Post by High Priestess on Dec 1, 2015 1:59:41 GMT
I just saw this post on the new AIrbnb groups, in the General HOsting section:
community.airbnb.com/t5/General-Hosting/LISTING-REMOVED/td-p/4646
community.airbnb.com/t5/General-Hosting/LISTING-REMOVED/m-p/7977#U7977
posted Nov 26 2015
LISTING REMOVED
Hola,
I have received an email from Airbnb Customer Experience telling me the they are going to remove one of my four listings because I'm not delivering the kind of hospitallity experience to my guest.
I’m in shock ! There are a lot of work and effort behind this listing and I have never received a complaint about it….NEVER !!
Actually my rating from guest are great:
Last 3 ratings were each 5 stars. Overall, I’ve received 5 stars 86%of the time. On average, hosts near me get 5 stars 57% of the time.
My current guests are happy in my apartment and they are enjoying it.
Has somebody has some similar experience ??
All the best !!
Peter
Queenie & Ted
Glastonbury, Connecticut, United States
You should contact airbnb immediately and confirm that the email came from them. If it did, have customer service validate the numbers you're seeing on your dashboard for performance. I once received a notice similar to this and it was a glitch at Airbnb that the developers were not aware of. Seems like you definitely received this message in error! Best way to contact airbnb is to tweet them at @airbnbhelp
Carrie
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
I got a similar message on my dashboard a week or two ago. I called Airbnb right away and the CS agent confirmed that it was an error on their part, and that my listing is in great shape. Call Customer Service.
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Thank you Queenie & Ted for your advise but I don't have tweeter and the Customer Service doen't know anything. I don't know what can I do ?
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Thank you carrie for sharing your especience. I hope my case will be similar that yours but I called to CS and they don't know anything in good way or in bas way... nothing. I'm very worried about it !
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
I called CS the 25th, two days and I don't have news !!
Eileen
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
You should forward the email to the security team or, if you can't forward it, copy and paste it to the security centre. It is either an Airbnb glitch or else some sort of scam. Don't be fobbed off by someone on the phone saying they know nothing about it. It's their job to investigate and get it sorted out. You pay them a fee to handle your bookings and they need clear up the confusion. Email them straightaway and demand action!
Ana & Mark
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Dear Peter,
I'm experiencing the same problem. I received an email informing me that they I have violated the TOS numerious of times and that they will cancel my account. I'm also in shock because I have not violated any of the rules. The only thing I can think about that is not correct is that I don't have a license number. But if that is the reason than they can close 80% of all listings in Barcelona.
I have called customer service numerious of times and they have been totally useless. They say that they will forward my complaint to the department in charge but I have only received 3 times the same standard email saying that they don't need to give me an explanation and that the decision is irrevocable.
I cannot believe that a company like Airbnb would treat their customers like that. I have good reviews and my apartment was completely renovated and looks so much better than many of the crap listings in Barcelona. I spend so much time in corresponding with guests.
So if they feel they need to delete a very successful listing, so be it. However I am very angry on how they treat you and they cannot spend 5 minutes in just giving you the reson for cancelling it.
BTW, the email I received is exactly the same as yours, with the end date of 8 December 2015.
Kind regards,
Ana
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Hi Ana&Mark,
Yes, this is very upsetting... I can't imagine why they are doing this w/o any explanation.
What are you going to do ?
What can we do ?
It's so unfair and overbearing !!!
All the Best,
Peter
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Hi Eileen,
Thant you so much for your response.
But what can I do I don't have any email of security team.
.... something fishy is going on !!!!!!
All the Best,
Peter
Queenie and Ted:
Here are the phone numbers for Airbnb customer service by country. Since December 8 is very soon, I would suggest you both ask for a manager to review your listing. Tell them that you are just trying to determine if the message is from them or is it a fraudulent site?
Germany+49 30 30 80 83 80
United States+1-415-800-5959
+1-855-424-7262 FREE (toll-free)
Argentina+54 11 53 52 78 88
Australia+61 2 8520 3333
Austria+43 72 08 83 800
Brazil+55 21 3958-5800
Chile+56229380777
China+86 10 5904 5310
400 890 0309 (shared-cost)
Denmark+45 89 88 20 00
France+33 1 84 88 40 00
Greece+30 211 1989888
Hong Kong+852 5808 8888
Ireland+353 1 697 1831
Israel+972 3 939 9977
Italy+39-06-99366533
Japan+81 3 4580 0999
+81 800 100 1008 (toll-free)
Mexico+52 55 41 70 43 33
Netherlands+31 20 52 22 333
New Zealand+64 4 4880 888
Norway+47 21 61 16 88
Peru+51 1 7089777
Poland+48 22 30 72 000
Portugal+351 30 880 3888
Puerto Rico+1 787 919-0880
Russia+74954658090
88003017104 (toll-free)
South Korea+82 2 6022 2499
+82 808 220 230 (toll-free)
Spain+34 91 123 45 67
Sweden+46 844 68 12 34
Switzerland+41 43 50 84 900
United Kingdom+44 203 318 1111
Posted an hour ago
Options
0
Bridget:
Please keep us informed about how these resolve.
It would seem that professional conduct would require at least a reason - non-compliance with local laws, say, or payments outside the system or some other dire violation.
Pretty unsettling to all hosts that they can just delist without any conversation, especially if there have been known error delist messages sent out!
Robert:
Ana & Mark, I saw your listing, its nice! But your photos are aweful. Why don't you use airbnb free photographer service? With better photos you can manage your listing way better!
Peter:
Thank you !!!
I called but the answer was no answer !!! They (CS) don't have any idea wha'ts is happening... I can't believed !
Best Regards Queenie&Ted,
Peter:
Oh my gosh !!! Really! they were made by a profesional photografer that Airbnb sent to me !!!!!!!
Thank you Bridget and Mark for your support !!!
Robert:
Your photos are ok, I was telling it to Ana & Mark.
I am sorry for your situation, there is nothing really wrong with your listing, it seems brilliant!
Peter:
Okay !!!
Yes, it is !
Evelyn
I'm sorry you're all going through this situation. In the meantime, copy all your reviews. One screen grab per review included the photo and name of the guest. You need to save this information for any future use.
We're having the same situation here in NY.
Peter:
Hey Evelyn,
It's a very good idea...
Thanks,
Peter
Mary:
Maybe someone trying to hack into hosts to shut them down as hotels hate us
similar problems with Uber here in London
Abby:
any further news??
Jan En Maayke
Peter, i have the same message for my listing in Amsterdam, end date 23th of December.
They never respond to my emails, i am a superhost with 91% 5 stars, i,m in shock as well.
Is your listing still active?
The ruined my day with this kind of emails.
Greetings,
Jan
Lizzie
Online Community Manager
London, England, United Kingdom
Hello Everyone,
Just to introduce myself, for those of you who don't know me, I look after the online community for the English speaking area of the Community Center, it is good to meet you all.
I am really sorry to read your thread and hear your level of uncertainty. I have to admit I am unfamiliar with this area, but I will see if I can gather a little more information on this which might be able to help you or at least provide you some clarity. As a starting point can I just check what email address you are receiving the messages from?
Thanks
Steven:
Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain
I received the same email roughly one week ago.
"Airbnb guests enjoy staying in local homes and living authentic travel experiences.
Unfortunately, our systems have shown that you are not delivering the kind of hospitality experience our guests are looking for. In line with our Terms of Service, your listing
will be removed from our platform on December 8, 2015.
Please understand that this determination was not made due to a single incident, but an accumulation of circumstances that do not meet our standards and that have happened over time."
I have 100% 5 star reviews and am two weeks away from becoming a Superhost, so this seems to make little sense. My listing is in Barcelona. I contacted airbnb and was first told to ignore the message as it had been sent by a non-airbnb email address (automated@e.airbnb.com), only to be told one day later that he had made a mistake and it was in fact a genuine airbnb address and that he would continue to look into it. I've since heard nothing and my listing is now inactive... :-(
Jan En Maayke
Hi,
Thanks for looking into it! I had the email also from automated@e.airbnb.com
Greetings,
Jan
Mirjam
Today we got two hosts with similair messages about their account going to be removed on our FaceBook page Airbnb Hosts in Amsterdam and one on our Airbnb Group Hospitality in Amsterdam. Airbnb Holland is looking at it .
Steven
That's what I was told as well, but then they realised their mistake and told me it WAS an official airbnb email address...
PEter:
Hi,
Airbnb removed my listing on December 8th.
Regards,
Peter
Mirjam
Hi Lizzy, a lot of confusion here, because in www.airbnb.com/help/article/971/how-do-i-know-if-an-email-is-really-from-airbnb we all read :
You can tell if an email is really from Airbnb by looking at what comes after the @ symbol. All official Airbnb emails will come from an address that ends in:
@airbnb.com
@airbnbmail.com
e .airbnb.com
@host.airbnb.com
@guest.airbnb.com
as you see,e .airbnb.com is still mentioned as a safe sender! The affected hosts got emails from this address!
Steven
I really fail to see why this is such a difficult problem to resolve... Can't someone here who is representing Airbnb make some phone calls/send some emails to get to the bottom of this? With the holiday season coming up many of us were counting on Airbnb to rent out our places. I don't know about the rest of you but (after many years of loyal and happy use) I'm already looking into alternatives to Airbnb...
Could you at least let us know whether anything is being done to resolve this situation?
Anne Marion
Hello Peter,
We have the same problem in Amsterdam now (probably a hackingproblem). Several superhost in this city received the same email as you did yesterday. I have contacted the helpservice of airbnb and forwarded the message also to the security service of airbnb. In the late evening I have called a helpdesk here in Amsterdam and he was collecting all the complains on this matter. Hopefully they will solve this problem and contact me and all other superhost to explain to us what happened. Did airbnb solve the problem in Barcelona?
Kind regards, Anne Marion from Amsterdam
Anne Marion
Hello Lizzie,
I have received the same email from the same email address as Steven did. But I life in Amsterdam. I'm also a superhost and I do not want to lose my listing.
Please can you solve this problem? I think airbnb has been hacked!
Kind regards, Anne Marion
-----------
Steven:
My listing is in Barcelona and I'm still unlisted. Since the 8th of December now...
Anne Marion
Hello Peter,
We have the same problem here in Amsterdam now. What is the status of your listing now, is it deactivated or still working?
Kind regards, Anne Marion
Milu
Sorry to jump in so late, and my apologies if I've missed a post that already said this (just read the replies a bit quickly), but this is the same situation that is happening in New York, and it's happening to multi-listings hosts. I am also a multi-listing host so I am very concerned about this situation and am following it closely. In my area this type of short term rental is not an issue so there is no politician (yet) looking to make noise about this.
The reason that your listing is being shut down is because you live in a city with strict laws preventing this type of rental, and Airbnb is shutting down listings rather then have to hand over your info/data to city council (or the equivelent) when they request it, as they will. Look at New York city for an example of what is happening. Tons of hosts are being shut down in New York, because it's a witch hunt. Politicians are going after hosts hard here, and levying big fines to hosts, and sometimes not the host, but their landlords. Airbnb then gets the bad press, and it goes around in a circle.
So the "inauthentic" experience is probably because it's a listing where you do not live, meaning it's probably not a legal situation in your city. Anyhow, just my opinion as to what's happening, as it's exactly the same situation as what has happened to a lot of hosts in New York.
Juliet
How do you call airbnb customer service. I can't find a number anyehere and I want to delist my house Thanks
Juliet
Posted on a month ago
Options
0
Milu
you can de-list your house by going into your dashboard --> manage listing --> pricing, listing details there is a little box at the bottom that says "listed/unlisted". Just chose Unlisted.
Susan
My listing has also been removed despite my excellent reviews. I have written to Airbnb customer service at least ten times but they are completely ignoring my emails. I have no idea what I have done to deserve this and feel a company with the standing and reputation of Airbnb should at least provide some indication of what motivated them to make this decision. I rely on this income for the survival of me and my kids and am in complete despair. Is there anything we can do?
Monica
If this is related to municipal laws requiring permits to operate guest houses, hotels and b&bs then the least that airbnb can do is be honest with the hosts and give them the proprer reason for the decision to shut down listings. I have heard that airbnb has received demands from municipalities to hand over records containing the names and addresses of hosts operating airbnb listings. It is happening in Quebec, Canada - where the "Tourist Police" are out scouting for illegal airbnb listings. This is why I now have a proper legal license. It will come to that so my suggestion is that if you are hosting in an area that you know is on the witch hunt for airbnb listings, get legal...! You need a permit from your municipality, liability insurance, yearly inspections and you need to pay lodging tax and inspection fees.
Susan
Here where I live in Barcelona they have not issued any licences for tourist apartments for almost ten years now!! Plus my apartment was actually a self-contained space inside my own apartment where I live with my children. However, since the only thing we share is the front door key, Airbnb customer service themselves thought I should list it as an entire apartment as opposed to a room. I even changed my listing to a room a few weeks ago just to avoid the risk of having my listing removed, but they still went ahead and eliminated it. I have done absolutely nothing wrong, and have tried desperately to explain this to Airbnb, but it looks like my emails may be going straight into spam. Could anyone send me a mailing address and fax number of Airbnb San Francisco head office? From here in Europe I can only get as far as an address in Ireland, and they are not responding either.
Ritsuko
Hi Susan,
Have you tried calling your local support phone number?
Have you tried communicating with AirBNB management and with AirBNB Support via their Twitter Accounts?
Susan
The customer service at local support phone numbers say they don't have any informtion and will ask the quality control department to contact me, but they never do. Do you think it is possible to get a response from Airbnb management or Airbnb support via twitter accounts? If so, I would be interested to know how to do this?
Julia
Peter,
It would appear that your listings are still live - would you caare to tell us the outcome of all this?
Jessa
Yeah what is the outcome? So this seems to affect hosts in Barca and in Amsterdam? Ams city laws only allow a person to rent out 60 days/year - so it could be that law enforcement is going after hosts there too. Either way what an awful response from airbnb - as if you're a bad host, the least they could do (aside from firmly fighting back city laws) is give a good answer. Trying local numbers should do the trick, there is a Dutch number and I guess there is a Spanish one too?
Alejandro
Hi @sergi, I found your profile in another conversation.
You said you are "Online Community Manager from the Spanish Airbnb Community."
Can you give us some response about this conversation subject?
Your colleague lizzie also posted two weeks ago, but she didn't say anything about it, and since it's been a while from the beginning of this issue, its very worrying that you still haven't anything to say.
It's been weeks for us with this problem and nobody is taking any responsability, not a single answer about what's going on here.
I also received the same email everybody is talking about here, none of us has received any explanation, none of us has any idea why this happened.
Can you help us?
Regards,
Alejandro.
Deborah
I wonder does this have anything to do with what you folks in Barcelona are experiencing about your listings being removed:
www.thelocal.es/20151222/barcelona-city-hall-fines-airbnb
And I wonder does this have anything to do with the same problems experienced by some hosts in Amsterdam?
www.nltimes.nl/2015/10/28/court-upholds-e24000-fine-on-amsterdam-airbnb-landlord/
I know very little about regulations for hosting in countries in Europe, but I just found those articles when doing a Google Search on these areas. And the Barcelona article is recent.
Julia
As always, thank you for the research Deborah. Just wondering how long before London councils implement this.
However, Airbnb surely has a duty to inform these hosts of the reason for their listings being de-activated. It must feel awful when you have worked hard to give guests a great experience in your home!
Shoddy treatment of people who have made a lot of money for Airbnb. Disgraceful treatment actually.
Sergi
Hi @alejandro
I'm afraid I can't help you more than Lizzie.
I am really sorry to read your level of uncertainty and I would like to be more usefull but we personally have no more information on this at the moment.
Regards.
Rene
same here, my listing is removed. I just can not understand Airbnb handles their superhosts like this
Out of the blue Airbnb blocked my listing by sending me a very general email, with no specific reason. Since the email said I was not giving my guests an authentic and local expierience I regarded the email as being spam. It turned out different.
I tried contacting Airbnb to find out what happened, but for weeks in bump into walls. The help desk can not give me information about what happened and they can only tell me they forwarded my request to the right department, as an urgent matter. I have to wait for their answer, no one seems to be able to contact this department. And since a few weeks no one came with an answer so far.
Are there other hosts with the same experience? I am based in Amsterdam and was told that I am not the only host this happens to at the moment. Help would be very nice, since this is a very uncertain and stressful period.
Thank you,
Rene
Hello Rene,
There is a whole group of (super)hosts in Amsterdam who lost there listing without any reason. They are communicating with each other trough facebook Airbnb Host Amsterdam. Good luck!
Anne Marion
Rene
Hi Anne Marion,
Thanks for letting me know!
I am not on facebook myself, but I will ask my girlfriend Wendy to have a look.
I noticed the same happened to you. Did you also get no response from airbnb yet?
Best, rene
Anne Marion
Hello Rene,
We all had no response from Airbnb. I called and emailed several times but they couldn't help me or they forward my email to a so called qualityteam. After a few days I gave up. According to the guests and airbnb I am a superhost, but I was treated as I was a bandit. I'm very disappointed in the service Airbnb towards their hosts, but unfortunately I still have to use them to keep my b&b running.
Some hosts are going to fight this. You can also find them on fb.
Good luck!
Anne Marion
Monica
If you are not the only one and listings are being removed from your area then there is a lot less competition and you can try listing on other sites. After hosting only three years, legally, about half of my revenue is from airbnb, the other from other sites and locals. Airbnb was a good way to start up, but now I am advertising, handing out business cards and I am listed with the provincial tourist bureau.
Mathew
Well, now I'm feeling more confident about moving somewhere cheaper so I don't need to host anymore...
Deborah
@anne Marion and rene
I just came across online newspaper article today, which may shed some light on what is going on in Amsterdam ( and possibly, Barcelona as well??):
www.nltimes.nl/2016/01/13/airbnb-drops-amsterdam-properties-for-violating-hotel-laws/
Excerpt from the article:
"In December Airbnb removed at least 170 Amsterdam accommodations from the site because they do not comply to the company’s rules, the Volkskrant reports after speaking to individuals who rent out their homes on Airbnb.
According to the newspaper, the owners of the 170 Amsterdam accommodations received an email from Airbnb early in December stating that their ad would be removed by December 23rd. The reason in the email was that those accommodations do not provide “the authentic travel experiences that Airbnb guests look for.”
The company did not respond with exact figures in the Volkskrant’s article, but a spokesperson for the Amsterdam municipality did say that the removed accommodations involved “apartments which clearly act as illegal hotels in the eyes of Airbnb.”
Anne Marion
Unfortunately the article in yesterdays newspaper was not accurate. I have contactad the writer of the aricle and told her that there is a group of hosts who are running a registed B&B and following the rules. I have contacted the municipality and asked them if there where any complains in neighbourhood. They said that there aren't any and my registed B&B isn't a illegal hotel according to the municipality. I have two listings of two rooms in one house, one of them has been removed by Airbnb for no reason.....I think that is very strange....
However the host mentioned in the article rented his house for more then 60 days per year and that is illegal if you have not a B&B.
Rene
Hi Anne Marion,
I was also not very happy with the article. Airbnb came out quite positive and nothing was said about that Airbnb does not contact the hosts to find out their specific situation. Like in your case. If they would have phoned you or if it was possible to contact someone from Airbnb, you could have discussed your sitiuation and let them know that you are legal.
Dania
Hi peter, did your listing get removed? Mine did, for no reason so I was searching to see if anything like this had happened to anyone else... No one will tell me why at airbnb, and it was a 5 star listing with raving reviews!
Thomas And Chaja
I have exactly the same problem. Trying to find answers since the 11th of December. Still nothing. Customer service always forwards to the quality team, but never hear back. My listing is 4 and a half stars, more than 150 good reviews, no bad ones. I'm a registered B&B with the municipality of Amsterdam and I pay taxes over the income generated. I'm absolutly clueless as to why my listing was taken down. I hope somebody can shed some light on the situation.
And, rene and @anne Marion, where can I find the conversation between the Amsterdam hosts on Facebook excactly?
Anyway I think it might be a good idea to join forces and fight this unjust together.
Kind regards,
Thomas
Kelly
rene
I agree - Airbnb should have at least notify the hosts about the situation.
Thomas
I got the same email, except in London. I can't figure out what the reason could be.
I've spoken to customer service twice today. The guy who I spoke to knew that this was happening to a lot of people. and said he would pass it on, but it seemed like he genuinely didn't know why it was happening. He said, "I'm seeing this happening to people with great reviews, so it's not a quality thing".
He said it was for real, though.
Has ANYONE got any CONCRETE answers about what is going on?
Can I relist the place under a different title or name, say if it is a different part of the house?
I live in my place, it is five bedrooms and I let out the other 4 as one unit. (I used to live with 4 friends.)
Julia
community.airbnb.com/t5/General-Hosting/De-Listing-without-explanation/m-p/24099#M6215
Maxine
This is really worrying. It appears not to be a hacker/spam but Airbnb genuinely de-listing without being transparent about why. Instead emails suggest that the host is not suitable to the 'guest experience sought' irrespective of those hosts - some with superhost status - having 4 and 5 star reviews and happy guests, no complaints reported.
It has caused mass confusion.
Airbnb need to give a clear communication to all hosts - What is considered to be an illegal listing - e.g is it
1. Entire apartment / house where host doesn't live there as their primary residence
2. Hosts that rent a room or own home or 2nd home on airbnb for more than 90 days -
3. Hosts in Cities / towns where their Councils set the rules and prohibit homeowners from renting their properties when they are not present, such as going on holiday and renting out whilst away
4. Hosts with more than one property listing
5. Commercial hosts with rental property portfolios
6. Commercial single BnB's
7. Realtor Estate Agents
8. Homes that do not meet health and safety rules (smoke alarms etc)
9. Homes and rooms rented in towns and Cities that require them to have a license
10. Anything else
Whatever the reasos are Hosts worldwide need to know
The obtuse emails being sent to hosts telling them they are being de-listed as they do not meet the standards expected by guests and then refusing to offer any real explanation or means to overturn the delisting decision by advising the host what the resason is and how they can make changes - is just unfair, distressing and disrespectful to hosts
I rely on my airbnb income and whilst this has not happened to me, I would be horrified if it did, particularly if I didn't know why and they wouldn't tell me.
I do own my own home and have a floor I rent out on airbnb with it's own street entrance, set up as an entire self-contained apartment but it remains part of the main house via an interconnecting staircase and door, where I live on the upper two floors.
I had a very busy year (until we hit Dec/Jan) and may well have had total bookings nudging or just exceeding 90 days - does that put me over the limit? When was this 90 day limit set and where can I find communication that details that limit? Is it a 90 day April to 6th April tax year limit or a January to 31st December limit.
Where is lizzie the UK Airbnb Community Manager - we need an explanation and assurances urgently.
Pietro And His Friends!
Hello,
I've received this email too and as well I've tried both to answer them and to call the customer service, but all I get is a bouncing wall.
it is clearly a mistake but what should I do?
No answer from the customer service
No answer from the email, beside the "it's not discussable"
but it's clearly a mistake, as no complaints and 78% of reviews 5 stars (and all the other 4 stars!)
I'm trying to flood them of request alerting all my future guests of the problem and pushing my future guest to call Airbnb, but isn't there a more fair solution?
Maxine
@pietro And His Friends!
Nobody seems to know amongst hosts affected - and airbnb appear to have entered into a wall of silence. Not even the community manager lizzie (UK) is responding even when dozens of London hosts including superhosts are affected.
No response to emails and only standard emails sent to inform a host they are being de-listed - and the text suggests the host is providing a poor service and guests have complained. That's not the case and extremely unfair to hosts.
As my note above and others posted by some trying to figure it out, it may all be related to certain cities 'laws' concerning renting rooms out as a business from properties that are not the owners primary residence. However, a number of hosts have said the property listing is their primary residence, and they do live there. So clearly errors can occur but airbnb seems unwilling to listen or respond or correct an error and instead cuts hosts off at the knees, kills their income, and refuses to engage.
If airbnb ever bothered to read and analyse posts they'd note that top of the list of disatisfaction from hosts is their failure to respond to hosts and failure to be clear in their communications on such important matters. It feels like they just don't care.
I'm not affected at the moment but I am significantly worried that it could happen to me without reason as much as anyone else - and if it did it would severly affect me. Many others must be feeling like that also.
I don't think that the Customer service teams know anything more than hosts at the moment - but from the number of posts about the subject and hosts affected across the world, it seems like it is a general 'cull' taking place.
It may be that they are only going to be permitted by law to allow 'home share' with host present, and cull all the 'entire apartment/house' listings. Mine is listed as such right now, but I live in the upper floors of my house and I am present, it is my primary home (only home) and my guests have their own space on the lower floor.
I feel so anxious. I wish they would just tell us what is going on.
Pietro and His Friends:
There are info I found:
hosts who get their account shutted down:
www.airhostsforum.com/t/airbnb-closed-your-account-now-what/1488
a superhost, very famous in thailand and even invited to airbnb conference who had his account shutted down
medium.com/airbnb-superhosting/airbnb-why-did-you-terminate-my-account-an-open-letter-to-air...
The general idea is that airbnb is closing here and there some accounts/listings in order to show some numbers to the local authorities (who are against this flourishing market of Airbnb becaus it infringes Hotel's businesses).
And to do so, they start closing accounts/listings to the hosts who got more listings/revenues. It's a small sacrifice in Airbnb's overall system, paid to avoid finishing like Uber (having authorities fully against them).
Our problem in this case is that we hosts are the sacrificial lamb.
There is no solution to this problem. Nor the will from Airbnb to give one,as it is their own purpose to shut down these accounts.
For people like me who created an entire business on it and spent years in a raising quality of services provided it's a killing news.
HOW TO MITIGATE THE RISK THAT IT HAPPENS:
Multiply your airbnb accounts and spread all of your listings between them
You can also automatically sync calendars using import/export functionalities.
List yourself on other platforms too (flipkey, wimdu, vrbo, etc.) to mitigate this risk.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU'VE BEEN HITTEN
Nothing, at the moment. Me, personally am going to create other accounts and to create new listings (that therefore will not be disactived soon) under the first account, so I hope I will mantain my 1,500+ 5 stars reviews.
And I will put in action all the "mitigate" actions, by the way.
Bad news, guys.
Pietro and His Friends
To all of us involved in this discussion:
peter, @thomas, kelly, rene, @anne Marion, @thomas And Chaja, julia, maxine , monica , @mathew , deborah , @dania
I have a clear idea of which is the reason why Airbnb is shutting us down, but I need to collect all our figures to check it out.
Please write me a private mail message to
airbnbdroppedme@doyoubnb.com
and I will write you privately.
If needed, let's create also a facebook page and/or anything else. This blog has too less visibility, and is not properly organized. Wheras this matter should be as much as public and widely spread.
Casssandra
@pietro And His Friends! Just sent you an email as well. I think its a great idea to get as many of us to coordinate as possible. Thanks for your efforts on this!
Cassandra
Lizzie
Online Community Manager
Hello @pietro And His Friends!
Good to meet you. I am really sorry, but for safety reasons I don't recommend including any of your personal details in your posts, as it is publically visible, I have therefore removed your email address. I hope you understand my reasons around having to remove this.
Thanks so much, Lizzie
Not sure where to start...take at look at the Community Help Guides in the 'Getting Started' board.
Robin
maxine God , it's a guessing game! See maybe I am fortunate in that I got local government 'occupancy' (which means it conforms to the building code) before I listed, and I list as a private room rather than the self contained cottage that it is. There is quite a stretch of garden between the cottage and the main house....and there is no way a guest will ever run into a stranger on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night but.....council told me to list it this way to keep within the regulations......so, that's what I have done!!!
Possibly a lot of hosts have put local government on the 'back burner' and you can't do that....You have to work with local authorities, they are not fools and they do have the power to stop the Airbnb scenario! Possibly that is why a lot of hosts are being shown the door....their listing contravenes local government regs. I just wish we new what was behind this Maxine!!!
Getting a bit off the thread, I bet you would kill for our weather at the moment Maxine....today was another 'century' day! It's been the hottest summer on record over here, which we are quite happy about really. In my working life I was an air conditioning contractor so, it stands to reason I would have the best air conditioned plot on the block!! Walking into the cottage, even on a 44c (109f) day that cottage is a lovely 20c...it's just like walking into a bottle shop carton room!!!....Oh no, hang on, you wouldn't know what that's like in England....you drink hot beer! Never mind, it is seriously cold!....Cheers.....Rob
Pietro And His Friends!
Hello Lizzie,
my pleasure to be in contact with you.
However, everybody here feel that my email address has been removed because we were creating a group of "banned host without any reason" who could potentially harm your wage provider, AirBnb.
However, let me write that it happened to move too slowly. Data have been collected, the picture is clear. And we're contacting the press with our data.
It's really sad that we, most important hosts, who provided a lot of effort in Airbnb and contributed to its growth now have to defend against Airbnb itself.
Maxine
lizzie - this same topic has appeared in several community areas and is clearly causing some concern amongst hosts - both those immediately affected who have recieved a de-list email, as well as those of us who haven't but are concerned about whether we could be next, and why.
Some firm gudielines from airbnb that set out what may give rise to a de-list notice, would be very helpful.
Are you able to respond to assistance request for help on this matter?
Best regards, Maxine
Maxine:
Thanks for sharing Pietro. The account from kelly the thailand superhost was so very dignified yet distressing to read. He echos what most hosts would feel if treated so very badly.
If a host breached the rules that's one thing and sympathy might be undeserved but it is airbnb who have changed the rules or at best reacted to changes in local bi-laws and poor press regarding the threat to affordable housing.
We can all understand such business pressures that threaten the continuance and growth of the business. However, treating affected hosts in such a shoddy manner is simply inexcusable.
Being ignored and disespected is humiliating - the worse feeling ever, we are human beings not emotionless robots.
I guess the message from airbnb to all hosts is 'suck it up' and go away. Nice one.
Nothing anyone of us either individually or collective can do about it.
Lizzie
Hello maxine,
Thanks for tagging me into this thread, I am sorry for my delay in getting back to you.
I am very sorry to read of your worry here, I wish I could be of more help but unfortunately I don't have any information on this at the moment.
Maxine
Thanks lizzie for the response. Sorry you have no information to share with affected hosts or those of us currently unaffected but feeling concerned and bewildered.
I think I have worked out why the cull is taking place and I doubt I'll be affected as I do not have multiple listings, just my one home with one airbnb space within it, and I'm always here to meet and greet guests.
I guess ABB didn't foresee local authority and action groups response to it departing from its 'shared economy' brand and allowing those with commercial property portfolios to use the platform alongside single homeowners. Instead they are having to retrospectively resolve the local authority disquiet and media backlash by culling hosts with multiple listings. That is understandable as ABB has to work within the bi-laws etc -
However that is what it should have communcated to those hosts affected inorder that, like it or not, hosts at least understood the reasons. Instead their corespondence directed the problem at the hosts as though they had provided such a poor service that guests had complained. That decision left loyal multiple listing hosts bewildered and feeling disrespected with nowhere to turn - and communication channels were shut down, a 'stonewall' approach we have now all come to expect.
Hey ho
Robin
maxine lizzieThere appears to have been two events in the past two months which are having a major impact on hosts, and after reading all the posts and, more importantly, gleaning information from our local 'help desk' I have come to the following conclusions!
In the case of sms notifications, the sheer numbers of affected hosts has made it impossible to roll this alteration out in the normal manner
It's extremely disappointing we had to find out the way we did.....in bits and pieces by other users on the CC! Even the CC moderators have been kept in the dark. Phone-in help desk DO know all about it however, but for some reason or other they are tight lipped, as though they have been instructed to keep it under wraps.
The only logical reason I can see for this silence is, the impact of this decision will be spread out over a few weeks, and even months as hosts discover they are not getting message notifications! Had Airbnb made a general statement to the hosting community there would have been such an uproar that their customer support would have had no way of coping with it and the platform would have ground to a standstill!!! By spreading out the impact they have more hope of coping with what will be a major crisis within the company!
Where hosting cancellations are concerned there are obviously legalities that have to be overcome by both local government bodies and by Airbnb. It may well be that Airbnb are being legally 'gagged' and their hands are tied as far as making a statement is concerned. If they announced their intentions there would be a mass of activity from affected hosts trying to circumvent rulings....the legal sands would be shifting all the time making it impossible for Airbnb to comply!
There appears to be a comminality in a lot of these host cancellations and that is the date 9th February 2016. It is possible we may learn a lot more after that date. I think Maxine you have worked a lot of this out for yourself...it would just be nice if someone would 'reach out' to us and let us know what is going on.
It will have a considerable affect on me because I am going to 'Snooze' my listing so as not to do damage to the good standing I have built up over the past 8 months by having some major alteration simply slip by me because someone on the other side of the world felt I was not important enough to be kept in the loop!! Cheers....Rob
Pietro And His Friends!
maxine lizzie robin
You wrote "Where hosting cancellations are concerned there are obviously legalities that have to be overcome by both local government bodies and by Airbnb. It may well be that Airbnb are being legally 'gagged' and their hands are tied as far as making a statement is concerned."
That's not the case.
Me personally, host in Rome, am 100% compliant with the local laws. I've spent more than 10k€ in buying proper licenses to host my guests. I've also sent a copy of all my licences to Airbnb, but they did not care.
They are just shutting down the major hosts only to leave space to the newbies. This is their marketing rules of a thumb: the more newcoming host, the more travellers. So, let's fire old, big hosts (22 listings and 1500+ reviews) so brand new hosts will have space to grow up.
Regardless of looking who's compliant with the rules (as me, and I've sent them all the documentation) and who's not (many, many unlegal airbnb hosts are just kept inside).
Airbnb will soon face this point with local authorities, as firing a fully licensed host just to make space to many illegal ones is not what local authorities was expecting from them
Robin
@pietro And His Friends! Pietro, I undestand, and agree with what you are saying but Pietro, like you I am searching for answers and, with this 'deafening silence' from the company I am looking at other explanations. It doesn't make sense that Airbnb would cripple it's most experienced income stream!!!
I may have missed something Pietro but what is the attitude of the Roman authorities to the hosting community? I do know that here in Australia the AHA (Australian Hotels Association) and Tourism Australia are joining forces to put pressure on the Federal Government to limit the effect of Airbnb, Stayz, Homeaway and other hosting sites into their traditional market.
How active have the authorities been there towards Airbnb and does this ruling only affect Airbnb? What of the other sites, Trip Advisor, Holiday Lettings and Homeaway? Have they been similarly affected?....Cheers....Rob
Maxine
@pietro I truly appreciate that you are legally registed etc. I think the issue is the 22 listings when the ABB brand was set up as a sharing economy between home owners sharing their 'home' with guests or making it available entirely for weekends & short holidays of less than a month.
That is what they are (I believe) retrenching to. And a focus on the business community who are better behaved guests than many holiday visitors.
So it's not you in the wrong
Quite why they are not being transparent with hosts, goodness only knows
I guess they feel that hosts with multiple listings have a solid business & have many other options like Trip Adviser etc to immediately use. Many probably use several other platforms- whereas single home owners are likely to use just one platform & stay loyal to it for convenience etc
So I think they are returning to core purpose but not admitting their errors in judgement over moving away from that position in the first place
So hosts with multiple listings are paying the price now.
Thats my take on it, I could be wrong
Monica
maxine
I think you are right. If you read the notices you will see a statement that the listings involved do not give guests the experience they expect. To me, that means that they are not staying in someone's actual "home".
Pietro And His Friends!
maxine
peter
robin
Unfortunately monica this is neither the case. In Rome the whole business is not about hosting guests in your own home but everybody is taking a 2nd apartment and re-renting it. I think I know around 100 hosts and there is almost nobody hosting people within the space where he/she lives. Exactly with this idea in mind we created this structure, where each one of us (we're a group of friends) lives in each property managed. We just united to share mutual help and suggestions. At the end of it all hasn't Airbnb proclamed itself with a sense of community and belonging?
Well, Airbnb is not. They pushed on Paris' conference about "make an house a money maker" and on the other side they're cutting the top of their trees (us, most prominent hosts) only and barely to leave space for newcomes host to share the pie.
But what is worst is that they push you so hard to grow and then without any notice and mostly without any explanation they cut you off. This is exactly the opposite of the proclaimed Airbnb spirit.
Maxine
@pietro monica robin peter
Pietro - you have just revealed the issue 'most people / hosts you know are renting a '2nd' property & 're-renting' it out.
There's the problem- with most rental agreements that is a contravention of the lease, in some City's it's illegal, it is profiteering above the rental value, it is displacing affordable housing for those needing full time housing at a fair / affordable rent, it isn't what ABB was set up for.
I had some sympathy for you until you said you & friends were renting 2nd properties not to live there but purely to profiteer in this way.
I understand why you & friends might think its a good thing to do to benefit solely yourselves without even investing & buying & maintaining a property .........
Pietro And His Friends!
maxine
Hello Maxine, I'm afraid I've not expressed myself in the right way. I've wrote that me and my friends we DO live on the property we manage, exactly as the opposite as most people do in Rome.
And yes, we DO invest a lot, really a lot of money in these properties.
However, I think that the point here is not to be more or less prone toward one or the other way of using Airbnb (even if I'm totally with you and your ideas). The problem is another: Airbnb shutting down listings without telling why and leaving everyone so attonished.
I think that Airbnb could have its own business decision, but at least giving some reasons about what is going on is the very basic of business etiquette. Both of all of us hosts who have been suddenly shutted down and as well for other you guys out there, scared it could happen to you as well, as you do not have any idea of what is going on and why.
Monica
@pietro
There is an easy solution for you although you will lose your reviews. Have all your friends list their apartments individually.
Pietro And His Friends!
Hello monica and thanks for the suggestion. In fact, this is exactly what we've done. The problem is that we had 1500+ reviews helping each other and working as a whole team, and now we have to start everything from the scratch, loosing all our internet-reputation.
But at the end of it all Airbnb is lonely internet reputation, isn't it?
So yes, we will do so.
But still the question remains open.
Why Airbnb decide to defeat some of the most prominent hosts without giving any explanation?
Would you trust someone who behave in this way? Not just one, two or three times. Dozens, hundreds of time around the world.
Account or listing closed without any explanation. And the one that have been closed were the best-behaved hosts.
How do you feel as a host?
Hi I'm Boris from Roma . Me too had several excellent reviews and after four years several listings was deactivated from them and have no answer from Airbnb .
The only thing is to do a heavvy class action against Airbnb .
I'm ready to start a legal action
Moreover they don't pay taxes in Italy but in Ireland and this is completely illegal .
Hi Robin,
just wanted to point out that I have seen people with only one listing also getting removed. So it's not just about number of listings.
Whatever it is, it is scary. And very injust.
Andreas
Well that is not correct, single listings removed, no explanation, no answers in two months from AirBnB. So no, this is not about multiple listings.
AirBnB should be ashamed of the way they all of a sudden communicates.
What is really annoying is that they manage to come out well in the press.
Hi Peter!
I'm in shock too-I just received the same message from Airbnb today; I've called them and no one will explain anything to me.
I've got great reviews, and loads of guests and I don't understand why Airbnb has done this, it's crazy!
The worst thing is that no one will explain anything to me!
Paula
Hi Lizzie, it's happened to me today. CS have been no help, just an impersonal email exactly the same as all the other hosts who have been de listed have received.
Please help!
Paula
Hi Steven, the same thing happened to me today- 3 of my listings removed, same impersonal email that you received.
Any advice or help would be really welcome!
Robin
@paula....Hey Paula, it looks like a line has been drawn in the sand, and hosts with multiple listings are systematically having their listings removed. The original Airbnb concept was to have people stay in a hosts 'shared space'....a spare room, a loft in the house, a cottage in the back yard! But over the years we are seeing more and more hosts in a situation where they are listing more and ever more properties and are virtually using Airbnb as a hotel booking site!
Air bnb are walking a tightrope between hosts such as your self with multiple listings and local government authorities who are coming under ever increasing pressure from the traditional hospitality industry to make you conform to the stringent government requirements they have to.....and Paula, it looks like local government are winning!
I have not heard of a single host worldwide who has had their solitary single listing threatened in this way. It seems to be a purge purely on hosts with a number of listings.
The unfortunate thing from your point of view is the secrecy leading up to this! Unfortunately nothing has been flagged about what is happening. I know Airbnb are doing a lot of work in the background with local juristictions around the world, but it is disappointing that none of the progress of that work is filtering down to the hosting community.
I am sorry for the situation this is putting you in Paula....you are no doubt an amazing host, but you are being seen as a boutique hotel rather than a home host and that appears to be where the problem lies!......cheers.....Rob
Hassan And Hussein
@paula Hi Paula Did some of your listings get unlisted today as well ??
Paula
Hi Hassan, yes today, out of the blue, and no explenation from Airbnb. I went onto the community forum and it seems to be happening to a lot of hosts. Did they hit you with it too?!
Paula
Thanks for getting back to me Rob- it makes a lot of sense. The way in which they did it was awful though, and I now need to figure out a way forward!
Robin
@paula.....Oh dear....I feel for you guys and what is happening at the moment. Paula I am in touch with similar hosts and no doubt you are too, so I am simply 'copying and pasting' between posts.
Yeah I understand, I am a superhost myself! But I would love to know if any single listing hosts have been affected in this way.......I am very active on the CC, and Paula I read virtually every post on this site, and I have not come across this occurence where just one listing is involved. I agree with Hassan in another post, it is terribly confusing and it appears, it has only just started.
For your sake Paula, Hassan, Peter and many others, I hope that some way can be found to accommodate you guys and still work within the framework of Airbnb....because you hosts with long standing are the experience, the base that has made Airbnb such a big platform. Many of the new hosts who come to the CC....and to hosting have do idea of what they are doing, (I even struck one who cancelled her very first booking because a better one popped up and could not understand why she had a problem!!!) and as another long time superhost said to me..."They are simply trashing the brand" ! Not so you guys...you have done the hard work!
Good luck, Paula, Hassan, I will follow your progress...and I hope it works out for you.....cheers....Rob
Doreen
Dear Peter,
I am glad to have found someone who has had the same discusting experience as me. I have been with them since 2011 when they were'nt as big as they are now. I received an email from them also saying that they were removing one of my listing because 'Airbnb guests needs to connect with hosts who provide local and authentic experiences that make the city a better place to live, work and visit.' My overall rating is 4/5. 95% of my guests are happy with their stay, so I am baffled as to why they have removed my listing. I sent them an email asking them to explain whats wrong with my apartment, and they havent even bothered to reply. You would have expected them to at least inform you of any overlooked problems regarding your listing that needs looking at so that you can rectify it, rather than an email telling you that your listing will be removed and will never be allowed back on their site. Very unprofessional for a well established company to treat their hosts who have help them get big over the years.
I sympathise with you.
Doreen.
Robin
@doreen @paula....Doreen, I am so sorry that this is happening to you but read my posts above, I think they spell it out for you.
I agree 100% that to be kept in the dark the way you have, and then given this nebulous explanation about not conforming to hosting standards is a bit ridiculous.....But Doreen, you have to see what is going on here! The traditional hostpitality industry is hemoraging while "Home hosting" is going from strength to strength! Obviously they are going to fight back, and that is what is happening. Before this purge is over many thousands of hosts are going to be affected and I am just sorry that you and Paula and Hassam and Peter and God knows how many more are going to be casualties. To government authorities, and the community at large, you are not 'Home Hosts' you are boutique hotels using the Airbnb platform...and I am afraid, that's where the problem lies.
I feel for you because you are what has made this platform great, you have met challenges, solved them, and been successful, and you have given Airbnb the strength that it now has, and I do so hope that there will be a solution to this mess where the arm that has fed Airbnb for so long will still be able to contribute....and I am going to follow your progess.....I can't do any more than that.... cheers.....Rob
Lizzie
Hello @paula,
Thanks for tagging me here. I am sorry to read your post and worry.
I am afraid I have no information on this at the moment, I am so sorry I can't be of more help here.
I wish you the best. Lizzie
Not sure where to start...take at look at the Community Help Guides in the 'Getting Started' board.
Guneet
Hi All,
I have just read through this entire thread. Just an hour ago, I logged into my account to find virtually all of my listings de-listed.
I immeditately contacted airbnb thinking my account was hacked to be told that they have removed nearly all my listings.
I have 400 glowing reviews, all 4 star and above, a response rate of 98%. I personally meet and great majority of guests and I am shocked to find out my listings have been removed and unsure of why.
Any help would be grately appreciated.
Regards
Guneet
Anne Marion
The same here in Amsterdam, single listings and multiple listings were being removed at december the 23th. For the rest, the same story as written above....it happened to a lot of hosts as wel as superhosts. The only thing what you can do is start again on a other booking site. Airbnb has gone way to big.
William
I have read through this thread. lizzie When do expect to get some clear indication of what is happening? We have one listing ( previously had 2) both in home in London in which we live. Delisted this week. Have spoken to customer service every day to no avail.
Monica
I noticed this morning, when looking at the map of my area, that it looks blanker than usual. So, I am assuming that this is also happening in Montreal, Quebec? I have read a rumour that Airbnb is looking at purchasing other hosting platforms - but don't know which ones. So it is surprising to me that they haven't tried to hang on to those hosts having properties delisted to get them to move onto another platform that Airbnb is viewing to purchase. Does anyone here know which hosting sites Airbnb is looking to purchase? I suppose it's hush hush until the deal is done....by why alienate future revenue sources?
My listing is on Flipkey and VBRO (HomeAway), and I pound the pavement with my business cards. In no way would I ever put all my eggs into one basket (Airbnb).
Ritsuko
Monica, When AirBNB purchase other sites/platforms they close them down and incorperate their members into AirBNB.
Monica
Not if it is a traditional, commercial, hosting site such as booking.com or villas, flipkey or some others that hosts use for their hospitality business. Airbnb would have to remove all of those listings as they have done with the hosts that have multiple listings on Airbnb so what would be the purpose of purchasing such a site?
Mirjam
In Amsterdam, hosts were removed who rented out a part of the house they are living in the whole year through. If this is less than 40% of your house and you have a permission of the city you can do this. Still those hosts were removed from Airbnb's website, although they followed the Amsterdam city rules. One host got two messages on the same day: telling that he would be removed because he was not renting out according to the Airbnb rules and a message telling that het got a superhost status again.. How can we know if Airbnb is not explaining anything? For those who understand Dutch: here is one of our duped hosts on local TV: bit.ly/1KhqHuB
Monica -
"Since mid-2011, Airbnb has acquired several of its competitors. The first of which was Accoleo based in Hanover, Germany."
"Prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, Airbnb acquired London-based rival CrashPadder, subsequently adding six thousand international listings to its existing inventory."
Nargess
The BBC are doing an investigation regarding this, contact amirsadjady on
twitter if this has happened to you.
Guneet
Everyone, please see the article by BBC in UK. I hope this brings some light to the situation.
Regards
Guneet
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35574971?ocid=socialflow_twitter
Michael
Something similar has happened to me, a super host with over 73 great reviews and very pleased guests. I received this yesterday and am flummoxed to say the least. I have built my life around being a host and now the rug was pulled out from me abruptly and without recourse.
Thank you for uploading your ID for our ID Verification process. Upon review, and given information uncovered pursuant to online public records, we have determined that it is in the best interest of Airbnb, and for the users on our site, to deactivate your account permanently. We realize that this may come as a disappointment and that you may have questions regarding this determination. We hope you understand that this decision is exercised at our sole discretion and that we are not obligated to provide an explanation as to the action taken against your account, nor are we liable to a user in any way with respect to deactivating or canceling his or her account.
Should you choose to dispute the decision, please submit any documents you think may be relevant to us, at no additional cost to Airbnb. We will forward those documents to our Legal Department for review before any decision regarding reinstatement of your account can be made.
Additionally, please understand that this removal will also entail the immediate termination of your pending or accepted bookings. As such, we may: communicate to your guests that a potential or confirmed booking has been cancelled; and 2) refer guests or potential guests to alternate accommodations which may be available.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Best regards,
Lance O
Has anyone else gotten messages like this?
They are not respoding to my emails and are not telling me what "relevant documents" they want.
I had over 4 months of confirmed bookings. I'm really quite messed up over this at the moment.
Ritsuko
Michael- It appears to me that they checked up on you, after receiving your ID documents, and found that you have a criminal record.
Robin
@ritsuko....To even suggest that is a rather inflamitory and nasty thing to bring up! Do you have personal details of other hosts past which you are simply prepared to air in public? michael's past history has nothing to do with you! If there has been some sort of past legality it may have been for something quite trivial, and if this is the sort of comment you are prepared to suggest in public on a forum site I personally will make a point of not reading any of your further posts.....definitely no cheers in this case.....Rob
Ritsuko
Hi Robin, No not at all inflamitory, or nasty Just a fact.
Yes, there have been several similar cases aired via FaceBook and on Twitter.
Yes, evidently (from the users who have detailed their cases) some very trivial matters from when they were quite young, caused their AirBNB accounts to be terminated.
Also, I never said that a users past history had anything to do with me. I just pointed out why this user's account was most likely terminated. If you read what AirBNB sent to this user it is quite clear that they checked public records. This is what the other cases I read about mentioned as well.
Some other resons that user accounts are terminated are if the users have any connection to the "sex industry".
By the way, I am not Ritsuko, I am her husband. I am a verified and authorised POC on the account. However, AirBNB do not differentiate bettween us when we post or when we report site errors etc.
My apologies, I should have made that clear when I posted.
John
Robin
@ritsuko Hi John, I still stand behind what I said.....We all have something in our past that would prefer stayed there. Whether it is fact or not, I am sure there are things in your past, just as in mine, that you would not want alluded to on a world wide forum site.
If you were going to be reasonable about your comments, and act in the spirit of the Community Centre, then you would have restricted your statement to that section of your last post.....'Yes, evidently (from the users who have detailed their cases) some very trivial matters from when they were quite young, caused their AirBNB accounts to be terminated.'....instead of simply blurting out, 'it's your past criminal history'!!
At least don't make Michael look like a serial rapist or some other totally undesirable!
It's how you worded it that got my back up John.....cheers....Rob
community.airbnb.com/t5/General-Hosting/LISTING-REMOVED/td-p/4646
community.airbnb.com/t5/General-Hosting/LISTING-REMOVED/m-p/7977#U7977
posted Nov 26 2015
LISTING REMOVED
Hola,
I have received an email from Airbnb Customer Experience telling me the they are going to remove one of my four listings because I'm not delivering the kind of hospitallity experience to my guest.
I’m in shock ! There are a lot of work and effort behind this listing and I have never received a complaint about it….NEVER !!
Actually my rating from guest are great:
Last 3 ratings were each 5 stars. Overall, I’ve received 5 stars 86%of the time. On average, hosts near me get 5 stars 57% of the time.
My current guests are happy in my apartment and they are enjoying it.
Has somebody has some similar experience ??
All the best !!
Peter
Queenie & Ted
Glastonbury, Connecticut, United States
You should contact airbnb immediately and confirm that the email came from them. If it did, have customer service validate the numbers you're seeing on your dashboard for performance. I once received a notice similar to this and it was a glitch at Airbnb that the developers were not aware of. Seems like you definitely received this message in error! Best way to contact airbnb is to tweet them at @airbnbhelp
Carrie
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
I got a similar message on my dashboard a week or two ago. I called Airbnb right away and the CS agent confirmed that it was an error on their part, and that my listing is in great shape. Call Customer Service.
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Thank you Queenie & Ted for your advise but I don't have tweeter and the Customer Service doen't know anything. I don't know what can I do ?
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Thank you carrie for sharing your especience. I hope my case will be similar that yours but I called to CS and they don't know anything in good way or in bas way... nothing. I'm very worried about it !
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
I called CS the 25th, two days and I don't have news !!
Eileen
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
You should forward the email to the security team or, if you can't forward it, copy and paste it to the security centre. It is either an Airbnb glitch or else some sort of scam. Don't be fobbed off by someone on the phone saying they know nothing about it. It's their job to investigate and get it sorted out. You pay them a fee to handle your bookings and they need clear up the confusion. Email them straightaway and demand action!
Ana & Mark
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Dear Peter,
I'm experiencing the same problem. I received an email informing me that they I have violated the TOS numerious of times and that they will cancel my account. I'm also in shock because I have not violated any of the rules. The only thing I can think about that is not correct is that I don't have a license number. But if that is the reason than they can close 80% of all listings in Barcelona.
I have called customer service numerious of times and they have been totally useless. They say that they will forward my complaint to the department in charge but I have only received 3 times the same standard email saying that they don't need to give me an explanation and that the decision is irrevocable.
I cannot believe that a company like Airbnb would treat their customers like that. I have good reviews and my apartment was completely renovated and looks so much better than many of the crap listings in Barcelona. I spend so much time in corresponding with guests.
So if they feel they need to delete a very successful listing, so be it. However I am very angry on how they treat you and they cannot spend 5 minutes in just giving you the reson for cancelling it.
BTW, the email I received is exactly the same as yours, with the end date of 8 December 2015.
Kind regards,
Ana
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Hi Ana&Mark,
Yes, this is very upsetting... I can't imagine why they are doing this w/o any explanation.
What are you going to do ?
What can we do ?
It's so unfair and overbearing !!!
All the Best,
Peter
Peter
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Hi Eileen,
Thant you so much for your response.
But what can I do I don't have any email of security team.
.... something fishy is going on !!!!!!
All the Best,
Peter
Queenie and Ted:
Here are the phone numbers for Airbnb customer service by country. Since December 8 is very soon, I would suggest you both ask for a manager to review your listing. Tell them that you are just trying to determine if the message is from them or is it a fraudulent site?
Germany+49 30 30 80 83 80
United States+1-415-800-5959
+1-855-424-7262 FREE (toll-free)
Argentina+54 11 53 52 78 88
Australia+61 2 8520 3333
Austria+43 72 08 83 800
Brazil+55 21 3958-5800
Chile+56229380777
China+86 10 5904 5310
400 890 0309 (shared-cost)
Denmark+45 89 88 20 00
France+33 1 84 88 40 00
Greece+30 211 1989888
Hong Kong+852 5808 8888
Ireland+353 1 697 1831
Israel+972 3 939 9977
Italy+39-06-99366533
Japan+81 3 4580 0999
+81 800 100 1008 (toll-free)
Mexico+52 55 41 70 43 33
Netherlands+31 20 52 22 333
New Zealand+64 4 4880 888
Norway+47 21 61 16 88
Peru+51 1 7089777
Poland+48 22 30 72 000
Portugal+351 30 880 3888
Puerto Rico+1 787 919-0880
Russia+74954658090
88003017104 (toll-free)
South Korea+82 2 6022 2499
+82 808 220 230 (toll-free)
Spain+34 91 123 45 67
Sweden+46 844 68 12 34
Switzerland+41 43 50 84 900
United Kingdom+44 203 318 1111
Posted an hour ago
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Bridget:
Please keep us informed about how these resolve.
It would seem that professional conduct would require at least a reason - non-compliance with local laws, say, or payments outside the system or some other dire violation.
Pretty unsettling to all hosts that they can just delist without any conversation, especially if there have been known error delist messages sent out!
Robert:
Ana & Mark, I saw your listing, its nice! But your photos are aweful. Why don't you use airbnb free photographer service? With better photos you can manage your listing way better!
Peter:
Thank you !!!
I called but the answer was no answer !!! They (CS) don't have any idea wha'ts is happening... I can't believed !
Best Regards Queenie&Ted,
Peter:
Oh my gosh !!! Really! they were made by a profesional photografer that Airbnb sent to me !!!!!!!
Thank you Bridget and Mark for your support !!!
Robert:
Your photos are ok, I was telling it to Ana & Mark.
I am sorry for your situation, there is nothing really wrong with your listing, it seems brilliant!
Peter:
Okay !!!
Yes, it is !
Evelyn
I'm sorry you're all going through this situation. In the meantime, copy all your reviews. One screen grab per review included the photo and name of the guest. You need to save this information for any future use.
We're having the same situation here in NY.
Peter:
Hey Evelyn,
It's a very good idea...
Thanks,
Peter
Mary:
Maybe someone trying to hack into hosts to shut them down as hotels hate us
similar problems with Uber here in London
Abby:
any further news??
Jan En Maayke
Peter, i have the same message for my listing in Amsterdam, end date 23th of December.
They never respond to my emails, i am a superhost with 91% 5 stars, i,m in shock as well.
Is your listing still active?
The ruined my day with this kind of emails.
Greetings,
Jan
Lizzie
Online Community Manager
London, England, United Kingdom
Hello Everyone,
Just to introduce myself, for those of you who don't know me, I look after the online community for the English speaking area of the Community Center, it is good to meet you all.
I am really sorry to read your thread and hear your level of uncertainty. I have to admit I am unfamiliar with this area, but I will see if I can gather a little more information on this which might be able to help you or at least provide you some clarity. As a starting point can I just check what email address you are receiving the messages from?
Thanks
Steven:
Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain
I received the same email roughly one week ago.
"Airbnb guests enjoy staying in local homes and living authentic travel experiences.
Unfortunately, our systems have shown that you are not delivering the kind of hospitality experience our guests are looking for. In line with our Terms of Service, your listing
will be removed from our platform on December 8, 2015.
Please understand that this determination was not made due to a single incident, but an accumulation of circumstances that do not meet our standards and that have happened over time."
I have 100% 5 star reviews and am two weeks away from becoming a Superhost, so this seems to make little sense. My listing is in Barcelona. I contacted airbnb and was first told to ignore the message as it had been sent by a non-airbnb email address (automated@e.airbnb.com), only to be told one day later that he had made a mistake and it was in fact a genuine airbnb address and that he would continue to look into it. I've since heard nothing and my listing is now inactive... :-(
Jan En Maayke
Hi,
Thanks for looking into it! I had the email also from automated@e.airbnb.com
Greetings,
Jan
Mirjam
Today we got two hosts with similair messages about their account going to be removed on our FaceBook page Airbnb Hosts in Amsterdam and one on our Airbnb Group Hospitality in Amsterdam. Airbnb Holland is looking at it .
Steven
That's what I was told as well, but then they realised their mistake and told me it WAS an official airbnb email address...
PEter:
Hi,
Airbnb removed my listing on December 8th.
Regards,
Peter
Mirjam
Hi Lizzy, a lot of confusion here, because in www.airbnb.com/help/article/971/how-do-i-know-if-an-email-is-really-from-airbnb we all read :
You can tell if an email is really from Airbnb by looking at what comes after the @ symbol. All official Airbnb emails will come from an address that ends in:
@airbnb.com
@airbnbmail.com
e .airbnb.com
@host.airbnb.com
@guest.airbnb.com
as you see,e .airbnb.com is still mentioned as a safe sender! The affected hosts got emails from this address!
Steven
I really fail to see why this is such a difficult problem to resolve... Can't someone here who is representing Airbnb make some phone calls/send some emails to get to the bottom of this? With the holiday season coming up many of us were counting on Airbnb to rent out our places. I don't know about the rest of you but (after many years of loyal and happy use) I'm already looking into alternatives to Airbnb...
Could you at least let us know whether anything is being done to resolve this situation?
Anne Marion
Hello Peter,
We have the same problem in Amsterdam now (probably a hackingproblem). Several superhost in this city received the same email as you did yesterday. I have contacted the helpservice of airbnb and forwarded the message also to the security service of airbnb. In the late evening I have called a helpdesk here in Amsterdam and he was collecting all the complains on this matter. Hopefully they will solve this problem and contact me and all other superhost to explain to us what happened. Did airbnb solve the problem in Barcelona?
Kind regards, Anne Marion from Amsterdam
Anne Marion
Hello Lizzie,
I have received the same email from the same email address as Steven did. But I life in Amsterdam. I'm also a superhost and I do not want to lose my listing.
Please can you solve this problem? I think airbnb has been hacked!
Kind regards, Anne Marion
-----------
Steven:
My listing is in Barcelona and I'm still unlisted. Since the 8th of December now...
Anne Marion
Hello Peter,
We have the same problem here in Amsterdam now. What is the status of your listing now, is it deactivated or still working?
Kind regards, Anne Marion
Milu
Sorry to jump in so late, and my apologies if I've missed a post that already said this (just read the replies a bit quickly), but this is the same situation that is happening in New York, and it's happening to multi-listings hosts. I am also a multi-listing host so I am very concerned about this situation and am following it closely. In my area this type of short term rental is not an issue so there is no politician (yet) looking to make noise about this.
The reason that your listing is being shut down is because you live in a city with strict laws preventing this type of rental, and Airbnb is shutting down listings rather then have to hand over your info/data to city council (or the equivelent) when they request it, as they will. Look at New York city for an example of what is happening. Tons of hosts are being shut down in New York, because it's a witch hunt. Politicians are going after hosts hard here, and levying big fines to hosts, and sometimes not the host, but their landlords. Airbnb then gets the bad press, and it goes around in a circle.
So the "inauthentic" experience is probably because it's a listing where you do not live, meaning it's probably not a legal situation in your city. Anyhow, just my opinion as to what's happening, as it's exactly the same situation as what has happened to a lot of hosts in New York.
Juliet
How do you call airbnb customer service. I can't find a number anyehere and I want to delist my house Thanks
Juliet
Posted on a month ago
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Milu
you can de-list your house by going into your dashboard --> manage listing --> pricing, listing details there is a little box at the bottom that says "listed/unlisted". Just chose Unlisted.
Susan
My listing has also been removed despite my excellent reviews. I have written to Airbnb customer service at least ten times but they are completely ignoring my emails. I have no idea what I have done to deserve this and feel a company with the standing and reputation of Airbnb should at least provide some indication of what motivated them to make this decision. I rely on this income for the survival of me and my kids and am in complete despair. Is there anything we can do?
Monica
If this is related to municipal laws requiring permits to operate guest houses, hotels and b&bs then the least that airbnb can do is be honest with the hosts and give them the proprer reason for the decision to shut down listings. I have heard that airbnb has received demands from municipalities to hand over records containing the names and addresses of hosts operating airbnb listings. It is happening in Quebec, Canada - where the "Tourist Police" are out scouting for illegal airbnb listings. This is why I now have a proper legal license. It will come to that so my suggestion is that if you are hosting in an area that you know is on the witch hunt for airbnb listings, get legal...! You need a permit from your municipality, liability insurance, yearly inspections and you need to pay lodging tax and inspection fees.
Susan
Here where I live in Barcelona they have not issued any licences for tourist apartments for almost ten years now!! Plus my apartment was actually a self-contained space inside my own apartment where I live with my children. However, since the only thing we share is the front door key, Airbnb customer service themselves thought I should list it as an entire apartment as opposed to a room. I even changed my listing to a room a few weeks ago just to avoid the risk of having my listing removed, but they still went ahead and eliminated it. I have done absolutely nothing wrong, and have tried desperately to explain this to Airbnb, but it looks like my emails may be going straight into spam. Could anyone send me a mailing address and fax number of Airbnb San Francisco head office? From here in Europe I can only get as far as an address in Ireland, and they are not responding either.
Ritsuko
Hi Susan,
Have you tried calling your local support phone number?
Have you tried communicating with AirBNB management and with AirBNB Support via their Twitter Accounts?
Susan
The customer service at local support phone numbers say they don't have any informtion and will ask the quality control department to contact me, but they never do. Do you think it is possible to get a response from Airbnb management or Airbnb support via twitter accounts? If so, I would be interested to know how to do this?
Julia
Peter,
It would appear that your listings are still live - would you caare to tell us the outcome of all this?
Jessa
Yeah what is the outcome? So this seems to affect hosts in Barca and in Amsterdam? Ams city laws only allow a person to rent out 60 days/year - so it could be that law enforcement is going after hosts there too. Either way what an awful response from airbnb - as if you're a bad host, the least they could do (aside from firmly fighting back city laws) is give a good answer. Trying local numbers should do the trick, there is a Dutch number and I guess there is a Spanish one too?
Alejandro
Hi @sergi, I found your profile in another conversation.
You said you are "Online Community Manager from the Spanish Airbnb Community."
Can you give us some response about this conversation subject?
Your colleague lizzie also posted two weeks ago, but she didn't say anything about it, and since it's been a while from the beginning of this issue, its very worrying that you still haven't anything to say.
It's been weeks for us with this problem and nobody is taking any responsability, not a single answer about what's going on here.
I also received the same email everybody is talking about here, none of us has received any explanation, none of us has any idea why this happened.
Can you help us?
Regards,
Alejandro.
Deborah
I wonder does this have anything to do with what you folks in Barcelona are experiencing about your listings being removed:
www.thelocal.es/20151222/barcelona-city-hall-fines-airbnb
And I wonder does this have anything to do with the same problems experienced by some hosts in Amsterdam?
www.nltimes.nl/2015/10/28/court-upholds-e24000-fine-on-amsterdam-airbnb-landlord/
I know very little about regulations for hosting in countries in Europe, but I just found those articles when doing a Google Search on these areas. And the Barcelona article is recent.
Julia
As always, thank you for the research Deborah. Just wondering how long before London councils implement this.
However, Airbnb surely has a duty to inform these hosts of the reason for their listings being de-activated. It must feel awful when you have worked hard to give guests a great experience in your home!
Shoddy treatment of people who have made a lot of money for Airbnb. Disgraceful treatment actually.
Sergi
Hi @alejandro
I'm afraid I can't help you more than Lizzie.
I am really sorry to read your level of uncertainty and I would like to be more usefull but we personally have no more information on this at the moment.
Regards.
Rene
same here, my listing is removed. I just can not understand Airbnb handles their superhosts like this
Out of the blue Airbnb blocked my listing by sending me a very general email, with no specific reason. Since the email said I was not giving my guests an authentic and local expierience I regarded the email as being spam. It turned out different.
I tried contacting Airbnb to find out what happened, but for weeks in bump into walls. The help desk can not give me information about what happened and they can only tell me they forwarded my request to the right department, as an urgent matter. I have to wait for their answer, no one seems to be able to contact this department. And since a few weeks no one came with an answer so far.
Are there other hosts with the same experience? I am based in Amsterdam and was told that I am not the only host this happens to at the moment. Help would be very nice, since this is a very uncertain and stressful period.
Thank you,
Rene
Hello Rene,
There is a whole group of (super)hosts in Amsterdam who lost there listing without any reason. They are communicating with each other trough facebook Airbnb Host Amsterdam. Good luck!
Anne Marion
Rene
Hi Anne Marion,
Thanks for letting me know!
I am not on facebook myself, but I will ask my girlfriend Wendy to have a look.
I noticed the same happened to you. Did you also get no response from airbnb yet?
Best, rene
Anne Marion
Hello Rene,
We all had no response from Airbnb. I called and emailed several times but they couldn't help me or they forward my email to a so called qualityteam. After a few days I gave up. According to the guests and airbnb I am a superhost, but I was treated as I was a bandit. I'm very disappointed in the service Airbnb towards their hosts, but unfortunately I still have to use them to keep my b&b running.
Some hosts are going to fight this. You can also find them on fb.
Good luck!
Anne Marion
Monica
If you are not the only one and listings are being removed from your area then there is a lot less competition and you can try listing on other sites. After hosting only three years, legally, about half of my revenue is from airbnb, the other from other sites and locals. Airbnb was a good way to start up, but now I am advertising, handing out business cards and I am listed with the provincial tourist bureau.
Mathew
Well, now I'm feeling more confident about moving somewhere cheaper so I don't need to host anymore...
Deborah
@anne Marion and rene
I just came across online newspaper article today, which may shed some light on what is going on in Amsterdam ( and possibly, Barcelona as well??):
www.nltimes.nl/2016/01/13/airbnb-drops-amsterdam-properties-for-violating-hotel-laws/
Excerpt from the article:
"In December Airbnb removed at least 170 Amsterdam accommodations from the site because they do not comply to the company’s rules, the Volkskrant reports after speaking to individuals who rent out their homes on Airbnb.
According to the newspaper, the owners of the 170 Amsterdam accommodations received an email from Airbnb early in December stating that their ad would be removed by December 23rd. The reason in the email was that those accommodations do not provide “the authentic travel experiences that Airbnb guests look for.”
The company did not respond with exact figures in the Volkskrant’s article, but a spokesperson for the Amsterdam municipality did say that the removed accommodations involved “apartments which clearly act as illegal hotels in the eyes of Airbnb.”
Anne Marion
Unfortunately the article in yesterdays newspaper was not accurate. I have contactad the writer of the aricle and told her that there is a group of hosts who are running a registed B&B and following the rules. I have contacted the municipality and asked them if there where any complains in neighbourhood. They said that there aren't any and my registed B&B isn't a illegal hotel according to the municipality. I have two listings of two rooms in one house, one of them has been removed by Airbnb for no reason.....I think that is very strange....
However the host mentioned in the article rented his house for more then 60 days per year and that is illegal if you have not a B&B.
Rene
Hi Anne Marion,
I was also not very happy with the article. Airbnb came out quite positive and nothing was said about that Airbnb does not contact the hosts to find out their specific situation. Like in your case. If they would have phoned you or if it was possible to contact someone from Airbnb, you could have discussed your sitiuation and let them know that you are legal.
Dania
Hi peter, did your listing get removed? Mine did, for no reason so I was searching to see if anything like this had happened to anyone else... No one will tell me why at airbnb, and it was a 5 star listing with raving reviews!
Thomas And Chaja
I have exactly the same problem. Trying to find answers since the 11th of December. Still nothing. Customer service always forwards to the quality team, but never hear back. My listing is 4 and a half stars, more than 150 good reviews, no bad ones. I'm a registered B&B with the municipality of Amsterdam and I pay taxes over the income generated. I'm absolutly clueless as to why my listing was taken down. I hope somebody can shed some light on the situation.
And, rene and @anne Marion, where can I find the conversation between the Amsterdam hosts on Facebook excactly?
Anyway I think it might be a good idea to join forces and fight this unjust together.
Kind regards,
Thomas
Kelly
rene
I agree - Airbnb should have at least notify the hosts about the situation.
Thomas
I got the same email, except in London. I can't figure out what the reason could be.
I've spoken to customer service twice today. The guy who I spoke to knew that this was happening to a lot of people. and said he would pass it on, but it seemed like he genuinely didn't know why it was happening. He said, "I'm seeing this happening to people with great reviews, so it's not a quality thing".
He said it was for real, though.
Has ANYONE got any CONCRETE answers about what is going on?
Can I relist the place under a different title or name, say if it is a different part of the house?
I live in my place, it is five bedrooms and I let out the other 4 as one unit. (I used to live with 4 friends.)
Julia
community.airbnb.com/t5/General-Hosting/De-Listing-without-explanation/m-p/24099#M6215
Maxine
This is really worrying. It appears not to be a hacker/spam but Airbnb genuinely de-listing without being transparent about why. Instead emails suggest that the host is not suitable to the 'guest experience sought' irrespective of those hosts - some with superhost status - having 4 and 5 star reviews and happy guests, no complaints reported.
It has caused mass confusion.
Airbnb need to give a clear communication to all hosts - What is considered to be an illegal listing - e.g is it
1. Entire apartment / house where host doesn't live there as their primary residence
2. Hosts that rent a room or own home or 2nd home on airbnb for more than 90 days -
3. Hosts in Cities / towns where their Councils set the rules and prohibit homeowners from renting their properties when they are not present, such as going on holiday and renting out whilst away
4. Hosts with more than one property listing
5. Commercial hosts with rental property portfolios
6. Commercial single BnB's
7. Realtor Estate Agents
8. Homes that do not meet health and safety rules (smoke alarms etc)
9. Homes and rooms rented in towns and Cities that require them to have a license
10. Anything else
Whatever the reasos are Hosts worldwide need to know
The obtuse emails being sent to hosts telling them they are being de-listed as they do not meet the standards expected by guests and then refusing to offer any real explanation or means to overturn the delisting decision by advising the host what the resason is and how they can make changes - is just unfair, distressing and disrespectful to hosts
I rely on my airbnb income and whilst this has not happened to me, I would be horrified if it did, particularly if I didn't know why and they wouldn't tell me.
I do own my own home and have a floor I rent out on airbnb with it's own street entrance, set up as an entire self-contained apartment but it remains part of the main house via an interconnecting staircase and door, where I live on the upper two floors.
I had a very busy year (until we hit Dec/Jan) and may well have had total bookings nudging or just exceeding 90 days - does that put me over the limit? When was this 90 day limit set and where can I find communication that details that limit? Is it a 90 day April to 6th April tax year limit or a January to 31st December limit.
Where is lizzie the UK Airbnb Community Manager - we need an explanation and assurances urgently.
Pietro And His Friends!
Hello,
I've received this email too and as well I've tried both to answer them and to call the customer service, but all I get is a bouncing wall.
it is clearly a mistake but what should I do?
No answer from the customer service
No answer from the email, beside the "it's not discussable"
but it's clearly a mistake, as no complaints and 78% of reviews 5 stars (and all the other 4 stars!)
I'm trying to flood them of request alerting all my future guests of the problem and pushing my future guest to call Airbnb, but isn't there a more fair solution?
Maxine
@pietro And His Friends!
Nobody seems to know amongst hosts affected - and airbnb appear to have entered into a wall of silence. Not even the community manager lizzie (UK) is responding even when dozens of London hosts including superhosts are affected.
No response to emails and only standard emails sent to inform a host they are being de-listed - and the text suggests the host is providing a poor service and guests have complained. That's not the case and extremely unfair to hosts.
As my note above and others posted by some trying to figure it out, it may all be related to certain cities 'laws' concerning renting rooms out as a business from properties that are not the owners primary residence. However, a number of hosts have said the property listing is their primary residence, and they do live there. So clearly errors can occur but airbnb seems unwilling to listen or respond or correct an error and instead cuts hosts off at the knees, kills their income, and refuses to engage.
If airbnb ever bothered to read and analyse posts they'd note that top of the list of disatisfaction from hosts is their failure to respond to hosts and failure to be clear in their communications on such important matters. It feels like they just don't care.
I'm not affected at the moment but I am significantly worried that it could happen to me without reason as much as anyone else - and if it did it would severly affect me. Many others must be feeling like that also.
I don't think that the Customer service teams know anything more than hosts at the moment - but from the number of posts about the subject and hosts affected across the world, it seems like it is a general 'cull' taking place.
It may be that they are only going to be permitted by law to allow 'home share' with host present, and cull all the 'entire apartment/house' listings. Mine is listed as such right now, but I live in the upper floors of my house and I am present, it is my primary home (only home) and my guests have their own space on the lower floor.
I feel so anxious. I wish they would just tell us what is going on.
Pietro and His Friends:
There are info I found:
hosts who get their account shutted down:
www.airhostsforum.com/t/airbnb-closed-your-account-now-what/1488
a superhost, very famous in thailand and even invited to airbnb conference who had his account shutted down
medium.com/airbnb-superhosting/airbnb-why-did-you-terminate-my-account-an-open-letter-to-air...
The general idea is that airbnb is closing here and there some accounts/listings in order to show some numbers to the local authorities (who are against this flourishing market of Airbnb becaus it infringes Hotel's businesses).
And to do so, they start closing accounts/listings to the hosts who got more listings/revenues. It's a small sacrifice in Airbnb's overall system, paid to avoid finishing like Uber (having authorities fully against them).
Our problem in this case is that we hosts are the sacrificial lamb.
There is no solution to this problem. Nor the will from Airbnb to give one,as it is their own purpose to shut down these accounts.
For people like me who created an entire business on it and spent years in a raising quality of services provided it's a killing news.
HOW TO MITIGATE THE RISK THAT IT HAPPENS:
Multiply your airbnb accounts and spread all of your listings between them
You can also automatically sync calendars using import/export functionalities.
List yourself on other platforms too (flipkey, wimdu, vrbo, etc.) to mitigate this risk.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU'VE BEEN HITTEN
Nothing, at the moment. Me, personally am going to create other accounts and to create new listings (that therefore will not be disactived soon) under the first account, so I hope I will mantain my 1,500+ 5 stars reviews.
And I will put in action all the "mitigate" actions, by the way.
Bad news, guys.
Pietro and His Friends
To all of us involved in this discussion:
peter, @thomas, kelly, rene, @anne Marion, @thomas And Chaja, julia, maxine , monica , @mathew , deborah , @dania
I have a clear idea of which is the reason why Airbnb is shutting us down, but I need to collect all our figures to check it out.
Please write me a private mail message to
airbnbdroppedme@doyoubnb.com
and I will write you privately.
If needed, let's create also a facebook page and/or anything else. This blog has too less visibility, and is not properly organized. Wheras this matter should be as much as public and widely spread.
Casssandra
@pietro And His Friends! Just sent you an email as well. I think its a great idea to get as many of us to coordinate as possible. Thanks for your efforts on this!
Cassandra
Lizzie
Online Community Manager
Hello @pietro And His Friends!
Good to meet you. I am really sorry, but for safety reasons I don't recommend including any of your personal details in your posts, as it is publically visible, I have therefore removed your email address. I hope you understand my reasons around having to remove this.
Thanks so much, Lizzie
Not sure where to start...take at look at the Community Help Guides in the 'Getting Started' board.
Robin
maxine God , it's a guessing game! See maybe I am fortunate in that I got local government 'occupancy' (which means it conforms to the building code) before I listed, and I list as a private room rather than the self contained cottage that it is. There is quite a stretch of garden between the cottage and the main house....and there is no way a guest will ever run into a stranger on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night but.....council told me to list it this way to keep within the regulations......so, that's what I have done!!!
Possibly a lot of hosts have put local government on the 'back burner' and you can't do that....You have to work with local authorities, they are not fools and they do have the power to stop the Airbnb scenario! Possibly that is why a lot of hosts are being shown the door....their listing contravenes local government regs. I just wish we new what was behind this Maxine!!!
Getting a bit off the thread, I bet you would kill for our weather at the moment Maxine....today was another 'century' day! It's been the hottest summer on record over here, which we are quite happy about really. In my working life I was an air conditioning contractor so, it stands to reason I would have the best air conditioned plot on the block!! Walking into the cottage, even on a 44c (109f) day that cottage is a lovely 20c...it's just like walking into a bottle shop carton room!!!....Oh no, hang on, you wouldn't know what that's like in England....you drink hot beer! Never mind, it is seriously cold!....Cheers.....Rob
Pietro And His Friends!
Hello Lizzie,
my pleasure to be in contact with you.
However, everybody here feel that my email address has been removed because we were creating a group of "banned host without any reason" who could potentially harm your wage provider, AirBnb.
However, let me write that it happened to move too slowly. Data have been collected, the picture is clear. And we're contacting the press with our data.
It's really sad that we, most important hosts, who provided a lot of effort in Airbnb and contributed to its growth now have to defend against Airbnb itself.
Maxine
lizzie - this same topic has appeared in several community areas and is clearly causing some concern amongst hosts - both those immediately affected who have recieved a de-list email, as well as those of us who haven't but are concerned about whether we could be next, and why.
Some firm gudielines from airbnb that set out what may give rise to a de-list notice, would be very helpful.
Are you able to respond to assistance request for help on this matter?
Best regards, Maxine
Maxine:
Thanks for sharing Pietro. The account from kelly the thailand superhost was so very dignified yet distressing to read. He echos what most hosts would feel if treated so very badly.
If a host breached the rules that's one thing and sympathy might be undeserved but it is airbnb who have changed the rules or at best reacted to changes in local bi-laws and poor press regarding the threat to affordable housing.
We can all understand such business pressures that threaten the continuance and growth of the business. However, treating affected hosts in such a shoddy manner is simply inexcusable.
Being ignored and disespected is humiliating - the worse feeling ever, we are human beings not emotionless robots.
I guess the message from airbnb to all hosts is 'suck it up' and go away. Nice one.
Nothing anyone of us either individually or collective can do about it.
Lizzie
Hello maxine,
Thanks for tagging me into this thread, I am sorry for my delay in getting back to you.
I am very sorry to read of your worry here, I wish I could be of more help but unfortunately I don't have any information on this at the moment.
Maxine
Thanks lizzie for the response. Sorry you have no information to share with affected hosts or those of us currently unaffected but feeling concerned and bewildered.
I think I have worked out why the cull is taking place and I doubt I'll be affected as I do not have multiple listings, just my one home with one airbnb space within it, and I'm always here to meet and greet guests.
I guess ABB didn't foresee local authority and action groups response to it departing from its 'shared economy' brand and allowing those with commercial property portfolios to use the platform alongside single homeowners. Instead they are having to retrospectively resolve the local authority disquiet and media backlash by culling hosts with multiple listings. That is understandable as ABB has to work within the bi-laws etc -
However that is what it should have communcated to those hosts affected inorder that, like it or not, hosts at least understood the reasons. Instead their corespondence directed the problem at the hosts as though they had provided such a poor service that guests had complained. That decision left loyal multiple listing hosts bewildered and feeling disrespected with nowhere to turn - and communication channels were shut down, a 'stonewall' approach we have now all come to expect.
Hey ho
Robin
maxine lizzieThere appears to have been two events in the past two months which are having a major impact on hosts, and after reading all the posts and, more importantly, gleaning information from our local 'help desk' I have come to the following conclusions!
In the case of sms notifications, the sheer numbers of affected hosts has made it impossible to roll this alteration out in the normal manner
It's extremely disappointing we had to find out the way we did.....in bits and pieces by other users on the CC! Even the CC moderators have been kept in the dark. Phone-in help desk DO know all about it however, but for some reason or other they are tight lipped, as though they have been instructed to keep it under wraps.
The only logical reason I can see for this silence is, the impact of this decision will be spread out over a few weeks, and even months as hosts discover they are not getting message notifications! Had Airbnb made a general statement to the hosting community there would have been such an uproar that their customer support would have had no way of coping with it and the platform would have ground to a standstill!!! By spreading out the impact they have more hope of coping with what will be a major crisis within the company!
Where hosting cancellations are concerned there are obviously legalities that have to be overcome by both local government bodies and by Airbnb. It may well be that Airbnb are being legally 'gagged' and their hands are tied as far as making a statement is concerned. If they announced their intentions there would be a mass of activity from affected hosts trying to circumvent rulings....the legal sands would be shifting all the time making it impossible for Airbnb to comply!
There appears to be a comminality in a lot of these host cancellations and that is the date 9th February 2016. It is possible we may learn a lot more after that date. I think Maxine you have worked a lot of this out for yourself...it would just be nice if someone would 'reach out' to us and let us know what is going on.
It will have a considerable affect on me because I am going to 'Snooze' my listing so as not to do damage to the good standing I have built up over the past 8 months by having some major alteration simply slip by me because someone on the other side of the world felt I was not important enough to be kept in the loop!! Cheers....Rob
Pietro And His Friends!
maxine lizzie robin
You wrote "Where hosting cancellations are concerned there are obviously legalities that have to be overcome by both local government bodies and by Airbnb. It may well be that Airbnb are being legally 'gagged' and their hands are tied as far as making a statement is concerned."
That's not the case.
Me personally, host in Rome, am 100% compliant with the local laws. I've spent more than 10k€ in buying proper licenses to host my guests. I've also sent a copy of all my licences to Airbnb, but they did not care.
They are just shutting down the major hosts only to leave space to the newbies. This is their marketing rules of a thumb: the more newcoming host, the more travellers. So, let's fire old, big hosts (22 listings and 1500+ reviews) so brand new hosts will have space to grow up.
Regardless of looking who's compliant with the rules (as me, and I've sent them all the documentation) and who's not (many, many unlegal airbnb hosts are just kept inside).
Airbnb will soon face this point with local authorities, as firing a fully licensed host just to make space to many illegal ones is not what local authorities was expecting from them
Robin
@pietro And His Friends! Pietro, I undestand, and agree with what you are saying but Pietro, like you I am searching for answers and, with this 'deafening silence' from the company I am looking at other explanations. It doesn't make sense that Airbnb would cripple it's most experienced income stream!!!
I may have missed something Pietro but what is the attitude of the Roman authorities to the hosting community? I do know that here in Australia the AHA (Australian Hotels Association) and Tourism Australia are joining forces to put pressure on the Federal Government to limit the effect of Airbnb, Stayz, Homeaway and other hosting sites into their traditional market.
How active have the authorities been there towards Airbnb and does this ruling only affect Airbnb? What of the other sites, Trip Advisor, Holiday Lettings and Homeaway? Have they been similarly affected?....Cheers....Rob
Maxine
@pietro I truly appreciate that you are legally registed etc. I think the issue is the 22 listings when the ABB brand was set up as a sharing economy between home owners sharing their 'home' with guests or making it available entirely for weekends & short holidays of less than a month.
That is what they are (I believe) retrenching to. And a focus on the business community who are better behaved guests than many holiday visitors.
So it's not you in the wrong
Quite why they are not being transparent with hosts, goodness only knows
I guess they feel that hosts with multiple listings have a solid business & have many other options like Trip Adviser etc to immediately use. Many probably use several other platforms- whereas single home owners are likely to use just one platform & stay loyal to it for convenience etc
So I think they are returning to core purpose but not admitting their errors in judgement over moving away from that position in the first place
So hosts with multiple listings are paying the price now.
Thats my take on it, I could be wrong
Monica
maxine
I think you are right. If you read the notices you will see a statement that the listings involved do not give guests the experience they expect. To me, that means that they are not staying in someone's actual "home".
Pietro And His Friends!
maxine
peter
robin
Unfortunately monica this is neither the case. In Rome the whole business is not about hosting guests in your own home but everybody is taking a 2nd apartment and re-renting it. I think I know around 100 hosts and there is almost nobody hosting people within the space where he/she lives. Exactly with this idea in mind we created this structure, where each one of us (we're a group of friends) lives in each property managed. We just united to share mutual help and suggestions. At the end of it all hasn't Airbnb proclamed itself with a sense of community and belonging?
Well, Airbnb is not. They pushed on Paris' conference about "make an house a money maker" and on the other side they're cutting the top of their trees (us, most prominent hosts) only and barely to leave space for newcomes host to share the pie.
But what is worst is that they push you so hard to grow and then without any notice and mostly without any explanation they cut you off. This is exactly the opposite of the proclaimed Airbnb spirit.
Maxine
@pietro monica robin peter
Pietro - you have just revealed the issue 'most people / hosts you know are renting a '2nd' property & 're-renting' it out.
There's the problem- with most rental agreements that is a contravention of the lease, in some City's it's illegal, it is profiteering above the rental value, it is displacing affordable housing for those needing full time housing at a fair / affordable rent, it isn't what ABB was set up for.
I had some sympathy for you until you said you & friends were renting 2nd properties not to live there but purely to profiteer in this way.
I understand why you & friends might think its a good thing to do to benefit solely yourselves without even investing & buying & maintaining a property .........
Pietro And His Friends!
maxine
Hello Maxine, I'm afraid I've not expressed myself in the right way. I've wrote that me and my friends we DO live on the property we manage, exactly as the opposite as most people do in Rome.
And yes, we DO invest a lot, really a lot of money in these properties.
However, I think that the point here is not to be more or less prone toward one or the other way of using Airbnb (even if I'm totally with you and your ideas). The problem is another: Airbnb shutting down listings without telling why and leaving everyone so attonished.
I think that Airbnb could have its own business decision, but at least giving some reasons about what is going on is the very basic of business etiquette. Both of all of us hosts who have been suddenly shutted down and as well for other you guys out there, scared it could happen to you as well, as you do not have any idea of what is going on and why.
Monica
@pietro
There is an easy solution for you although you will lose your reviews. Have all your friends list their apartments individually.
Pietro And His Friends!
Hello monica and thanks for the suggestion. In fact, this is exactly what we've done. The problem is that we had 1500+ reviews helping each other and working as a whole team, and now we have to start everything from the scratch, loosing all our internet-reputation.
But at the end of it all Airbnb is lonely internet reputation, isn't it?
So yes, we will do so.
But still the question remains open.
Why Airbnb decide to defeat some of the most prominent hosts without giving any explanation?
Would you trust someone who behave in this way? Not just one, two or three times. Dozens, hundreds of time around the world.
Account or listing closed without any explanation. And the one that have been closed were the best-behaved hosts.
How do you feel as a host?
Hi I'm Boris from Roma . Me too had several excellent reviews and after four years several listings was deactivated from them and have no answer from Airbnb .
The only thing is to do a heavvy class action against Airbnb .
I'm ready to start a legal action
Moreover they don't pay taxes in Italy but in Ireland and this is completely illegal .
Hi Robin,
just wanted to point out that I have seen people with only one listing also getting removed. So it's not just about number of listings.
Whatever it is, it is scary. And very injust.
Andreas
Well that is not correct, single listings removed, no explanation, no answers in two months from AirBnB. So no, this is not about multiple listings.
AirBnB should be ashamed of the way they all of a sudden communicates.
What is really annoying is that they manage to come out well in the press.
Hi Peter!
I'm in shock too-I just received the same message from Airbnb today; I've called them and no one will explain anything to me.
I've got great reviews, and loads of guests and I don't understand why Airbnb has done this, it's crazy!
The worst thing is that no one will explain anything to me!
Paula
Hi Lizzie, it's happened to me today. CS have been no help, just an impersonal email exactly the same as all the other hosts who have been de listed have received.
Please help!
Paula
Hi Steven, the same thing happened to me today- 3 of my listings removed, same impersonal email that you received.
Any advice or help would be really welcome!
Robin
@paula....Hey Paula, it looks like a line has been drawn in the sand, and hosts with multiple listings are systematically having their listings removed. The original Airbnb concept was to have people stay in a hosts 'shared space'....a spare room, a loft in the house, a cottage in the back yard! But over the years we are seeing more and more hosts in a situation where they are listing more and ever more properties and are virtually using Airbnb as a hotel booking site!
Air bnb are walking a tightrope between hosts such as your self with multiple listings and local government authorities who are coming under ever increasing pressure from the traditional hospitality industry to make you conform to the stringent government requirements they have to.....and Paula, it looks like local government are winning!
I have not heard of a single host worldwide who has had their solitary single listing threatened in this way. It seems to be a purge purely on hosts with a number of listings.
The unfortunate thing from your point of view is the secrecy leading up to this! Unfortunately nothing has been flagged about what is happening. I know Airbnb are doing a lot of work in the background with local juristictions around the world, but it is disappointing that none of the progress of that work is filtering down to the hosting community.
I am sorry for the situation this is putting you in Paula....you are no doubt an amazing host, but you are being seen as a boutique hotel rather than a home host and that appears to be where the problem lies!......cheers.....Rob
Hassan And Hussein
@paula Hi Paula Did some of your listings get unlisted today as well ??
Paula
Hi Hassan, yes today, out of the blue, and no explenation from Airbnb. I went onto the community forum and it seems to be happening to a lot of hosts. Did they hit you with it too?!
Paula
Thanks for getting back to me Rob- it makes a lot of sense. The way in which they did it was awful though, and I now need to figure out a way forward!
Robin
@paula.....Oh dear....I feel for you guys and what is happening at the moment. Paula I am in touch with similar hosts and no doubt you are too, so I am simply 'copying and pasting' between posts.
Yeah I understand, I am a superhost myself! But I would love to know if any single listing hosts have been affected in this way.......I am very active on the CC, and Paula I read virtually every post on this site, and I have not come across this occurence where just one listing is involved. I agree with Hassan in another post, it is terribly confusing and it appears, it has only just started.
For your sake Paula, Hassan, Peter and many others, I hope that some way can be found to accommodate you guys and still work within the framework of Airbnb....because you hosts with long standing are the experience, the base that has made Airbnb such a big platform. Many of the new hosts who come to the CC....and to hosting have do idea of what they are doing, (I even struck one who cancelled her very first booking because a better one popped up and could not understand why she had a problem!!!) and as another long time superhost said to me..."They are simply trashing the brand" ! Not so you guys...you have done the hard work!
Good luck, Paula, Hassan, I will follow your progress...and I hope it works out for you.....cheers....Rob
Doreen
Dear Peter,
I am glad to have found someone who has had the same discusting experience as me. I have been with them since 2011 when they were'nt as big as they are now. I received an email from them also saying that they were removing one of my listing because 'Airbnb guests needs to connect with hosts who provide local and authentic experiences that make the city a better place to live, work and visit.' My overall rating is 4/5. 95% of my guests are happy with their stay, so I am baffled as to why they have removed my listing. I sent them an email asking them to explain whats wrong with my apartment, and they havent even bothered to reply. You would have expected them to at least inform you of any overlooked problems regarding your listing that needs looking at so that you can rectify it, rather than an email telling you that your listing will be removed and will never be allowed back on their site. Very unprofessional for a well established company to treat their hosts who have help them get big over the years.
I sympathise with you.
Doreen.
Robin
@doreen @paula....Doreen, I am so sorry that this is happening to you but read my posts above, I think they spell it out for you.
I agree 100% that to be kept in the dark the way you have, and then given this nebulous explanation about not conforming to hosting standards is a bit ridiculous.....But Doreen, you have to see what is going on here! The traditional hostpitality industry is hemoraging while "Home hosting" is going from strength to strength! Obviously they are going to fight back, and that is what is happening. Before this purge is over many thousands of hosts are going to be affected and I am just sorry that you and Paula and Hassam and Peter and God knows how many more are going to be casualties. To government authorities, and the community at large, you are not 'Home Hosts' you are boutique hotels using the Airbnb platform...and I am afraid, that's where the problem lies.
I feel for you because you are what has made this platform great, you have met challenges, solved them, and been successful, and you have given Airbnb the strength that it now has, and I do so hope that there will be a solution to this mess where the arm that has fed Airbnb for so long will still be able to contribute....and I am going to follow your progess.....I can't do any more than that.... cheers.....Rob
Lizzie
Hello @paula,
Thanks for tagging me here. I am sorry to read your post and worry.
I am afraid I have no information on this at the moment, I am so sorry I can't be of more help here.
I wish you the best. Lizzie
Not sure where to start...take at look at the Community Help Guides in the 'Getting Started' board.
Guneet
Hi All,
I have just read through this entire thread. Just an hour ago, I logged into my account to find virtually all of my listings de-listed.
I immeditately contacted airbnb thinking my account was hacked to be told that they have removed nearly all my listings.
I have 400 glowing reviews, all 4 star and above, a response rate of 98%. I personally meet and great majority of guests and I am shocked to find out my listings have been removed and unsure of why.
Any help would be grately appreciated.
Regards
Guneet
Anne Marion
The same here in Amsterdam, single listings and multiple listings were being removed at december the 23th. For the rest, the same story as written above....it happened to a lot of hosts as wel as superhosts. The only thing what you can do is start again on a other booking site. Airbnb has gone way to big.
William
I have read through this thread. lizzie When do expect to get some clear indication of what is happening? We have one listing ( previously had 2) both in home in London in which we live. Delisted this week. Have spoken to customer service every day to no avail.
Monica
I noticed this morning, when looking at the map of my area, that it looks blanker than usual. So, I am assuming that this is also happening in Montreal, Quebec? I have read a rumour that Airbnb is looking at purchasing other hosting platforms - but don't know which ones. So it is surprising to me that they haven't tried to hang on to those hosts having properties delisted to get them to move onto another platform that Airbnb is viewing to purchase. Does anyone here know which hosting sites Airbnb is looking to purchase? I suppose it's hush hush until the deal is done....by why alienate future revenue sources?
My listing is on Flipkey and VBRO (HomeAway), and I pound the pavement with my business cards. In no way would I ever put all my eggs into one basket (Airbnb).
Ritsuko
Monica, When AirBNB purchase other sites/platforms they close them down and incorperate their members into AirBNB.
Monica
Not if it is a traditional, commercial, hosting site such as booking.com or villas, flipkey or some others that hosts use for their hospitality business. Airbnb would have to remove all of those listings as they have done with the hosts that have multiple listings on Airbnb so what would be the purpose of purchasing such a site?
Mirjam
In Amsterdam, hosts were removed who rented out a part of the house they are living in the whole year through. If this is less than 40% of your house and you have a permission of the city you can do this. Still those hosts were removed from Airbnb's website, although they followed the Amsterdam city rules. One host got two messages on the same day: telling that he would be removed because he was not renting out according to the Airbnb rules and a message telling that het got a superhost status again.. How can we know if Airbnb is not explaining anything? For those who understand Dutch: here is one of our duped hosts on local TV: bit.ly/1KhqHuB
Monica -
"Since mid-2011, Airbnb has acquired several of its competitors. The first of which was Accoleo based in Hanover, Germany."
"Prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, Airbnb acquired London-based rival CrashPadder, subsequently adding six thousand international listings to its existing inventory."
Nargess
The BBC are doing an investigation regarding this, contact amirsadjady on
twitter if this has happened to you.
Guneet
Everyone, please see the article by BBC in UK. I hope this brings some light to the situation.
Regards
Guneet
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35574971?ocid=socialflow_twitter
Michael
Something similar has happened to me, a super host with over 73 great reviews and very pleased guests. I received this yesterday and am flummoxed to say the least. I have built my life around being a host and now the rug was pulled out from me abruptly and without recourse.
Thank you for uploading your ID for our ID Verification process. Upon review, and given information uncovered pursuant to online public records, we have determined that it is in the best interest of Airbnb, and for the users on our site, to deactivate your account permanently. We realize that this may come as a disappointment and that you may have questions regarding this determination. We hope you understand that this decision is exercised at our sole discretion and that we are not obligated to provide an explanation as to the action taken against your account, nor are we liable to a user in any way with respect to deactivating or canceling his or her account.
Should you choose to dispute the decision, please submit any documents you think may be relevant to us, at no additional cost to Airbnb. We will forward those documents to our Legal Department for review before any decision regarding reinstatement of your account can be made.
Additionally, please understand that this removal will also entail the immediate termination of your pending or accepted bookings. As such, we may: communicate to your guests that a potential or confirmed booking has been cancelled; and 2) refer guests or potential guests to alternate accommodations which may be available.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Best regards,
Lance O
Has anyone else gotten messages like this?
They are not respoding to my emails and are not telling me what "relevant documents" they want.
I had over 4 months of confirmed bookings. I'm really quite messed up over this at the moment.
Ritsuko
Michael- It appears to me that they checked up on you, after receiving your ID documents, and found that you have a criminal record.
Robin
@ritsuko....To even suggest that is a rather inflamitory and nasty thing to bring up! Do you have personal details of other hosts past which you are simply prepared to air in public? michael's past history has nothing to do with you! If there has been some sort of past legality it may have been for something quite trivial, and if this is the sort of comment you are prepared to suggest in public on a forum site I personally will make a point of not reading any of your further posts.....definitely no cheers in this case.....Rob
Ritsuko
Hi Robin, No not at all inflamitory, or nasty Just a fact.
Yes, there have been several similar cases aired via FaceBook and on Twitter.
Yes, evidently (from the users who have detailed their cases) some very trivial matters from when they were quite young, caused their AirBNB accounts to be terminated.
Also, I never said that a users past history had anything to do with me. I just pointed out why this user's account was most likely terminated. If you read what AirBNB sent to this user it is quite clear that they checked public records. This is what the other cases I read about mentioned as well.
Some other resons that user accounts are terminated are if the users have any connection to the "sex industry".
By the way, I am not Ritsuko, I am her husband. I am a verified and authorised POC on the account. However, AirBNB do not differentiate bettween us when we post or when we report site errors etc.
My apologies, I should have made that clear when I posted.
John
Robin
@ritsuko Hi John, I still stand behind what I said.....We all have something in our past that would prefer stayed there. Whether it is fact or not, I am sure there are things in your past, just as in mine, that you would not want alluded to on a world wide forum site.
If you were going to be reasonable about your comments, and act in the spirit of the Community Centre, then you would have restricted your statement to that section of your last post.....'Yes, evidently (from the users who have detailed their cases) some very trivial matters from when they were quite young, caused their AirBNB accounts to be terminated.'....instead of simply blurting out, 'it's your past criminal history'!!
At least don't make Michael look like a serial rapist or some other totally undesirable!
It's how you worded it that got my back up John.....cheers....Rob