After deciding that I would do longer term rental, we got a group coming in for work for a 30 day stay. I was concerned about squatting, talked to Airbnb, they have no recourse, messaged the guest and asked them to sign a lease which they agreed to. I needed an interpreter each communication, but the interpreter said everyone understood. We have a large property and the listing says several places that there will be exterior maintenance. And of course we had to verify our outdoor cameras like everyone in March.
Very few interactions, the language barrier made any easy communication difficult. They asked if I could meet with the interpreter to talk about extending the stay, so I agreed to come on the weekend.
They wanted to put 6 more people in the house (illegal and unsafe) and when I got into the house, there were several extra beds in the living room. Explained that they would have to pay for extra people, and only reserved for 6. They seemed fine and moved some guys to a hotel.
Long story short, my account was suspended and under investigation for 11 days. Airbnb kept asking about cameras, which I said had been properly disclosed and weren’t anymore. They wouldn’t tell me any of the allegations saying it was confidential. My entire account was deleted, and the guest given a full refund - on my account - of $3800 after they had stayed an entire month and had extra people. After the deletion, Airbnb said that I had entered the property without permission. I couldn’t even have guessed that was the allegation, as it never happened, so I never spoke to it. There were camera recordings of everything, but they’d been deleted by the time I knew what the allegations were. I’m going to sue in small claims, but I can’t find anything relating to this kind of issue. Anyone else heard of anything like this?
I am so sorry that you have to go through this difficult situation. Did you have cameras inside the house or outside? Did you disclose the locations of the cameras in your listing? Be aware, Airbnb forbids that cameras inside. Did you have all the conversations on the Airbnb messaging platform? Did you take photos when they had several extra beds in the living room? You need all the evidence: the conversation record that they asked you to come over to talk about extending the stay; The cameras disclosed on your listing; Photos as many as you have; etc. Keep calling Airbnb until you get a real responsible support. Even with small claim you might need all the evidence as well. Good luck!
Did you ask for permission? Was it in the Airbnb messaging app?
I never went into the house until they asked me to. There was no entry without them there, and they called to request it to talk about extending the stay. Of course the cameras were disclosed, and verified, the email in March made us all do it, which was fine.
Of course the cameras are disclosed, we all had to verify them even though they were disclosed in the listing already. It was a friendly visit, so I didn’t take pictures. I had the extra people on camera once I knew there were extra and sent screenshots. $3800 returned.
Phone conversation? There’s your fail. Always do all communication in the messaging app.
Good job getting signed lease.
So you should have their ID and someone to sue.
Tell them you will be taking them to court unless they pay you because airbnb did not pay you for their stay.
Maybe it’s a miscommunication or they would rather avoid the court stuff and they will pay.
Or maybe they are experienced scammers working the ‘airbnb system’.
The other thing is whoever speaks with CS first usually has the upper hand. And maybe CS actually couches them on what to say to get what they want. It’s horrible that they didn’t even hear your side before RULING on the matter.
We need regulation REQUIRING OTAs to use an outside arbitration or some process that gives both sides due process before being thrown off the platform. If they have near monopoly status they should be regulated.
I do rentals over 30 days. I dropped Airbnb two years ago because of their terrible customer service, but basically shorter terms stays (<30 days) fall under laws for hotels, longer term under rental tenants in my state (there’s a similar legal distinction many places). So my recouse would generally be to the lease and the court, not to airbnb. It is MUCH simpler and more lucrative to do longer terms without airbnb, because you collect the payment (and a deposit), you vet the tenants, and and there no interferring middle man that you have to pay. Regardless, always document by email.
Airbnb was set up for short term vacation rentals. Then they started pushing long term bookings without any of the safeguards in place that are normally used by landlords for long term- references, employment history, security deposits, first and last month’s rent upfront, etc.
The only thing they put in place is a long term cancellation policy, which is pointless if some CS rep decides to refund in contravention of the policy.