Suspended Superhost Account Due to Problem Guests that Threw a Party?

[David9313]

Hello Airbnb community.

My Airbnb superhost account was suddenly and inexplicably suspended.

On Saturday night, 9/17, guests at one of my Airbnb's threw a party.  We contacted them, spoke on the phone, and they informed us they were having a birthday party with several families for their daughter.  I informed them that we cannot allow parties of any type to happen, due to both Airbnb policies, as well as restrictions on our vacation rental permit.  They did not give any assurance that the party would stop.  In the subsequent hours, guests continued to arrive and the party grew.  We contacted Airbnb and they promptly cancelled the reservation and informed the guest to leave.  The guest packed up and left.

Problem solved, right? Wrong - this is where the problems began.

On Sunday I pulled up my calendar to see what the week looked like and noticed that any open days were blocked, and that my listing was suspended.  I opened my second listing and saw the same thing.

No one from Airbnb contacted me to inform me of any suspension.

I immediately reached out to the dedicated super host support team and they informed me that a "specialised" team was handling the matter, that they would notify said team and mark the issue as "urgent".  It is now Tuesday, 3 days removed, and after daily follow ups on my part, I have heard nothing from Airbnb.

I am now running in to open nights that would otherwise be booked, costing me thousands of dollars.  I have a mortgage to pay, and a newborn infant and family to support, and Airbnb is endangering my ability to do so.

Tagging @David6391 as I saw you had a similar struggle that was resolved perhaps with the help of @Emilie ?  If either of you, or anyone else can point me in the right direction to help me find a resolution that would be greatly appreciated.

[Helen3]

Hello @David9313 

I'm so sorry to hear this happened. I hope you're not having to claim for damages.

Did you contact the guests because your camera's showed the party happening ? If so it sounds like guests complained about your camera's and that's why you were suspended.

Airbnb are absolutely awful about suspending hosts due to false guest complaints and never bother to check you have camera's in line with their requirements before suspending hosts;

What i'm a little confused about is why you or your local cohost didn't go to the listing immediately you knew the party was happening to close it down and ensure all those not on the booking left, rather than just calling the guests and hoping for the best? I'm glad they left voluntarily after Airbnb cancelled the booking.

Go back to Airbnb and if it was a 'safety concern' because of camera's share screenshots showing you declared these in line with Airbnb's T&Cs and provide screenshots of the party remmants inside and party goers coming in.

You can also contact them on their social media ask why they are suspending a host who called guests out for having a party contrary to their T&CS.

You might also want to tighten up on your vetting procedures...what sort of questions did you ask the guests to ensure they were a good fit?

[David9313]

Thank you @Helen3 .

Fortunately, the guests did not damage the property.

You may be right that the guest complained about our cameras, however, we have not been informed of any complaints.  We have a front door camera, and disclose it's existence on our listing description.

My co-host was unable at the time to go to the property, but was able to check it out after the guests had vacated.

Good idea to contact them via social media, unfortunately I don't have much following so not sure how effective it will be, but I will try!

[Evan-And-Anja0]

What a completely ridiculous situation! So, what you have learned is not to file a party complaint as Airbnb instructs you. Because your listing will be shut down with no recourse. 

[David9313]

@Evan-And-Anja0 Yes, exactly!

I am being penalized by the platform for reporting a party that was potentially endangering my safety, and the safety of my home! 

Now it is costing me thousands of dollars and counting, and still not a word from Airbnb.

[Gillian166]

@David9313  it's almost like letting the party go ahead would have been the safer option. 

It's utterly unacceptable that some barely trained CS agent in a call centre somewhere has the power to shut down our business. 

[Meghan239]

@Gillian166 Yes! Far better off letting the party run it's course and taking the chances with the damages and risk my vacation rental permit.

100% agree, utterly unacceptable. These are our livelihoods that are being switched off with the click of a button, for no reason, and before even looking into the issue!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Gillian166or maybe it is not some CS agent, maybe it is done automatically by AI which is even more stupid

[Property2]

@David9313 @Gillian166 Those agents are not even in a call center according to this:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/Who-are-our-CS-agents-and-what-do-they-have-to-do/m-...

[Darrel0]

This has happened to me several times. It’s the most frustrating and scary thing ever. In my opinion no one should have the ability to close someone’s business for any reason but it happens regularly. 
We no longer charge guests for anything or report guests to Airbnb no matter what happens. We allow the guests to do what ever they want and pray they don’t complain, break anything, or throw a party. Using the resolution center will guarantee you a 1 star review, a deactivated account, and loss of revenue.

Guest hold all the power they can easily shut your account down with simple phone call. If they complain to Airbnb about anything the specialized team will investigate and during the investigation your account will be blocked for 20 days. In my case I had 65 units blocked so it costs me 100k every time they do that. Every reservation is scary now to be honest so I just don’t take the risk. It’s just not worth it financially to ever report a guest . I now have private insurance for damages to my home which has worked out so far. 

[John978]

My biggest issue is Airbnb has the same policy we have and we don't allow events or parties and guests break the rules and us hosts are frozen in time when Airbnb shuts off all your vacation homes from their platform and takes weeks to figure out that the guest broke the rules.  What is even worse is the ical links from feeds to other online platforms block all dates at the same time. They really need to rethink how they handle these "investigations" when a host complains about a party at one of their vacation homes and freezing every single home the host has on their platform is not a good solution... it leaves a bad taste and is not a partnership in my opinion.   They've grown so fast they don't have enough staff in their resolution center to deal with it quickly and hosts are paying the price.

[Elaine-and-Greg0]

This is such a bad business model. Right now, we are experiencing the same thing. We have had it happen before. Hundreds of fantastic guests, fantastic reviews, super host status, etc, then one bad guest comes and breaks all kinds of rules and Airbnb cancels their reservation and the police have to be called to remove them. Then Airbnb suspends my account, gives them their money back and lets them go on to do the same thing to the next host, and we lose so much time and money dealing with the situation and then getting their review removed and then getting our account back up. And Airbnb who has made us remove all cameras from the common areas of our homes, asks me... "Do you have any video for proof"???? 

[Meghan239]

Wow @David9313 .  So sorry to hear about Airbnb's unjustified suspension!

And even, worse, their continued non-response and lack of accountability.  How frustrating!  

[Meghan239]

@Brandy117 seems to have experienced a very similar issue, was that ever resolved?

[David9313]

Adding @Catherine-Powell as well as I see you have assisted in nearly identical issues.  Thank you in advance.