investigating it and they can’t tell us anything, we are very upset, as we feel like we have been accused of some thing and convicted of it, without even knowing what it is, or with the chance to even defend ourselves . Any ideas how we can get this thing resolved we are super frustrated! We have been in the business for over seven years and I’ve never had anything like this happen. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Bryan-And-Joan0 how many listings do you have? I can see 3 that are in working order.

[Bryan-And-Joan0]

We have four listings, do you see the one that is unlisted?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Bryan-And-Joan0 strangely not. Airbnb usually greys them out so I fear they have deleted yours altogether.

As you are a superhost I do, as a matter of course, report the suspension to @Catherine-Powell in the hope that one day she will stop the guilty until proven innocent approach. I assume you haven't upset a recent guest by leaving a bad review?

[Bryan-And-Joan0]

Thank you so much for the suggestion, yes, this is very upsetting as my husband and I are retired, and we depend on the income from these properties.
we have a feeling it was one of our unfortunate nightmare. Guess that we had, we did not leave any bad reviews, and Airbnb remove their a review that they posted, these were the unfortunate people that prey on Airbnb hosts to get money or free stay. Airbnb assured us they were on our side and supported us, and then we get the deactivation notification as I mention 3 o’clock in the morning in an email with absolutely no explanation. Very frustrating. Thank you so much for your time!

[Sara-And-Rob0]

May we ask how this ended for you? We have suddenly found ourselves in the exact same situation… and are in total shock! 

[Bryan-And-Joan0]

Oh no!!                                 I am so sorry, this was an awful experience for us,  what happened was we had one of those nightmare guests that was trying everything to get money so that there stay wound be free, they heard if you report a safety issue they would un list your listing while they were investigating.

Our guests were accusing us of having a pest control company come in while during their stay and spray the entire place, which would affect their health, so I had to go to the main HOA and have them write a letter saying that this is untrue, that they did not spray our villa,.

What I recommend is gather all the information you can on the Guest that you think is behind this, and be extremely persistent with Airbnb keep calling keep emailing, I’ve worked with probably about five or six different people, after about a week they finally relisted my villa. A very frustrating experience. 
airbnb will not divulge the reason why, if it is a safety issue, we just knew what our guests were up to. I hope this helps you!

I’m sure you all are like us, and we work very hard to give the best service to our guests unfortunately, there are those guests that make your life not pleasant!

[Sara-And-Rob0]

We have contacted other hosts that had trouble with this guest and one already came back that he reported them for safety, got his money back and Airbnb refused to remove the review that hurt the host.  Two and half years later, this host is still steaming mad and answered my query in under 5 minutes.

Have a 2nd host who the guest tried to scam but failed.  He tried to use a fake police report to extort hundreds out the host directly a year ago.  

He has now refined the process and simply goes directly to Airbnb and he doesn't have to deal with the host.

What do we do now, Airbnb does not seem to care about anything we have to say these last couple of days.

Any tips on how to get this moving?  Three witnesses all reporting similar cases with one scammer strutting around like he is above the law.

[Bryan-And-Joan0]

if they don’t  side your way keep pursuing it!

[Sara-And-Rob0]

We resolved the issue when the rep returned from their weekend.  We reported the accuser after finding several other hosts who he made unbased accusations against, including fake injury reports, exaggerated claims of discomfort and other things.  The safety rep passed it on but we suspect it will go nowhere, which is normally our experience with reprimanding or penalizing guests.  B. Chesky did make a point of saying the ‘guests will be held accountable’ but the words don’t seem to be turning into deeds.  Guests, as always, can say anything, do anything and when conflicts arise, most often, Airbnb judges guests to be in the right and hosts in the wrong. This was a terrible Airbnb experience for us and we are left feeling, not for the first time, who are we in business with here!?

[Bhumika]

Hi @Bryan-And-Joan0 , 

I understand why you are upset and seems like it was totally unexpected.

I wanted to share a few Resource Center articles related to these situations: here and here.

As per the process, I believe the related teams would be actively looking into your concerns and get back to you as soon as they have reviewed the case. 

Please be assured that I will also nudge them from my side if they can provide you with some updates and reach out to you soon!

[Sara-And-Rob0]

We could use a nudge too!  Not cool the rep took action then promptly went off for their weekend without taking any action but to shut us down and tell us to wait.  The investigation doesnt even begin for about 60 hours when their back from the weekend!  We’ve been told a few times that no one but this one rep can see the case so not sure we can use the word team, though…we’re emploring your Canadianess here.

[Fred13]

I see that you have 583 superb reviews over a period of 6 years; a normal person reading your story  should ask themselves what could possibly trigger such an abrupt suspension. Meaning, what are the odds you embarked in some type of abnormal behavior against someone who just happens to get their review removed; one could only imagine why. I would venture to say the odds are about - 0.

 Yet it happens, maybe because your recent 'nightmare' guest perhaps knows how to play the game which is - make an accusation that forces Airbnb to have to investigate if anything to get revenge. After all, what do they have to loose (nothing), the host is entirely another story.

Just for fun I played with some math lately (I rounded the numbers). Airbnb in 2021 had 300,000,000 bookings / 365 days = 841,000 a day and if the guests in just 1% (or 1/100) of them makes a false incendiary accusation (take your pick, today you have many to pick from) in which Airbnb now has to investigate it comes out to: 8,410 await investigating every day.

Needless to say, you are not alone. The best of luck, you deserve it.

[Bryan-And-Joan0]

Thank you for your thoughts! Yes, it is unfortunate that there are some who know how to take  advantage of the system. My luck isn’t so good I guess! Hoping for a miracle.
Take care!

[Sara-And-Rob0]

Hi Bryan and Joan!

We are 100% in the same situation!  But with a twist…Got an email yesterday and the agent/rep said she is blocking our listing and potentially canceling all our future bookings and 10 minutes later the agent/rep left for the weekend saying she’ll get back to us im a few days!  No info about what the safety issue was! We could not believe this level of delay and lack of information!  We are 24 hours later now and have tried every avenue to get someone to look at this case and failed. We found out which guest it was and realize their profile has some reviews of them complaining and hosts replying that they were fabricating the complaints!  We are guilty until proven innocent also!  We’re curious to know how your saga ended?!