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.

[Bhumika]

Hey @John978 ,

We understand how worrying it must be for you.

Please be assured, that I am raising this with the concerned teams as well for further review. And if they can get back to you with any updates.

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[John978]

Thank you,  do you have my contact information or how do I provide it?  I was told my case manager is out of the office and won't be back until March 25th, today is March 21st and my account has been suspended since March 19th. 

[Bhumika]

Hi @John978 ,

I won't be needing any contact information from you.

The team is currently looking into your case. As I am just a Community Manager, we cannot promise when exactly they will reach out to you, but please be assured that your case is being looked into.

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[John978]

Messaging with the "Safety Team" mentioned the person working on my issue was off work for 5 days and I would have to wait until they are back at work.  Is that normal, my situation is waiting for an Airbnb employee to go back to work? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@John978 Yes this is very normal. Airbnb support staff seem to have way more vacations days than most people.

[John978]

What is sad is that I make even prior guests book with Airbnb who would prefer to book directly with us and now I'm figuring it all out.   I've lost a lot of trust in Airbnb which is pretty sad for all involved.   Waiting a week for my "Case Manager" to get back to work to figure out how I was suspended, even though a Superhost, follow all the rules and allowed to purchase 200 shares when they did their IPO at investor price, tells me a lot right now.  I don't know who is running the ship but they are not invested in Airbnb success nor care about long term hosts who have helped them as they helped us grow.   It is pretty strange and every support person is overseas and hard sometimes to understand.    I have to clarify exactly what they said, the apologize and say I meant what you said.  ie, I will call you back in over 30 minutes vs. I will call you back within 30 minutes.  Also, chickens crowing in the background and family talking while their Customer Support person is trying to hear me and I'm trying to hear them.   I have a list a mile long of cut off conversations because their internet voice shut off.  I have no idea who is in charge but it certainly isn't Super Hosts or the Customer Service Rep from Airbnb who verifies every detail of my account, every time I call.  At this point going to play it through and see how it ends.  People want our homes, I thought I was making my life a little simple by pushing them to Airbnb to book but I'm seeing that may have been a big mistake.  We never took payments ourself, that now seems like a huge mistake.

[Mar125]

@David9313 

it is sad to hear what you’ve experienced. 

The only thing I really found helpful is to lease to travelers only. 

Party is one thing, drug and alcohol is even worse. 

Screen guests to the bottom of you can.

[John978]

I had something similar happen to me at the beginning of the year and it took nearly a week for the suspension to be lifted.  We had recently installed 1 security camera at each of our homes facing the entry driveway as we had once in a while gotten a call from a neighbor complaining about a party and loud noise and we don't allow parties and quiet hours start at 10pm per city ordinance.

I updated all of our listings to reflect that there was  face facing the driveway and no other cameras, including in any private space .   Turns out that was the issue and I had Airbnb Support help me write it into each listing description, not just check the provided boxes in the listing description.   I'm not sure if that applies to your situation but wanted to throw that out there in case you also have a security camera.  I think all hosts should be better informed by Airbnb exactly what they need to do in their description if they choose to install a security camera and also when it will be active. 

PS. if you have exported your Airbnb ical to anywhere else, you should check those calendars as you may have issues until the suspension removed.

[James2917]

Same situation! I once strongly advocated for Airbnb and even opposed local regulations on their behalf in my city. However, after encountering their subpar customer service as a super host, my loyalty has waned. They continually tell me someone will contact me, deny me access to speak with a supervisor, and fail to respond to my emails. I won't be defending them at city council meetings anymore. The entire experience has been deeply disappointing.

[Darrel0]

I had this happen to me 3 times since I started hosting on Airbnb. I had a 65 unit apartment complex on Airbnb get unlisted by the “specialized team” for 2 weeks. All 65 units shut down because we didn’t allow a huge party to take place and the guests were mad that we stopped it. The guests called in and made false claims about us and Airbnb believed them. Airbnb then Unlisted every property on our entire account for two weeks. After the investigation was over, they explained that we did nothing wrong and that they were very sorry. Unfortunately, the damage was already done. 
We lost almost 100 thousand dollars and it almost put us out of business. We had to take a loan to pay our employees. 

The current Airbnb policy gives guests the ability to shut down a host account at any time by making faults claims. It can even be weeks after the guest checks out. 

Once a report is made, the “specialized team” temporarily unlists one or more of the host listings “prior” to the “investigation”. They also don’t require ANY evidence. If a guest calls in and claims something that violates the Airbnb terms , they will temporarily unlisted host properties, then proceed with a 5-20 day investigation.  If they don’t find anything wrong, they then reinstate your account. (No you won’t be compensated for loss of revenue) even if you did nothing wrong. 

It’s a ridiculous policy that they need to get rid of.

This also happens a lot if a guest breaks something in your house and you charge them for it. The guest sometimes will Weaponized the review system and also call and report your account.  Airbnb will temporarily shut your account down or unlist your property and you’ll get an Unjustified one star review.
 Airbnb allows this for some reason???

We stopped charging guests altogether for damages unless they do over $5000 worth of damage. Being shut down for two weeks cost around that. 

I wish Airbnb would look into this. 

[Evelyn1102]

Having the same issue!

Guest threw a party and made a huge mess! Broke a door frame in half, broken glass from beer bottles all over the house. Poured beer all over beds. Our cleaners had to mop 4 times and we blocked the house for 2 days to try to get rid of the beer smell. They set up a band in the garage. Then the guest just complained about the cameras and my account was suspended. Totally insane!