On your listing in the House Rules or in another section?
House rules. I’m learning the hard way how to deal with air bnb.
They seem to be very inconsistent. Some people say they were backed up, more say they weren’t. Don’t feel bad, most people learn the hard way regardless of the lesson.
I know that this sounds harsh, but if you think of Airbnb as being merely an advertising platform then it’s a lot simpler. Or look at it as an internet ‘dating service’, putting your potential guests in touch with you. Airbnb likes to dress things up in fancy ways - which is fine - but basically,you’re advertising a rental, that’s all. Everything else is up to you once Airbnb has done its job.
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I see replies that are calling this person unreasonable or descrimimatory. I think he’s being completely reasonable. I’m an Airbnb host and I don’t want anyone with a language barrier in my house. Sorry but I want to be able to communicate with people staying with me and my house rules are in English. Secondly, those “concerned” by the “baby haver” comment are a little sensitive as well. Maybe the listing is not suitable for infants. I’ll tell you what, I wouldn’t want any guests with an infant in my house either. Lighten up, folks.
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Just to be clear, Airbnb has very clear rules prohibiting discrimination. So if you decline for certain reasons they may suspend your account. Airbnb’s philosophy is that anyone can belong anywhere…like it or not.
You don’t have to let baby havers and non English speakers in your house…ever. Also Airbnb doesn’t have to allow you in their house, so to speak. Makes sense, right?
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Say that to a guest and they will report you.
I don’t really agree. It’s a lot more than a Craigslist. Yes you have to take responsibility, but Air does do more than just being an advertising platform. Maybe for some, but not true for everyone.
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The problem also is that they pretend to do more with their host guarantee and protection, as well as with security deposits. So what they are doing is very misleading (false advertising), as many hosts find out the hard way that there is no real protection or coverage for losses.
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Thank you (and @SuiteInSeattle, @Gardenhost, @KKC and a few others). I was surprised by many of the reactions here. I’ve been doing this for three years and have excellent ratings. I’ve never had to escalate an issue to support or make use of host protection or insurance. I know what I’m doing.
The listing is marked “not suitable” for children, pets, wheelchair access etc. so why should I not decline request from guests that ignore these? A lot of people here seem to read my issue about “low quality request” to be about low quality guests. The request is not a person. The request can be of low quality in many ways: 3rd party requests, requesting impossible check-in / check-out times, requesting off-AirBnB communications / payment, haggling over fees / rules, plus all the things @Gardenhost and @SuiteInSeattle already listed, and many many more.
In this particular case, 3rd party requests was the cause of most of my declines. It’s a political event and the people who want to attend are having their assistants make reservations for them. If a user books for another user and puts themselves down as a guest, that reservation is outside of the terms of service. And yet, I was the one being suspended.
I feel that AirBnB should a) communicate their rules clearly, b) issue warnings far ahead of any suspensions, c) provide actual human service to their hosts (particularly Super Hosts, as service is one of the touted benefits!). Longer term they should also improve their filters and screening options so guests can be spared the frustration.
That’s all I want. But according to (some) users here, I’m being unreasonable, judgmental and probably a racist.
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Frankly we’ve had our share of unreasonable and racist posters here. People troll the forum. So when someone posts for the first time and refers to “low quality requests, no common languages and baby havers,” that raises all kinds of red flags. Sorry you felt unsupported but just like some people aren’t a good fit for your home some people aren’t a good fit for the forum and we do try to screen out the bigots of all kind.
Also your statement that you’ve hosted hundreds of guests but were completely blindsided by the suspension seems suspect. You know what you’re doing yet… you didn’t know this. More than one poster here says we do know/there is a warning. So. I have IB and don’t generally decline requests so I’m not in a position to definitively say.
I’m now able to see your listing and it’s very nice. I can see why you get many requests. Your warning that you decline 80% of requests leapt out at me. Is this a new addition to your listing? Is it an exaggeration? If you do decline that many I believe you will continue to struggle with Airbnb. They want bookings. They want people to “belong anywhere.”
I did an incognito search for your town (June 13-17, 2 people) and your listing comes up last. Luckily there are very few listings available for that date so there’s only one page of listings. I did another search with no dates and no other filters set and there were 140 listings, 8 pages. Your listing is third from last. Airbnb “punishes” hosts using the search rankings.
I think if you don’t want to accept non-English speaking guests then Airbnb isn’t the right platform for you. Airbnb makes it clear that it is inclusive platform and accepts guests from all over the world.
And how would you define language barriers - what level of English would you accept?
Would you be happy if you wanted to stay at an Airbnb or apartment in Spain, Italy, German or a Arabic speaking country for example and they refused your booking unless you could show you had a good command of their language?
As I hope you know Airbnb translates house rules and other information on your listing into the home language of the person who is booking so they should be able to understand this information before they book.
If I took your approach I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of entertaining the lovely Hungarian, Indonesian, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Polish and German guests who stayed with me last year who didn’t have good English.
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I can’t follow your logic. How does my many years of hosting translate to predicting AirBnB punishments and / or a knowledge of AirBnB’s undeclared rules?
Put another way: more than one hosts have confirmed my experience that there is no warning.
But do feel free to weigh in with implications of my ignorance anyway. 
Nobody in this thread (or the AirBnB support I spoke to!) has been able to point out the term of service that I ran afoul off. Even if that rule does exist, the fact that we are in disagreement about it means AirBnB has failed basic pedagogics here.
I’ve been doing this for three years, a lot of you have been doing it for even longer, and yet here we are - arguing over something that ought to be clear-cut and well documented. AirBnB, instead of reaching out and pointing at the rules - which would be a trivial and automated procedure from their side - opted to suspend me outright. It boggles my mind that some of you think that’s fair and reasonable.
And that’s fine! They can absolutely keep me at the bottom - I’m sure the people on the top get even more garbage requests than I do. Search rank is not a problem for me, as I have been fully booked throughout my entire season every year so far.
I speak three languages and host, by a fairly wide margin, mostly international travelers. The “non english” is something you made up.
I would suggest a level that lets them read the listing and terms of service. A level that lets them read the emergency safety cards. A level that lets us communicate so I can show them the apartment and explain how stuff work. A level that lets me provide a basic level of service, information and safety.
I need to be able to communicate with guests, I need them to know what they’re renting, and I need to know that we’re agreeing to the same terms and conditions.
Ah, my bad! I need to get acquainted with this threading interface.
Still - those are my concerns about language. I need to be able to communicate with guests, I need them to know what they’re renting, and I need to know that we’re agreeing to the same terms and conditions.
In practice this has only very rarely been a problem. But I would still prefer if AirBnB hid my listing from guests that don’t share a language, so we can avoid the problem entirely.
You can always make your own website and not deal with Airbnb.
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I am not quite sure why you are saying Airbnb should hide your listing from non English speakers, when you know this would go completely against Airbnb’s ethos of being an inclusive community.
If you only want bookings from countries with native English speakers ie UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada or those with a good command of English, you would indeed be discriminating.
If that is what you want to do, then build your own website and advertise your listing only in these countries.
You can’t have it both ways.
yes, your post made it seam like you are unhappy.
I wasn’t offended. I was being serious.