Good day everyone. I have been a Superhost at Airbnb for 4 years plus, never had to use a case manager. I was recently wronged and accused by another host with whom I stayed on my recent trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
I was contacted by the case managers from Japan, then Singapore, who did not tell me what the problem was, was also reassigned to two different managers, who never contacted me. My account was blocked, I was removed from Airbnb community for not even knowing the reason. Unbelievable.
I contacted Safety Department, after general messages back in forth, no calls and nothing concrete, the same result. Do not know what to do.
Anyone with similar situation or a similar experience? Are there any contacts higher up?
Corporate or Administrative or Legal, for that matter? Case managers and representative from Safety Department seem to have no desire to follow any professional or fair tactics and practically do whatever they want.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Care to share what the issue was here? You say this but also say
Iâm confused about if they are or are not related.
Based on stories posted here it seems that if Airbnb suspends your account you donât have much recourse. One fellow here was suspended for over a year and his business suffered greatly. I think he was accused of anti-gay bias. Someone else was accused of having an undisclosed firearm and was also suspended for months with no due process procedure. Itâs Airbnbâs playground and they they are just letting us play on it.
Thanks for replying. There is a legal recourse, as far I as I am reading Airbnb rules for legal arbitration. My issue is laughable, a host who doesnât speak English but mostly Japanese and a jealous husband who has installed hidden cameras in their house. Upon me questioning it, creating a big problem.
Nevertheless, I wanted to see if there was anyone with an either a knowledge how to get to the legal or administrative department in Airbnb headquarters in San Francisco or if there is anyone with an experience in arbitration with Arbnb.
Itâs hard to tell from what youâve said. If Airbnb have closed your account, then thatâs usually it - they rarely go into the matter any further. What I donât understand is why theyâve closed your account though? You discovered a hidden camera, objected to the host ⌠then what? There must have been more to it than that surely?
Quite often in these circumstances accounts are closed because of improper sexual stuff or some sort of discrimination. Are you certain that you did nothing that could be wrongly construed by a non-English speaking person? Or anything you could have done without realising?
Jackie, nothing of that sort. On a contrary, I helped her cancel a reservation of someone she did not like and who had a picture of a âbloodied vampireâ as his main profile picture. We canceled it together on the phone with customer service representative and her authenticating her account and allowing me to help her on the phone because she didnât speak fluent English and asked for my help. Representative assured us that there would be no penalties for cancellation, however the following day Airbnb computer assessed a penalty, host got upset and the host went berserk, subsequently calling Airbnb and telling them that I canceled the reservation.
This is what happened, if you like to know.
Is the listing still available? In other words, was that account closed too?
I do not think so, I think it is still available as she was the one reporting. Funny enough I didnât even say anything to Airbnb with regards to the cameras throughout the house. She said that her was having problems with her husband and he didnât trust her, hence decision to install cameras. He is frequent at one of the strip poker clubs in Las Vegas. She even asked me if I ever went. Seriously, lol. I nevertheless decided to be nice, not report her and actually even help her, as the account was less than 2 months old and she didnât speak English sufficiently.
Would never help another new, inexperienced host again. Learned my lesson.
Should I check if her account is still open? Any helpful new information or ideas you have in mind?
Thank you for commenting.
My feeling is that if her account is still open and her listing is still available, Airbnb have made up their minds that youâre the one at fault. As far as they are concerned they have dealt with the âguilty partyâ.
This means that the likelihood of getting your account reinstated are remote. It has happened, as @KKC said above, but that depends to some extent on how much time, effort and (probably) money you are prepared to devote to the fight. And it will be a fight.
Remember that when we all signed up for Airbnb, we âagreed to the terms and conditionsâ despite the fact that most of us didnât even read them, let alone study them carefully. And Iâm sure that they are pretty cast-iron and were created by a team of top lawyers. So even if you spent time and money, thereâs certainly no guarantee that youâll win.
Personally, Iâd spend that time generating business for my rental using others OTAs and my own resources. (âSuccess is the best revengeâ)
Hidden cameras, strip poker ⌠it sounds to me that she was coming on to you and turned into a woman scornedâŚ
I understand what you are saying and you are very correct, Airbnb has a very strong legal defense in their favor, not excluding initial disclosures we all agreed to initially. However everyone is entitled to a fair treatment, especially if you are wrongly accused regardless if signed legal disclosures. We are not leaving in the totalitarian country without any rights.
What i am asking is if you have any information that would help me to get to a Department within Airbnb that has control over any of case managers or Safety Department. Anyone that they report to? Who is above them within corporations? Thank you for reading this and your responses.
Reach out on social media with your story.Twitter Facebook etc. This is so sad to hear. Good luck
Airbnb is a commercial enterprise. You donât have a ârightâ to use it. Airbnb talks about what they owe you in their TOS, but you wonât find any enlightenment ideals in thereâŚthey are a (benign) dictatorship, not a democracy.
Once theyâve made a decision (and it sounds like they have) your option is binding arbitration. Youâll find the process outlined in their TOS.
I understand it Allison and agree with you a 100% and it very well may be the case, however it does not mean that Airbnb, as a corporation and commercial entity, is not subject to the same rules of fair dealings and business practices, as others. For example, if you are employed by a corporation and a another member or an employee accuses you of something, there has to be a reasonable and fair investigation done, before taking any actions.
Here AIRBNB, does not conduct it even remotely thoroughly, as assigned managers do not call, get reassigned at will, loose case information and it also doesnât get recorded completely in the computer. Representatives tell me that I have a right to ask for a different case manager, yet the same manager is telling me otherwise. You can not get a phone call from a Safety Department and they simply ignore some of your messages. You are at a mercy of one person ( âcase managerâ ) at all times. It really happened to me at least.
Airbnb âdue diligenceâ has gotten significantly worse over the years. I am reading in different forums, that they rarely train âcase managersâ and pretty much hire anyone with a pulse. Subsequently, too much power giving to the same case managers and you can not complain or have another department review decision.
Hence, my questions if there was a way to attempt to resolve it without going into a full blown legal arbitration. You are correct, legal arbitration, is one option we all have.
Thank you very much for your input.
When one company f&#^$ is up this thoroughly, the resolution is to take your business elsewhere. As soon as I find a better OTA, Iâll stop listing on Airbnb. The problem right now is that nobody is bigger or better.
The reason no one here has provided another solution is because there isnât one. All your well reasoned statements about fairness and transparency donât apply to Airbnb.
The odd situation of indoor cameras that you knew were inappropriate and didnât report, jealous husbands, chatting about strip clubs, helping her cancel a reservation of someone she âdidnât like,â and comments about poor EnglishâŚall these red flags tell me that Airbnb is not going to help you. Iâm sorry you donât see it that way but they have thousands of hosts and millions of guests and you are a liability, not an asset. Iâm not saying this about you personally, obviously I donât know you, Iâm just trying to point out to you what Airbnbâs point of view is going to be.
We have a member here who has sued Airbnb for de-listing her and a guest for defamation. Both cases are still pending but so far she hasnât won. She is continuting to try to make a point and perhaps force Airbnb to change but so far itâs been a lot of work and no victory. She did get reinstated to the platform though. So maybe if you work on it long enough they will open your account again.
Yes, yes we are in such a place according to the TOS
RR
Case managers are no different than call centre supervisors. Underpaid slave job with a fancy title. They really canât give a shit and donât need to cuz they wonât be in that position for long. They abuse their little authority and make themselves Judge Judy.
Avoid dealing with them especially if you are a host.
Who should I deal instead? Right a letter to anyone in the corporate? Any ideas?
Who should I deal with? Letter to someone in the corporate? Any ideas?
Try calling from a different phone number than the one registered with Air and see if you can talk to someone, I think they have flagged your number and it goes into a dark hole. Hit them up on FB and twitter.
Good luck
RR