Airbnb notified me that my account was suspended after a criminal record was found on a consumer report. The only criminal record that was on that report was a misdemeanor for writing a $300 bad check in 2012. I reached out to the third party Airbnb used to obtain the report and they instructed me that I had to dispute the suspension with Airbnb.
When I contacted Airbnb they told me I had to dispute the suspension with the third party but then on July 20 Airbnb emailed me and said it was an error on their part and my account was fully reinstated. However, two days later my listings still showed as suspended so I reached out to Airbnb again. They didn’t read my email which contained the previous email from them stating my account was reinstated and instead they just sent back a blanket email again stating that I had to dispute it with the third party.
It is evident that Airbnb is acting as judge, jury, and executioner but their customer service approach of not actually reviewing issues means people wrongfully suspended are permanently banned from the largest short-term rental site in the world. It is a discriminatory practice that creates an underclass of society filled with people who are not a threat to the Airbnb community and have paid their dues to the public. The misdemeanor I had was 10 years ago for $300 (currently in the process of getting it expunged), my wife and I own four properties we purchased just to rent on Airbnb, and I’ve been renting our properties for five years without any issues and without complaint.