AirBnb Doing Quality Control?

So, I had someone IB this past weekend. I chatted with the guest briefly about why she was coming, etc. No red flags from what I could gather. Later that evening I get the following email from Air:

"We hope this message finds you well. Reservation ________ with _______ has been canceled in our system. This reservation was set to start on 2020-01-16.

Unfortunately, we’ve received quality assurance information regarding this guest and we’re no longer able to support them as a member of our Airbnb community. Your calendar should now be open for the affected dates.

We’ve also reached out to _________ to let them know this is no longer an active reservation. We’ve refunded them in full and they are aware that we’ve let you know about this cancellation.

*Please know that Airbnb would never attempt to act in a manner that would compromise you as a host, and situations like these are very rare. We truly apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused"

I figured I dodged a bullet and was pleasantly surprised to see Air being so proactive in vetting out guests that could present issues. We got another booking almost right away for the same dates which was great.

The guest texted me this morning asking if she could still stay with us. I told her no, of course.

Just thought I would share! This is a first for me. Has anyone experienced this before? Have you ever learned what the “quality assurance” issues were?

I told the guest I wasn’t comfortable hosting her and she was understanding. Still, it’s a little concerning that she was able to grab my phone number off the reservation. Means she may have my address too.

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I got one of these last fall. The CS told me they couldn’t really tell me the issue but alluded to payment issues. However, the guest ended up in my city for those dates anyway (it was a university parents weekend) and messaged me, saying “he’d still like to come by and just check the place out and meet me”. Creepy, much? So, I guess that it wasn’t merely payment issues, but am not sure.

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Yes I had couple of those almost 5 years ago . But now I think they do quality control of me . It’s like someone reporting me over and over again . They lock my account then unlock it . Recently they asked for utility bill on my name and new photos not the ones that already there . And this is after almost 5 years.

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That’s awful! Are you aware of anything specific happening that led them to start doing that or was it just after those initial emails?

I started having suspicion that someone reporting me . Have no idea who . I don’t host in Airbnb as much as I did before and my last incident happened awhile ago more than a year. Me and guest both reported each other :slight_smile: and that was very fast clarified without interruption . Then I started having these lock outs " we are looking into this" messages . Then they unlock me . Few days later lock me again . It’s like a little game is played . Some weeks was several times a week . Then I think it was last week they suddenly started asking me all these questions and then I has to send them proof that me is me .

I had this a couple times. It usually has to do with a payment issue or a more serious guest violation (scam, bad behavior, etc.)

However, sometimes it has nothing to do with bad guests, and more about Air’s buggy site or poor processes. Air held one guests’ reservation in limbo for 3 days with their background check; on the day of arrival it seems it timed out and I got this message. Guests booked directly and didn’t murder me in my sleep.

Just this week several guests and hosts had accounts deleted because of a bug on the site. A pop-up asked them to agree to some kind of policy, but it wouldn’t recognize them clicking “accept”. When they tried to just dismiss the box, their accounts were deleted (along with reviews and reservations). CS was able to reinstate their accounts, but reservations were already cancelled.

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Yes, a few times. But I’ve never asked for a reason or heard from the guest again. If I had I would have assumed the guest was trying it on and ignored him or her.

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That sounds incredibly exhausting. I’m sorry you have to deal with that!

Oh yeah I saw a post about this…how stressful!!!

The guest I had used IB and I require them to have an ID on file in order to do so. It wasn’t a new account or anything so who knows what the issue is. I told her that if Air was able to get her account up and running then I would be happy to host her…but new guests were already booked for her dates anyway. I feel sorry for the guest if it was simply a glitch on Air’s part…

Something similar happened to me a couple of years ago. It was a French couple who were doing a 3-week tour of the country and they’d booked my place well in advance. I can’t remember what message I received from Airbnb but they wouldn’t give any details.
Anyway, I had kept their phone number from the reservation so I contacted them to find out what was going on.

Apparently there was some mix-up with the credit card details that they had used to pay for all their bookings during their tour. They tried to fix it with CS but they did not speak much English and it seems there was nobody available to speak French with them :roll_eyes: So Air just cancelled all of their bookings. These people were already travelling and were left with nowhere to stay during the busiest season.

I speak some French so I told them to just come and pay me in cash. They were great guests and incredibly grateful, paid me a bit extra actually. Needless to say, they declared they would never use Airbnb again!

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If a mix-up in payment is the issue, I wish Air would specify. Or, assuming there is still time before the check-in date, allow guests some time to get another credit card on file before cancelling the reservation. I’ve definitely had payments declined from forgetting to update a new card or whatever so I totally get that it happens!

When they say “quality assurance”, my first assumption is that there was a behavioral complaint or that they were scammers, which is unfortunate if that isn’t the case.

I’m glad things worked out with you and your guests! I’m sure they were very thankful for your hospitality. Seems like Air needs to get more French speakers on board to support their international community :roll_eyes:

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I had this happen last July and the guest that was canceled called us screaming because we canceled on him. We explained it was AirBnB and he needed to contact them. July is our busiest month, we rebooked 4 of the 5 days in a few hours. He then called back screaming that he got things fixed with AirBnB, but we rented to someone else when he had been booked for months in advance. With as much screaming as this guy did I think we were lucky they canceled him lol…

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Lol…sounds like Airbnb saved you this time!

Exactly! This is what neither of us could understand. How can a booking be confirmed if the payment hasn’t been made successfully??

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I think this issue happens when guests opt for two payments over time rather than paying in full. If their card used expired before second payment or was compromised somehow and a new one issued AirBnB sends them an email which many say end up in their spam. They are given like 5 to 7 days to fix it, but if they don’t check the app or the message goes to spam they don’t fix it and AirBnB will cancel the reservation.

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Possibly. But I’m pretty sure that my own situation happened before that option was introduced. Honestly, I got the impression that the CS rep just got fed up with the language barrier. Guests said he just hung up on them :frowning:

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Apparently they do some intensive screening now.

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Houses were rented for vacations many years before Airbnb even existed . My family rented houses and appartments long before I even knew about Airbnb in many countries via travel agents and craigslist. Most houses required one week stays . I think the minim stay of 2-3 days has a lot to do with partiers . Airbnb just has this terrible publicity vs. other platforms who were never talked about and who serve same purpose .

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I have been blacklisted from Airbnb because a guest said I raised my voice to her. I have a witness who refutes this. She has none.
After seven years with Airbnb as an honored hostess, now a guest from no where’s word is more valuable than mine.
I am very hurt.

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While you may find a sympathetic audience here, you might get some action by posting to AirBnB’s Twitter account. Others have said that their ignored complaints got sudden attention when they were made public.

But I’d also like to know more… if we did, folks here might be able to offer some ideas or insight about how to make your case if they do pay attention.

This is why I’m very careful about watching for anything from guests suggesting that they might not be happy staying with me, so I can suggest cancelling within their 24 hour free cancellation.