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My listing keeps spontaneously changing to “unlisted”. This has been happening for weeks now, and I only now realize it was not my fault - it is your system doing it spontaneously. Every time I change it to listed, four seconds later it is unlisted again. On a possibly related note, I see under the top-right “Host” drop-down it says “finish your listing” - although when I click on that it just goes to editing the listing, which obviously is complete because I’ve already been successfully renting it out. One other fluky thing is I set min rental period to 7 days and it switched back to 1 day spontaneously. Are you dealing with serious bugs? Or is there something specific going on with my listing in particular?
In response to the above paragraph, airbnb has only sent one reply which said “You should have already received a reply.” Nonsensical and they just are not paying attention. I am really perplexed
Thanks for any insight!
I’m having the same problem and the answer from airbnb is "You should have received a message on November 23rd with additional information. Please reference that for more details."
I have not received anything and they are ignoring me… Any tips? I hope you have solved it!
Here is the reply I finally did get after 3 weeks of my listing flipping to “unlisted” without any explanation - nor anything but misinformation from Airbnb support:
Frank R., Nov 26, 07:51:
Hello Eric,
My name is Frank and I work here at Airbnb. My colleague let me know you had questions related to your listing in Santa Monica.
The City of Santa Monica has recently ramped up its enforcement efforts and issued citations including levying fines on Airbnb for over 100 listings in Santa Monica. More specifically, on October 30, Airbnb received a citation from the City of Santa Monica stating that your listing is an illegal vacation rental under Santa Monica law requiring us to remove your listing from the site. We are complying with that requirement and have deactivated your listing on November 12th.
While we’re unable to advise our community members about their personal situations regarding local regulations, HOA or lease agreements, I can note that the City of Santa Monica does have a permitting process for Airbnb hosts.,
You can find information specific to the current regulatory environment in Santa Monica here:
Indeed, true to his word, any further inquiries I had only received a response that they could not provide me any further details or specialized help on this matter.
I still have not received any extra info from them, I cannot believe how unprofessional they are being. I believe you are right and it is a similar case, my listing is in Barcelona, but it is completely legal…
I hope you managed to solve it. I am looking for airbnb alternatives, it is shocking as I have always worked towards helping them and now this happens.
Yup… you are officially out of business. Sorry to hear it. I guess they are really taking these things seriously. But I wonder what does constitute an “official” vacation rental in the City of Santa Monica?
Well last I checked there were still active listings for full abodes in Santa Monica, so it seems arbitrary. (A share - just leasing your room - is not subject to this new restriction.)
Eric, what does it mean “illegal”? You did not have license?
I keep hearing this word used in relation to Airbnb rentals and can not understand why hosts choose to not obtain license which can not be a more simpler procedure.
What does it take to become “legal” in LA? If its only getting a license, how difficult is it?
I am in Hollywood, Florida, and getting a license took me 10 minutes and 86$. I applied, and then in 3 weeks i received an official license.
There are other sites that you can try too. Airbnb is not the only one
It’s not LA in general - it is (only) Santa Monica in particular. It is not a matter of getting a license. Airbnb is giving mixed/ambiguous info, but all signs indicate that SM has made it completely illegal to do short-term rentals (other than shares) – there is no procedure for applying for the “license” airbnb mentions anywhere. This is a brand new law.
Same is happening in Barcelona, Airbnb is not giving information, they do not say why they are unlisting places and in fact it is only a bunch of properties, not all. You can still see lots of places in the same area.
Obtaining a license here is almost impossible but if you rent medium - long term then you do not need it (as it is my case), so it makes no sense at all to me.
Thats not good. I hear from now and then that it happened to people with multiple listings.
I wonder though how local authorities get the info which appartment is listed with Air. You cant see the adress until you book. I wonder what is the procedure to detect the lstings.
Hi, my listing in Barcelona has also been unlisted, I have sent several messages to Airbnb and been totally ignored, for a company that apparently prides themselves on service I’m really shocked about the way they are treating people here. If it is to do with the local laws surely they could send everyone a message saying they have 30 days to update their license number or their listing will be removed. For a company this size to instruct it’s staff to simply ignore the people who have made them a company worth billions seems incredible. I have a couple of theories, first maybe they are waiting till all future bookings have passed so that disgruntled hosts don’t cancel on guests and leave them without accommodation, second idea is maybe they have been hacked and they don’t want to admit it as it would have such a big effect on their share price. It just makes no sense to ignore us, we have mortgages and bills to pay and at Christmas this couldn’t have come at a worse time. I have now decided to rent long term, I will never use Airbnb to rent my property or to rent a holiday house again.
It happened to me too! I’ve been talking to airbnb support team 4 times (every time with different agent) and they could not address it saying everything seems to be fine on their end.
I ended up opening new account for myself and re-created my listing from scratch. Thanks I did not have any valued history or reviews yet.
Thanks Nico, I did consider that but I have a feeling it’s something bigger than a technical hitch, I think Airbnb would come clean and at least try to help but it seems they are being told not to reply. I have around 90 great reviews and it would seem a real shame to loose them. It seems from other messages on here that this is what Airbnb do when they are having problems with the local councils but what seems strange is we haven’t been notified or given the chance to provide license numbers.
I have exactly the same problem in Barcelona.
I called several times and been told that they cannot do anything as it has been unlisted by Airbnb and I should write to quality@airbnb.com.
I wrote several e-mails but never got a reply.
I used also wrote from the help page on the web to expose my problem and I received an e-mail from the suport telling that they forwarded my message to the right department and that I will be contacted soon but nobody contacted me till now.
I’m very disappointed with Airbnb.
I have over 50 review and 5 stars all the time and creating a new space means start from zero.
Definitely something going on in Barcelona!!! I’m really sorry to hear they pulled the rug out from you guys without explanation. They may not have one or are just working through the municipality problems. Maybe they will reactivste you soon.
Yes, Thy did exactly the same with me . The only email I received is an automatic message that says
We have received your message regarding your account. Our mission is to allow Airbnb guests to connect with hosts who provide local and authentic experiences that make the city a better place to live, work and visit. We routinely carry out initiatives for quality purposes and adherence to this mission. The outcome cannot be changed.
HI Eric
How did all end up? I too am a Santa Monica host, and I just got the following email from them. i am wondering how they can shut you down if they don’t have the address? Are you back up? There must be some way to navigate this . Did you get fined? grateful for any feedback
Hi Host
Last year, Santa Monica passed an ordinance that requires residents to obtain a home sharing permit if they rent their home for thirty days or less.
You can now include the six-digit home sharing permit number issued by the City of Santa Monica for your Santa Monica listings in the “Other Things to Note” section of your listing.
To include your permit number on your listing, go to Manage Listing > Calendar and More > Detailed Description. In the “Other Things to Note” field, type in your permit number.
As a reminder, Santa Monica’s municipal code prohibits unhosted rentals (i.e. reservations where a primary resident is not present during the entire reservation) of thirty days or less. Hosts are permitted to offer hosted rentals in Santa Monica for stays of thirty days or less only if:
A primary resident is present at the listing throughout the reservation
The host obtains a home sharing permit from the City of Santa Monica
The host complies with other requirements described on our Responsible Hosting page for Santa Monica and on Santa Monica’s website.
Santa Monica has issued fines to some hosts for violating the city’s home sharing ordinance, and we expect the city could do so again in the future.
If you have specific questions about the permit process, please visit Santa Monica’s website or contact Santa Monica’s Planning and Community Development Department at (310) 458-8341. If you have any other questions, please contact santamonicahosts@airbnb.com.
