Suspended Experiences

[Snehal4]

I am an Airbnb host, and my Experiences have been suspended. I have 850+ reviews on my 61 Airbnb experiences, with an average rating of 4.8+. I am not sure what to do. @Catherine-Powell 

[Manuela1121]

The self guided tour was wonderful and was perfectly described ! I would love to do another tour when possible ! Please reactivate this account and tours ! 

[Snehal4]

@Bhumika@Catherine-Powell @Airbnb Our customer Daniel sent the following email to Brian requesting for the inclusion of self-guided tours on Airbnb:

Hey Brian,

Please reactivate the self guided tours they are an incredible opportunity to meet places. I would recommend this tour to anyone.

Cheers,

Daniel

[Snehal4]

@Bhumika@Catherine-Powell @Airbnb Our customer Yiting Liang sent the following email to Brian requesting for the inclusion of self-guided tours on Airbnb:

Hi Brian,

I purchased Snehal’s self-guided tour through the Airbnb experience and found that was one of the best money spent on my trip to Joshua Tree. It made a tour guide affordable and our trip much more enjoyable. And judging from the sales quantity and reviews of his self guided tours, you’d be making a mistake by suspending him if it’s simply because it isn’t in person. I don’t see it hurting the in-person tours since this is a different experience. Also if it does hurt the in person event, that only says how replaceable those are and that maybe people don’t always prefer hanging out with strangers.

All in all, hope you can reconsider this decision and reactivate this account. Otherwise I’d be purchasing his other self guided tours outside of Airbnb next time. Not a big deal for me but you’d lose your commission 😉

Thanks,
Yiting Liang

[Snehal4]

@Bhumika@Catherine-Powell @Airbnb Our customer Jaice sent the following email to Brian requesting for the inclusion of self-guided tours on Airbnb:

I am writing to ask that Self Guided tours be Snehal be considered for reactivating in the Air BnB app. I enjoyed the ease of access for a tour to be played at my choosing while offline thanks to its downloadable content. Helpful for our flexible schedule and for losing internet connection while in nature. It’s a family friendly tour I appreciated it on our drive through the Sequoias and it brought us great info we may not have had time to read or stop at the Nature Center for. Thank you for your consideration!

[Snehal4]

@Bhumika@Catherine-Powell @Airbnb Our customer Melissa sent the following email to Brian requesting for the inclusion of self-guided tours on Airbnb:

My husband and I had never been to the Smoky Mountains before and didn’t know where to begin to see it’s beauty. Snehal’s self guided tour was just what we needed for the trip. We were able to take the tour at a self pace in the comfort of our car and with just one another. We did not have to go with a group of people which can be too much at tours and take away from really seeing what in front of you and enjoy the experience. I have recommended this self guided tour to family and friends. We have said we would do the tour again too! I hope that it can still be easily found on Airbnb as an option for future trips to the Smoky’s.
Thank you for your time.

-Melissa Menendez

Sent from my iPhone

[Snehal4]

@Bhumika @Catherine-Powell @Airbnb Our customer Magdalena sent the following email to Brian requesting for the inclusion of self-guided tours on Airbnb:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren!

Ich habe letztes Jahr die Audio-Tour von Snehal und David gebucht und ich war sehr begeistert!
Man ist super flexibel und kann sich die Zeit individuell einteilen, was wir wirklich sehr genossen haben. Die Informationen waren via Lautsprecher waren toll!
Ich hätte diese Tour nicht gefunden, wäre sie nicht auf AirBnB verfügbar, wodurch ich sehr dankbar war & ich hoffe, dass solche Touren auch zukünftig auf AirBnB verfügbar sind! 

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Magdalena Schmidbauer

[Snehal4]

@Catherine-Powell @Bhumika @Airbnb Our customer Janet sent the following email to Brian & Catherine requesting for the inclusion of self-guided tours on Airbnb:

Good Morning Brian— writing on behalf of a great experience of a self guided tour last Fall. 
This is a five star effort for experience.  The host was responsive with questions, flexible and put a lot of time and research in for this self guided tour. 

I am an Airbnb superhost in Colorado and if we had these here, I’d recommend them for my guests too!  Great experience. 

Please don’t remove or forfeit access on Airbnb platform.

Thank you for your consideration,
Janet Possehl

[Beverly230]

The platform has not been the same since all the new updates for many. I receive daily error messages 

[Shea82]

Not sure why this experience was suspended.  We just did it two days ago and it was completely wonderful.  There were no reasons at all it should have been suspended, bring this back ASAP so others can experience it too! 

[Bhumika]

Hello @Snehal4 and @David9605 ,

Welcome to the Community Center, I appreciate you sharing your concerns here with us! 

Regarding the suspension, can you please confirm if you have received an email from Airbnb about it? If so, my understanding is that – if you believe your Experience meets all Experiences standards and requirements – you can submit an appeal through a link provided in the message.

I assume you’re aware of these already, but I’m sharing here the Airbnb Standards and Requirements for everyone’s reference. 

I hope everything gets clarified for you. Experiences is such an important part of Airbnb!

PS: Please bear in mind we’re not a support or escalation channel, so we’re unable to look into specific issues ourselves. 

Bhumika

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[Snehal4]

Airbnb suspended my tours because they are self-guided and not in-person. I have 850+ reviews with 4.8 stars for my 61 Airbnb experiences. People love self-guided tours to reduce Covid risk. There is no category to list self-guided tours (only in-person or online). Any suggestions?

[Bhumika · Accepted solution]

Hi  @Snehal4 ,

Great to hear from you again. 

As per our Standards (please see here), all Experiences need to be hosted and not self-guided. Hosts may not hand guests off to 3rd party suppliers, or leave guests on their own without a Host. Hence, Hosts and Co-Hosts must personally lead their guests throughout the entirety of the Experience.

For COVID, we increased our private group booking capabilities (not mixing with strangers), limited group size (max 10), implemented other safety guidelines (ie mask requirements — but this has been lifted), and also we launched online experiences. However, this didn’t change our core definition of Experiences as “hosted by locals”.

Clearly your Experience is well-received by Guests and there’s no doubt about its demand! You’re more than welcome to keep hosting Experiences through Airbnb, but as mentioned here , Airbnb Experiences ought to be ‘fully hosted” to comply with the guidelines. 

Bhumika
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[Michelle3334]

@Bhumika@Catherine-Powell @Airbnb

I am writing on behalf of @Snehal4, hoping to request an appeal to this decision.  I very much enjoyed the self-guided nature of the tour I booked with them last fall in New Hampshire.  I would not have chosen a tour where my family would have needed to be at a specific time or place.   We enjoyed the flexibility of doing it on our time, and found the tour content to be excellent.

There will be an unfilled gap in the market, that AirBnB and top notch hosts like @Snehal4 will be missing out on, if you eliminate all self-guided experiences.  Please reconsider and continue to offer both guided and self-guided.  Thank you, Michelle G

[Shea82]

This is not a good decision on Airbnb’s part.  How many times do we rent a room or apartment and NEVER see the host?  ALL THE TIME!  This self-guided tour option is perfect for all the people like me and my boyfriend who HATE group tours. We want the local knowledge and stories without having to stick to someone else’s schedule. See a cool store we want to spend more time in?  We can!  See something that the tour mentioned (or maybe didn’t) but we want to stop and check it out?  We can! You are doing your clients a HUGE disservice by not allowing these tours to be booked.  

[Stephanie2476]

@Bhumika , you're joking, right?

It is common knowledge there is NO transparency when listings are suspended.
It is common knowledge AirBNB does not provide ANY information as to what the issue is.

Social media is FULL of host despair wondering what happened, why is it happening and why they can't reach someone, ANYONE to explain the problem because the CS reps hide behind their anonymous computer screens and say, "Sorry, we can't discuss this with you."

Honestly, I see a huge class-action lawsuit if AirBNB continues to screw with host's livelihoods without due process because these behaviors are grade-A 100% *bleep*. 

AirBNB allows guests to run rampant breaking rules and laws and they *might* get suspended. MIGHT.  A host who is a proven, long term asset receives one made up complaint from a guest and AirBNB torpedoes them.  That's called being a hypocrite.

There is a reason that AirBNB is receiving constant negative press. And it's not all from the hotel industry. AirBNB alienating their own hosts is a huge factor. Please be sure to "pass that along to the relevant team".

[Fred13]

@Stephanie2476  "I see a huge class-action lawsuit if AirBNB continues to screw with host's livelihoods.."

Making a successful living renting out your personal property and choosing Airbnb to achieve that goal (in part or exclusively) does not then constitutes a legal right that it is now their responsibility to make sure you succeed and not cause you economic harm by their decisions.

Having said that, communication is indeed important for people to understand each other. The suspension of an account does merit at the very least an honest explanation why. It is only fair.

[Bhumika]

Hello @Stephanie2476 ,

We appreciate you being vocal about concerns from fellow hosts -  we are aware that listing suspensions have been subject to broader discontent and I can assure you that this is being looked at.

Regarding this particular issue, which concerns Experiences as opposed to Listings, I have updated my response to add more context to their situation.

I spoke to the team behind Experiences, and they have mentioned that, in the above cases,a specific email has been sent out explaining the reasons for suspension and further steps which can be taken if the Host feels otherwise.

Hope this sheds some light into the specific concerns shared by David and Snehal. 

Bhumika
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[Helen3]

Hello @Stephanie2476 

Interesting you talk about CS hiding behind anonymous screens. Yet you are doing the same. You have a blank profile appearing to be neither a host nor a guest and have a photo of a bird as your profile photo. 

Having said that,  there are many issues with Airbnb suspending hosts on the say so of guests with no evidence when it's clear the guests are making retaliatory accusations because they have been caught out damaging a listing, partying or bringing more guest than are on the booking.

It always surprises me that hosts who rely on their STR business income for their livelihoods use Airbnb as their sole marketing channel. The only way Airbnb will change their policy of suspending hosts on the say so of guests is for hosts to vote with their feet and use other platforms.

[David9605]

My experiences are also suspended. My experiences received 325+ reviews, with an average rating of 4.7+. @Catherine-Powell 

[Beverly230]

I want to make sure I understand, are you saying that you are not receiving bookings or standard views either?