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.

[David9313]

They have a failing process in place and it needs to change!

No communication is inexcusable!

[Mary-Jo28]

Wow, that is horrifying. You would think that a case like yours would be so rare, but the forum is aparently filled with similar stories. Crazy that they take the most destructive action but without any sort of investigation 1st. I bet they let your already booked reservations still go? Which means it was so important that they had to suspend you, but not so important that they needed to cancel or reach out to your guests. What a joke.

[Quincy]

Hi @David9313, I'm sorry to hear that this has happened. Having read what you shared here, I could see that you have mentioned that your case is currently with someone from the team. I have notified them immediately to report about what was shared here. 

[David9313]

@Quincy I appreciate that my case might be addressed,  but do you have any insight into what is being done to fix this issue on a systemic level?

I have no confidence in how these cases are handled in the future based on how pervasive they have been and continue to be, and no improvements over time.

[Quincy]

Hi @David9313 @Evan-And-Anja0, sadly I can't comment on that as I am not part of the support team, though I do understand what you're saying here. I have, however, made sure that the right people within the team have seen the feedback on this thread.

With that said, I have received an answer from the team informing me that someone should get in touch with you shortly @David9313. 

*Edited to add: I could see that you've already been contacted by the team @David9313. 

[Evan-And-Anja0]

@Quincy this is the classic response that all of us hosts hear from Airbnb reps. "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do I will forward it to the correct team"

And then nothing gets done, and we never hear back.

It's ALWAYS someone else's job\decision. 

[Helen3]

@Evan-And-Anja0  -

@Quincy  doesn't work for Airbnb. He works for a company that manages this community.

You are correct that Airbnb's policy of suspending hosts on the say so of a guest who often has no reviews and has been accused of partying/breaking house rules/damage without investigated first to see if there is a basis for the suspension is an appalling one.

I have ask the Host Advisory Group that is meant to represent us to help and they have ignored any requests to do so.

I have asked Catherine Airbnb's Head of Hosting to let us know why this policy is in place and can it be amended - no response

Airbnb seem tone deaf to the impact it is having on host and the reputation of its brand.

I wonder how many hosts need to leave the platform before they do anything?

[David9313]

@Quincy this is an incredibly disappointing response.  There is plenty of feedback on literally over a 100 other threads with similar issue of suspend first, ask questions later.  I'm sure the "right people" have seen the feedback there, and yet here we are in the same situation on repeat.

[Daphne160]

Yes, the situation occurred to me earlier this summer and Airbnb did nothing.  I called everyday for 10 days. The guest was in the wrong and I explained it to them however; the SAFETY representative did not want to hear anything.  AND PLEASE DON'T let the guest break one of your rules or damage something.  Airbnb values the guest more than the host where we pay to be on their platform.  

[Jamie206]

They have decided to turn the entire company operations to the robot, at this point. I finally caught it red handed this week. The bot is randomly blocking the few guests that can manage to get through all the current nonsense. So, it's not a big surprise that it would randomly block a host, as well. 

Should be reading about a Airbnb layoff soon, I would imagine.

[David9313]

@Jamie206 While the very well could be using AI/bots, I don't believe I was randomly blocked. 

My complaint is that I was blocked without cause, and prior to doing any investigation.  It is a guilty until further notice approach, with no communication.

[Jamie206]

They're currently blindly following the bot. If it thinks you should be blocked, then that is good enough for Airbnb. They will not under any circumstances question the bot decisions. Nor will they do anything about it's mistakes. I just caught it blocking a perfectly legitimate guest, because it thinks they may be a partier. When it literally has no way to determine that fact. 

Very sorry that got the other side of the equation, as that is even scarier. I will add it to my list of complaints that I send to them daily. 

[Evan-And-Anja0]

@Michelle1588 

[Evan-And-Anja0]

I would love to hear from @Quincy  and @Catherine-Powell about what is being done to address this policy!

It seems they are treating each case as a mistake, instead of treating the systemic policy issue. 

[Evan-And-Anja0]

Or perhaps @Lizzie can help out with this issue. Hundreds of similar cases\stories. All dealing with the fact that they suspend before the investigation. Regardless of previous reviews, no evidence from guest, superhost status. Anything that you would assume would stop an automatic suspension before an investigation.