Some background. I have no idea, whatsoever, why I was kicked off the platform. I had many excellent reviews and a 4 star rating. I had 6 properties (all owned by me and manged by me) on the platform. I asked repeatedly what I did and they stated “Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed.” They would never answer my question as to why. I received a text from Daniel Rusteen on August 20th, who saw my Craig’s List postings for my properties and asked if I would like to use ABB. He was paid for and taxed with the responsibility of generating new hosts for ABB and would give me a $500 credit to be used as a guest at any ABB listing. I texted back how funny this was as they kicked me off. He stated he had “pull” with ABB and could definitely get me re-instated. He asked for my dirver’s license so he could establish a new account and used one of my properties. Long story short, once I went into the new account to add content to my listing (and then add my other 5 listings), I was blocked. When I wrote and asked why I received: Katie C, Aug 25, 20:46: Hi Lucia, Thank you for getting in touch with us about your account. As we mentioned to you on January 5, 2016 and then multiple times following that date, we have removed you from our community for violations of our Terms of Service. This includes any previous account you created on our platform, and extends to any future account you make. As per our Terms of Service, Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and must inform you that, moving forward, we will no longer be able to assist you with your account issue. Please feel free to review our Help Center article for further information: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/432 Thank you for your understanding. Best regards, Katie C www.airbnb.com/help This is the same message I received in the past and the one to which I questioned the reasoning as to their decision making. As you can see, I still can’t understand what caused this to occur in January. Regardless, I moved forward with VRBO for some of my properties and moved to long term rentals for others (thus CL). I’m much happier with VRBO. They support the hosts better, have much better customer service that responds quicker and costs less.
My lawyer told me that instead of outing airbnb hosts to the “powers that be” they just cut them lose. For example, if the city government demands to know the names of the people doing Airbnb and their SSN they will cut you lose instead of outing you. Where I live Airbnb is illegal, so maybe that is why, but if that is the reason, I do not see why they can’t tell you.
My experience with VRBO has been much better as well.