Reservation Canceled and future reservations blocked

[Avinash25]

Hi All

I tried to make a reservation for 9 days ahead. I got a message from Airbnb saying it was cancelled citing "last minute booking of big houses" and also restricted my account from making any reservations. 

I believe its part of the new program at Airbnb to prevent parties. But this is broken since I never party. I had a false bad review about my cleanliness recently that Airbnb might have assumed to be a party. But I never party

The most recent review from a host of a big house is extremely positive. And so are all other reviews. 

Airbnb is a way of life for me. I work remotely and book last minute. It is who I am. I dont party. 

Any help is appreciated. 

Thanks
Avinash

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Avinash25 try booking.com

[Avinash25]

I will try other ones like vrbo, booking, etc.. but this it is preposterous to restrict an account for no logical reason. I feel like this is grounds for a law suit. 

I cant even get to the customer service of the department. 

[Brian2036]

@Avinash25 

I would recommend that you start planning further ahead, although I wouldn’t really consider nine days to be “last minute.”

If a single person wanted to rent my house for the 28-day maximum at short notice I would be somewhat uneasy and would want an explanation.

An artist, recluse, or researcher who enjoys total solitude? No problem.

Someone who obviously hasn’t read the listing but is attracted by the long-term discount? Big problem.

[Debra300]

@Brian2036,

I rent my Atlanta apartment primarily long-term, and most bookings occur within two weeks of arrival.  I rationalized this to be due to the  Airbnb long-term cancelation policy which allows guests a 48 hour cancelation period.  After that, a cancelation requires payment of the first 28-30 days.  Before booking, guests are waiting until they are fairly certain that their travel plans will not change to avoid what could be a costly penalty. 

[Brian2036]

@Debra300 

Yes, I’m actually more comfortable with 2 weeks notice than with 6 months. A lot can happen in six months.

We have had people who liked it so much they said, “We’re definitely going to do this again next year!”

By next year they had forgotten why they liked it so much and canceled without much notice.

This often happens with popular dates like Christmas and Thanksgiving, so we no longer accept reservations more than six months in advance and I’m wondering if it would be better to make it three months.

[Debra300]

@Brian2036,

Since we usually accept predominantly long-term stays for the apartment, we have the booking window set to 9 months.  A reservation that far in the future will still have the same 48 hour cancellation period.  If we are on-site, we may reduce the minimum stay to 2 nights to fill gaps in the calendar.  This is because we don't charge a separate cleaning fee, and would do the cleaning ourselves.  Otherwise, we need longer stays to cover the cost of the cleaner.

@Avinash25,

Good luck with pursuing a lawsuit.  It was highly publicized when Airbnb introduced the party-ban in August 2020: https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-announces-global-party-ban/.  Those who didn't agree with policy had the choice not to continue using the platform.  However, your profile shows that you've had six reviews for stays since the implementation of the part-ban.  Two of the review occurred happened after the May 2021 Airbnb announced that the policy would be extended through at least this summer:

https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-announces-extension-of-party-ban-through-end-of-summer/

[Avinash25]

The thing is I am not having parties. I have never had parties ever nor do I ever plan to. I am what you would call a "Hermit" if I wasn't working. I live only that way. In solitude. 

I like living in big spaces and I book whole house/apartment for those reasons. Airbnb has wrongly flagged me. 

My whole point is this. 

I have had 0 parties. I will never ever have parties. I am a solo professional. I won't go to a party even if some one were to pay me a lot of money to go to. Airbnb also has my history. I am now blocked from making any reservations.

Their customer service is appalling. I cannot talk to an agent about this. 

I can tell you this. If there was some competitor close to Airbnb in terms of penetration of peer-peer rentals, Airbnb would be in big trouble. 

Anyways, I like the huge options Airbnb has at this point of time compared to Vrbo and just want my account restored since once can see it was a false positive.  

[Stephanie2437]

In my situation= sudden death of a family member.  The timing  was less than the algorithm accepted. I reached out to the host and they gave an exception....the logarithm still blocked the booking.  We spook with an Airbnb rep...who was extremely sympathetic but couldn't give a viable workaround.  I understand why they do it but it can't be this stringent!  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Stephanie2437 the work around is for the host to change the listing to be a private room. You then book it and then the host flips it back to entire home.

[Sarah977]

@Avinash25  Algorithms don't have any way of taking into account that you personally may not be a partier. In this case, they simply identify the factors involved in the majority of cases where parties and resultant house trashings took place. Any company has the right to do such things, it isn't grounds for a lawsuit.

It's similar to car insurance companies charging higher premiums for clients who are in a high risk group for accidents, like young males. A 22 year old male may be a super careful driver, but he's still going to be charged the rate that the insurer uses for that demographic.

It is definitely frustrating for a responsible, non-partying guest to not be allowed to book, just because they fell into Airbnb's party algorithm identifier.

One thing you can do, if it works for you, is to book private room or private suite listings. It is the entire apartment or house bookings that fall under this algorithm.

[Avinash25]

Yes. I know the algorithm falsely identified. I am an engineer myself and I work with highly sophisticated technology.. This is not totally acceptable and might be grounds for lawsuit

Imagine if FBI or similar institution had a similar algorithm to identify criminals and it resulted in as many false positives as this one.

What's more the problem is that one cannot discuss the issue I cannot get hold of an agent associated with this department 

So I am at the mercy of an organization which has my business for 4-5 years and my dependency on the system. 

All these are grounds for lawsuit