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.

[Stephanie365]

@Catherine-Powell The problem I am reading over and over and over again, not just here but on other social media platforms as well, is when hosts report a guest for having a party and ask them to be removed from the property, the host suddenly finds their listing suspended. 

1. Why are Hosts punished (suspended) for reporting parties that violate AirBNB policy? How is the host creating a safety risk?  They're not the ones who threw the party.

2. More importantly, why are GUESTS not being suspended or banned from the platform for violating policies? 

I had a previous guest attempt to extort me for a refund. The entire conversation where he stated multiple times "I won't leave a bad review if you refund my money" was documented on the platform. He changed his reason for leaving early - first he said noise. Then he said an odor.  Then he said "numerous other issues (unspecified)". But the fact that he was in such a hurry to leave the area that he wouldn't even meet with me to allow me to address his concerns tells me his itinerary changed and of course that would not entitle him to a refund. So he made something up to get one and punish me.  

Not only is this man still on the platform, but my review informing future hosts his behavior that violated AirBNB's Terms of Service was removed. @Sybe  got it reinstated and the guest got it removed again.

3. It is well documented that guests know they can use key words and phrases to get a host suspended with no notice. They know there are things they can say to get a refund and no one ever reaches out to the host for their side of the story.  Why are there not measures being taken to protect hosts from predatory guests?  But a guest claims an outdoor shower is a camera and *boom* the listing is suspended.

4. Why can only *some* hosts charge a security deposit, but others can't? Why are bigger operations with API software allowed to charge a security deposit to deter bad guest behavior, but the old school Mom and Pop AirBNBs are at the mercy of AirCover/Host Guarantee which is hit or miss at best? Isn't this a bit classist and discriminatory?   And why are guests who damage property and who refuse to pay still allowed to remain on the platform? Why would you even WANT these people??

[Huma0]

@Stephanie365 

Well said.

[David9313]

Hi @Catherine-Powell ,

Thank you for responding.  My account is indeed now active, but this is far from resolved.

I'm confused by your comment, "I'd also like to know more what happened here and if there any additional updates, our team will be in touch."

I am happy to lay out in further detail what happened if you are not following the fact pattern on this thread. 

And if you are unable to ascertain what happened from Airbnb team that handled (or failed to handle) this situation, then this again underscores one of the many problems with this process.

Furthermore, what of the lost booking revenue?

Please keep me updated.

David

[Evan-And-Anja0]

I assume you've heard nothing from @Catherine-Powell ? I'm extremely surprised.

[Mariann4]

Actually, @Catherine-Powell , you don't only need to up your level of transparancy. Your practice of suspending hosts without ANY information is illegal in Europe! Also the hosts (and guest, since the EU decision is about all members on Airbnb) is to be heard with reasonable deadlines BEFORE action to suspend can be made. You know: legal and human rights... And the four rights within the union.

You have been warned by Consumer Europe that that pratice needs to stop. IMMIDEATELY! Or the union and EEC will ban Airbnb from operating on European territory. So you can't suspend European listings pending investigations. That's a matter for the courts to decide. Not Airbnb. 

[Luca2573]

Hi Catherine,

my account was just canceled and I was given zero notice. It appears the changes you mentioned above never occurred. I am getting married tomorrow and the Airbnb that we booked for all of the entire wedding party was cancelled along with my Airbnb listing and all of the guests that had booked. No one reached out to me to tell me their was an issue with my account, no notice of suspension. All my friends are arriving now and we have no where to go. It feel like an absolute violation of my trust in this company.  When I call they tell me there is nothing I can do and o need to wait until they email me to tell me why they cancelled my account. 

@Evan-And-Anja0 @Sele-and-Jesse0 @Helen3 

[Lilliam--Lilly-0]

Hi @Luca2573 was your problem solved? Did you recuperate your account? I'm going through a similar issue and I'm trying to get some responses from Airbnb but no luck.

[Helen744]

@Catherine-Powell  Catherine I would be interested to see that these changes are actually happening. Maybe I have missed them ?... H

[Brittany550]

Please look

into My account as it is experiencing a similar issue. I am a superhost losing money because I reported a party that was prohibited. My neighbor called the cops as the guests loitered onto their property. My neighbor also provided the images. I didn’t do anything wrong but report it; yet, I’m the one experiencing the loss without communication. I will do anything needed of me to get my account back active. 

[John978]

@Brittany550 Okay so the critical issue is do you have cameras on your property?  If you do, you need to post that on the property (take a photo) and how many you have... also, where they are located and how they operate.  Also, on your listing, put it everywhere with as much detail as possible, that includes in your home description.

If you don't have a camera on your property, then I'm not sure why you would be suspended but they are probably doing an investigation through a special department and it could take a few weeks but it would be good to keep in touch with them, they may have a workload to go through.  Also, be respectful and I know it seems straightforward from your perspective but I believe they have to pause the listing or all your listings while going through the process.   It is an investigation and even though you are following the rules, even the ones Airbnb states in their own policy, onsite cameras must be disclosed with as much description as possible.  My guess is there was some bad hosts abusing the camera policy, it is all I can come up with and Airbnb needs to also protect themselves from a privacy lawsuit?  Just a guess and I wish Airbnb would provide better guidance to hosts with an instructional video or more "best practices" when it comes to what they want for hosts so we know we are in compliance, that would be a win-win in my opinion. 

[Brittany550]

Thank you so much John for your perspective and insight on things. Definitely gave me good scope on the status quo. I do not have cameras on my property but my neighbor has cameras on his home. My home is a townhome. From the placement of his cameras on front and back of his unit, his camera radius is able to capture 80% of my property exterior activities. This is why I feel due diligence should be provided first, ahead of the suspension, especially for superhost. I agree that they need to issue a best practice memo to protect any host from the foreseeable. Revenue is lost on both ends from the manner in which they approach their investigation. 

[Evan-And-Anja0]

Brittany550

So sorry you are dealing with this, sounds very similar to what we dealt with.  In our case, we DID have cameras and they WERE disclosed in the listing.

The suspend first, ask questions later is a terrible policy, and when we went through this Airbnb ensured us this would be fixed. Clearly it has not.

In terms of lost revenue - we were able to recover some from Airbnb based on previous average bookings that were missed due to their unwarranted suspension with no investigation.

Best of luck.

[Evan-And-Anja0]

@Catherine-Powell @Quincy @Jenny 

This is ridiculous, all three of them came on and did not address the main issue at all. Transparency is only a small part of this issue. The main issue is that you suspend accounts w\o evidence before even looking into it.

Why don't you address what is being done to change this policy? 

Would all three of you not agree that the simple way to do this is to investigate and then suspend. Or if you're going to suspend and then investigate, at least have the requirement for evidence to be brought forward? Or perhaps have many have mentioned, to take into consideration past hosting (reviews, superhost status, length of time hosting) before making an arbitrary suspension?

As a side note, there was a lot of talk from the admins about protecting the community and helping us as host and helping guests. But what they are not mentioning is that all of these awful changes to customer service are to benefit this multi-billion dollar company. Before the push to go public, those of us who have been here for more than a couple years, will remember how fantastic customer service used to be. So telling us that any of these changes are for the betterment of our community is hogwash. 

Now I don't expect Airbnb to suddenly go back to having good customer service. But a simple issue such as this could be addressed and fixed relatively easily. 

[John978]

It just happened to us, Super Hosts for over 10 years. Now suspended over a party that is prohibited by us and Airbnb.  We installed security cameras on our driveways, called Airbnb Support to know where it needs to be disclosed, they walked us through adding that information, we even posted on each property that a security camera is facing the driveway and nowhere else.   Two days ago someone who was a guest had 40-50 people walking through the gate and more cars that allowed inside the property, other cars outside the property.  What did Airbnb do, they said we missed something about notifying guests about a camera (they walked us through where to put the info and it is 1 camera at each property facing the entry gate, and we posted a sign you can't miss when guests show up) and yet suspended.  Oh and our assigned manager is out until further notice.  I guess you are loyal Super Host forever until someone in some Safety Team decides to click a button without reviewing anything.  Airbnb has put people in charge who obviously have no common sense.  

[John978]

@Evan-And-Anja0 @Sele-and-Jesse0 @Helen3

What is going on with Airbnb, I'm following every single rule, even had Airbnb help me mark the area about 1 security camera we had installed at each house facing the driveway with Airbnb many months ago.  Not only is your suspension causing no bookings but it also is messing with our iCal on other booking sites.  Some now thing we have open dates but those are Airbnb Guest Reservations. You are literally making it so Airbnb Guests may end up losing their reservations because of this half thought out plan that includes their Airbnb iCal feature.   See my comment above, this is the weirdest thing I've every experienced with Airbnb and I was allowed to buy 200 shares when it went through the IPO because of how long I've been with the company as a host...  never experienced something like this with Airbnb in the entire time I've been a host.