Banned from Airbnb?

Question

After years of living a semi-nomadic lifestyle and spending many thousands of dollars on the platform, it has finally happened to me: I got the dreadful "We'll be unable to support your account moving forward" email.In my case, I was banned "because information on your reservation or your account may be associated with a pattern of activity linked to property damage".When and where did that supposed property damage take place? No answer.I assume I must have been wrongfully flagged by an ML model or something similar.Unfortunately, traveling without Airbnb is hard, as they have by far the largest portfolio of vacation rentals.I'm reaching out to Hacker News because it seems like this topic has been discussed here before (for example https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17523056).Any information helps.My attempts at contacting someone at Airbnb that isn't just a call center agent reading a script have so far been unsuccessful.If you work at Airbnb and you're reading this, let me make you the following offer: You look into the supposed "property damage" and figure out what actually went on. Then: - If it turns out I didn't actually damage any property: You unban me - If it turns out I did (I must be suffering from amnesia): I pay for the damage, plus a crisp USD 1000 for you personally, and you don't even have to unban meI hope the format of this is correct, I have read Hacker News for a long time but never submitted anything.

ano88888 · Accepted Answer

In the age of ML era, we are going to see more and more cases like this. Few people will be able to successfully get the attention of our AI overlord. There needs a way for customers/users to have a voice.

asimjalis · Answer

Trying to understand how something like this could happen. Is there an incentive for Airbnb hosts to flag people as property destroyers? Does Airbnb compensate for this in some way that could lead unscrupulous hosts to do this?

foobar33333 · Answer

Turns out being "disruptive" and cheaper comes with its downsides.

theoblank · Answer

I was an Airbnb superhost for a few years. I’m not aware of any incentive for hosts to report damages that aren’t legitimate. I’m also not sure why, if this is due to damages, they wouldn’t attempt to charge you versus ban your account.
I’ve always had surprisingly good experiences with Airbnb’s phone customer support. Perhaps try calling them again to ask for clarification. It could just take connecting to a more helpful support rep.
Best of luck!