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I’m reaching out to you guys here because I honestly have no idea what else to do to get this situation resolved. Before I start, I want to take full responsibility for my bosses account being disabled. I had no idea that he had to link me as a co-host to help him manage his account and respond to people. He just told me to put his home on Airbnb and so I made him an account and put my own contact info in the account because he wanted me to respond and everything for him. Because I have my own personal Airbnb account that I have used in the past for travel, I’m sure it flagged the system when I put down my number as the point of contact on his home on this second account. Then, my personal Airbnb account was also disabled and I couldn’t even go back and change my mistake and have him add me in as a co-host. I’ve written tons of emails trying to apologize and explain what happened. I just made an honest mistake and we haven’t even started booking yet. This all happened before the property was even live. We haven’t communicated with a single person yet so I’m hoping that they can forgive the misunderstanding.
He just spent a ton of money on this place fixing it up all nice for guests and getting the place professionally photographed and I’m fearful that I completely screwed him out of renting his home because I listed his property incorrectly. None of the other websites had an issue with me listing myself as the contact so I figured that Airbnb was the same. I’m an honest person and I was super excited to be given the opportunity by him to help rent his home and I would really appreciate some advice. I work for myself, I am not a property manager with a company or anything. I worked at a coffee shop until my now boss, a family friend, offered me a job helping him with Airbnb so I quit my last job to focus on getting his home ready and now i’ve basically ruined our relationship with Airbnb by accident and this is literally the most important website for listing your property.
I’ve used Airbnb personally several times, whether on my personal account or a friends’ and I’ve always had wonderful experiences and always respected the spaces I rented and have good reviews from people who have hosted me.
I reached out to Airbnb via their email and over the phone. I even just now made a Twitter because I didn’t have one, only to Tweet Airbnb because people have said that that sometimes helps. I sent them photos of me in the house so that they know that I have access to the property and I’m not a stranger. I sent a video as well. I sent them a photo of the blank check that my boss gave to me so that I could add the bank info to the website. On the check it has his name and address, the address of the home I am trying to help him rent. I feel like I’ve really tried to make things right and I’m fearful that it won’t work out in the end.
If anyone has any advice at all, please let me know.
When I call, the representative says that it is out of their hands and not their division and belongs to technical support. They say that technical support doesn’t have a direct line and that they will reach out to me. When they reach out to me, they send me this:
"Hi Bri,
Thanks for reaching out. We regret to inform you that we’ll be unable to support your account moving forward, and have exercised our discretion under our Terms of Service to disable your account(s). This decision is irreversible and will affect any duplicated or future accounts.
Please understand that we are not obligated to provide an explanation for the action taken against your account. Furthermore, we are not liable to you in any way with respect to disabling or canceling your account. Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed.
We’ll contact you if anything changes in the future, but until then, we won’t be able to assist you any further with your account issues.
Best regards,
Alex"
They do not give me a reason but like I explained, I did technically violate their terms because I put my contact information on my boss’ account because I didn’t know that that wasn’t allowed and I didn’t realize yet that co-hosting was an option yet or I would have simply had him add my personal Airbnb account as a co-host. I know that I broke a rule but we only just made the account and haven’t had any interactions with guests yet so I hoped that they would be more understanding.
Hmm…well there’s nothing we can do for you on this forum. You just need to keep trying to contact them/explain. Not to say I told you so, but it’s important to read the TOS and also find out what local regulations you might need to adhere to (business license, etc.), before listing. It will save you a lot of headaches down the road.
Try posting your first entry on the Air facebook page. You might want to edit it down a little. Just the facts. I attempted to set up a new property as the owner’s designated agent on Airbnb but the account has been disabled, apparently because I also have a personal travel account with Airbnb. Our organization is very interested in doing business with Airbnb, but Alex on the Airbnb Technical Support team has informed me that he cannot work with us. If there is any way we can move forward in a mutually profitable relationship, please contact me. Bri Joy, Business Development Manager, [Owner’s Name] Enterprises. [Give yourself an official sounding title]
In dealing with your boss, stop the tape in your head saying "I screwed up, I screwed up, I screwed up."
For any business error, first, what can we do to mitigate it (make things better), and move on. Then, what did we learn and should we change anything going forward to avoid that error in the future. (It is also helpful to remind yourself that nobody is going to die because of this.)
You are your boss’s agent for this property, and Air’s system is poorly designed if there’s no way to set that up easily.
That’s for real, and that’s how to present it to the boss. "Unlike the other platforms, Air is not set up for agents, so they disabled our listing [note you’re saying “our” listing, you and the boss are a team trying to figure this out together] because I cannot open a second account in my name. I apologize that I didn’t research this in more detail before proceeding. I have contacted Airbnb to resolve this, and in the meantime, we are listed and open for business on VRBO, Flipkey, [wherever else you are listed].
I am also researching setting up a web page for the property for more exposure. Also looking into contracting with management companies that do corporate rentals [if the property is in a major metropolitan area].
If it’s a resort area, VBRO might do well for you.
Good luck, it is more important what you do now to move forward than what you did in the past.
I can’t even express how grateful I am that you took the time to write all of this down for me. I will do my best. I’m not usually the type to act like a victim by any means but It’s hard to exude confidence and act like I have it all together when I clearly didn’t pay close enough attention when setting up the profile. Ironically, I spent 3 days on the phone with the city of Los Angeles researching the transient tax laws and everything that goes into legally reporting taxes in our state and running a legal operation. I learned that Airbnb collected and distributed taxes on our behalf but that we still needed to file monthly income reports, taking Airbnb as a legal deduction, etc. etc. I wrote out charts and made a huge effort detailing every legality, but I rushed though the profile creation. Just a nightmare. Regardless, I am going to continue to try my best to resolve this, and if this whole Twitter attempt doesn’t lead to anything, then I will rewrite that letter using your tips. They responded to my Tweets and said they have “updated my case” and are looking into it but I know that that is just something that they say to calm people down. I’m not getting my hopes up. It’s a gorgeous property, located in the heart of Sherman oaks. If anyone wants to see it, it’s listed on multiple sites, including VRBO as “Private Modern LA Oasis” for $1250 per night. Thank you so much for your help. Nearly brought me to tears to be honest.
Unfortunately that’s exactly what i did do and know everything about city regulations and didn’t think to double check whether or not it was a problem to put myself as the contact on the account. I’m aware that it was a very poor decision on my behalf. Thank you for your correspondence. I do appreciate all the help.
Here’s the thing, they told me in that email that they don’t have to give me an explanation so I am only making assumptions based on what I know that i did wrong after research.
I put my bosses account in my name and put down my phone number because he wanted me to take care of everything for him. Of course I put his proper bank info in and had that in his name but I still had uploaded a photo of myself and also wrote “hi my name is bri and I am the booking coordinator for this listing. Blah blah blah” I wasn’t trying to be sneaky or pretend like I was the owner by any means.
I have a personal Airbnb account that I have used before. That account also had my phone number linked to it and you can’t have two accounts according to Airbnb so when I put my phone number it’s my bosses account, I’m sure it was flagged in their system.
Those are my offenses. I know that no one is going to die but my boss literally just put $20,000 into this house to make it perfect. So yeah, massive oversight on my part. Massive daily panic attacks to come.
As a separate issue, why did you give up your job to act as a co-host for just one property. Unless it is a super high end place you are highly unlikely to make enough as a co-host to support you.
Honestly, you shouldn’t need Airbnb for a place like this. This is much more in line with the vacation rental industry. Ironically this would be the kind of place that would qualify for Airbnb Plus or the luxury promos they want to do in the future.
I hope those are cameras for a CCTV you can monitor remotely I see on the exterior corners of the property.
I’d spend my time working on the website and using other platforms. The worst part now is your own travel account being closed down. You might just try getting new phone numbers if that’s all they use to distinguish people on the platform.
