Airbnb Online Experience Declined without any information

[Mauricio471]

Hello, I just logged into my Aribnb Dashboard account to check some of my experiences and after 2 months of waiting (since may 23rd) without any email or any message from the Airbnb Experience Team, I saw that my experience was Declined without any feedback like they normally do when declining an experience. My declined experience was Giving a Virtual Tour of Orlando Theme Parks . According to the experience team message on my Dashboard I dont meet quality standards however it doesnt state which one like they used to do some months ago and no feedback of what they don't like. Im a professional Theme Parks blogger since 2015 with my own video footage and images that I've captured and created for 5 years.

Its a contrast from the experience team to decline my online tour when other experiences that offer virtual tours from Paris, Greece and even a Virtual Harry Potter Tour (which is technically the same I wanted to do but with Disney and Universal Theme Parks) got approved but mine got declined. Why was I not approved while other virtual tours of other cities are being approved. I live in Mexico, however I live between the United States and Mexico because of my Professional projects and maybe I think that because Im not 100% local to Orlando they dont want me to host an online event. With online experiences you could live in India and talk about Tequila as long as you have the expertise, qualifications and knowledge to prove it, not necessarily being a local. I really dont understand the Experience Team and how they handle these situations with people waiting months to just login to the dashboard and notice that the submission was declined without any feedback like old times.

[Robert4901]

Hi there, I applied at the same time as you and found out the same way as you.  I was sent an email on Monday/Tuesday saying it was still in the queue.  I contacted a friend who was in the same boat and he told me he'd  been given the same email address but had then logged in to discover 'Experience Declined' - no info, no explanation and no email/messaging sent to either of us to even let us know this had  happened.

I'm a professional tour guide with 6 years of experience, two Certificate of Excellence awards, multiple other award nominations and wins and 221 reviews, 197 five star, 3 four star and one three star reviews.  My online experience uses 360 degree photography, video clips and archive images from my own archive...and nothing has been explained to me.

I sat through three online meetings to get to this stage.

I'm completely confused and don't know whether to reapply and, if I do, how to do it as I don't know what let me down!   At a time when tour guides and tour companies are scrabbling to make up lost ground, I couldn't really afford months of waiting to NOT BE TOLD my application has been declined...even when it's not been seen live.  Surely an 'admin' error like this could have been pointed out and a reapplication submitted?

I'm not impressed.

[Bruce485]

Hello @Mauricio471  and @Robert4901 , Bruce485 here. 

If it can be of any consolation, I too saw my online experience (submitted on 21 May) refused today by the Powers That (airbn)Be, with no explanation given.   I too am a professional tour guide in my city, Florence, with over 300 five star reviews ( for a 4.92 rating) for my in-person experience. There can be a host of valid reasons for refusing  even to give me the benefit of a live review. My 'beef' with Airbnb is not for having been declined after two months but for the frankly unprofessional lack of communication on the part of the one or those who actually decided upon the matter. 

I will submit another, different, proposal for an online experience with the hope that it will be given a better chance.  There is no reason to believe that it won't... Here's hoping there are adults in the room. 

Stay safe.

[Robert4901]

The timing of our applications, and our rejections, has me wondering if they simply got swamped with experiences?  As Bruce says, it's not the rejection I find hard, just the lack of communication which would have informed me of an issue and what that issue was.

[Mauricio471]

I had a phone call from an Airbnb Customer Experience Agent, he told me he was surprised the vetting team did not send a Feedback Email. The only thing he told me the vetting team mentioned about my experience declined was because a "saturated market of online tours" So I assume the Team is no longer interested in approving Virtual Tours of cities. In my opinion its unfair that some best selling experiences are online tours and they are now declining these type of experiences when there are thousands of cities that could be explored virtually and concepts like theme parks.

[Robert4901]

@Mauricio471 , thanks for the extra information.  Seems like they've just over-committed.  That's great that someone called - did they do that because you'd somehow managed to get in touch with them first? I never did find a way to send a message to them.

[Ondra-and-Jakub0]

The same story here in Prague, Czech Republic.

We are the last year Airbnb best selling experience here, had the most 5star reviews, earned Airbnb sooo much money on commissions and we have been declined. Posted the experience in June 2020. 

Than we really pushed and they told us that it was a mistake to decline us, and we are approved. BUT we are on waiting list - and after about 30 emails, phone calls to USA they told us that they are missing some "new approval tool for online experiences" and it would be ready at the end of 2020.

Now new online tours are being added, no call or message from Airbnb - NOTHING .

We are super disappointed by their approach and that there is no actual email address or person where to even ask questions.

Always persuading some random guy on hotline to reconnect you somewhere.

If you had any relevant Airbnb contact we are all ears (we would even fly to the States if not COVID sh..).