What do you think happened here?
Possibly the host is a tenant not the owner. The landlord found out about his hosting and called Air to get him shut down. Thatâs my best guess.
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That story doesnât make much sense. There are 2 guests staying in the space, and someone is calling their cell phones and frightening / threatening them. If this happened to one person only, you could say it was a random nutjob and not related to the situation, but 2 people staying in the same space at the same time? Someone has to have access to the information.
The host would get contact information once they have booked through the Airbnb system. But who else would get both their cell phone numbers?
Maybe Airbnb felt the host was somehow involved in this strange behavior and thatâs why the suspended the account. But they still have a lack of transparency which I find disturbing, not just for this event, but for cancellations, resolutions and other areas where the host gets left on the hook for long periods of time after they have already provided the service.
Airbnb would have access to both the guestsâ phone numbers.Thatâs what I find alarming.
I hate that site - there are a lot of people there who have brought their misfortunes (their âhorror storiesâ) on themselves. But that is a weird one.
Presumably Airbnb assume that the host is the one who made the calls. But what I donât understand it why the guests called the hosts and not the police? And I also donât understand why the host called Airbnb.
But it seems strange that two guests (who didnât know each other presumably?) both received these calls. Did they actually know each other and were trying to discredit the host?
Did they take screenshots showing the times theyâd received that calls? Presumably the caller ID said âunknownâ so once theyâd had one nuisance call from âunknownâ why did they continue to pick up the phone? Didnât they record the subsequent calls?
It all seems very dodgy to me unless it really was the host doing it.
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Yes, that was my thought as well. But Airbnb as a company would not do something so weird, it would have to be a single employee with an axe to grind or someone who just gets off on stuff like that. Since Airbnb is going to deny that they were involved, then it MUST be the host since no one else could get this information.
Edited to add: unless the host has a sloppy way of keeping information, and allowed a 3rd party to see the cell phone information. Which should still qualify them to get shut down, because it endangers the guests
Unless these two women were in collusion, for some reason. Or maybe had something else in common? After all, plenty of people have my number.
My theory is that someone at Airbnb decided for some reason that the listings had to be deleted fast, and the host needed to be kicked off the platform (as you know in New York they are battling against regulators) so Air anonymously calls the guests to make them leave. If the guests cut short their stays of their own volition, it reduces Airâs liability and frees Air from the obligation to find alternative accomodation.
True, the guests could be pulling a scam. Iâm open to believing that people do strange stuff. But the most likely scenario has either the host involved or the host was negligent in keeping the information safe. If Airbnb wanted to guests to leave the property, they would use more official methods, unless is was a weirdo employee.
I am guessing the listing is not legal. NYC is having a crackdown.
Municipal Restrictions on Short-Term Home Rentals
Many cities, counties, and other municipalities have legal restrictions on short-term home rentals. These vary greatly from place to place. The restrictions in some cities are quite severe and make most short-term rentals illegal.
In New York City, for example, residential property located in a multiple residential dwelling unit, such as an apartment building, must be used for âpermanent resident purposes.â This means that the property must be occupied by the same person or family for 30 or more consecutive days. Itâs illegal to have paying guests for less than 30 daysâunless, of course, the property is a licensed hotel, bed-and-breakfast, or other similar business. However, there is an important exception: Itâs not illegal to rent a room in New York City if you occupy your home or apartment at the same time and all parts of the dwelling are available to the paying guest. Violations of the New York law can result in fines of $1,000 to $5,000 for a first offense. In one well-publicized case, a New Yorker who earned $300 by renting his East Village apartment to a visitor from Russia for three nights, was fined $2,400 (the original ruling has since been overturned on appeal by Airbnb).
2 guests in 2 different rooms = 2 bookings so air would have both of the phone numbers. Air is shutting down this listing for not being legal.
Yes air would have phone # access because they are 2 separate bookings for 2 individual rooms.
I donât believe Air would anonymously call guests and try to get them to leave. Just canât believe it. Even if they wanted to shut down the listing, they would contact the host, not the guests.
I can believe that the hostâs ex- had and still has access to the listing and is doing this to mes with the host.
I can believe it could be some sort of complicated scam.
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Me too. There could be many reasons why someone might want to get the listing closed down.
It doesnât ring true to me. If youâve been hosting for four years, and have 100 reviews, Airbnb treats you much better than that. They would never just say weâre deleting your account - goodbye and then just hang up. Their calls are all monitored, and staff even if theyâre ineffective in addressing a dispute are courteous. Could the guests prove they had been receiving phone calls? Were they just trying to find a way to get out of their accommodation? Is this anti-Airbnb site just getting people to write bulls**t stories? Iâm in Australia and the only time a story comes out about Airbnb it is negative. I was contacted by a journalist who was looking to interview hosts. I agreed. Then I realised that every question was phrased in such a way that you had no doubt it was going to be a piece about the evils of Airbnb. 'Whatâs my worst story? What was the worst guest Iâd ever had? Did I feel safe having strangers around? I kept saying, âlook itâs really good, it has its ups and downs but 99% of the guests are pretty decent people and letâs not lose sight of the fact that Iâm making money.â So, the journalist gave up.
Airbnb isnât perfect. Uber isnât perfect. Nothing in this world is, but I choose to host and thatâs the end of the story.
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Naaah, I donât believe this story. There is way more to it than the host is saying, or, much less.
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Precisely. Note that the tone and level of mentality of the whole story and the moronic suggestion that Airbnb tells him âwe are deleting your account - goodbyeâ and hangs up on him, is about the same ignorant level. Its a made up story, the reasons who the heck knows. Its hard to guess lunatics.
This story may be bogus or not, but just to remind you that Airbnb deleting accounts for no reason is actually a thing. There have been a few well documented cases, such as @KellyKampen.
For no reason? You mean just for kicks? Why? They get tired of making money every once in a while? 
Thatâs just the thing. Air NEVER explains why, and many of the hosts themselves have no idea (they werenât breaking any rules)