Airbnb banned me – how a ML model can misfire?
I've been a power user of Airbnb—wearing the hats of host, photographer, and traveler. Recently, I was banned without explanation, likely due to a misfire from their ML model. No chance for appeal, either. This experience has taught me two key lessons:
The unregulated power of major tech giants is alarming. Getting banned from platforms like Airbnb, Google, Amazon, Facebook, or Instagram can really impact your life. These platforms are like digital fiefdoms, where they act as both judge and jury, with the authority to banish anyone without offering a reason.
Never put all your digital eggs in one basket. While I wasn't as active on Airbnb in recent years, so the fallout isn't too bad, a few years back, this would have been a big pay-cut.
Below, you'll find the full story in case you're curious about the details—or if you're an Airbnb employee who can help troubleshoot the issue and potentially restore my account, along with others who may have been wrongly banned.
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I've been an experience host and a property host for more than 6 years on airbnb. Also I often booked bnbs when travelling through the platform. I have hundreds of positive reviews from my guests and hosts. A week ago my account was suspended for no real reason and I am convinced that this is some sort of a bug in the system and a mistake!
About 10 days ago I started receiving messages saying that someone used a fraudulent means of payment for the reservation, the reservation will be cancelled and I won't receive a payout. I thought that this was some sort of a bug in the system, as I had my last experience reservation as a host 9 months ago, and last time I rented out our apartment was 3 years ago.
At first I wanted to log in and check what's going on, but I was pretty busy at that time with my father's funeral in a different country with a local SIM card in my phone, so I decided that I'll do that when I am back home.
Then I received a couple more emails just like the first one but with different reservation numbers. I thought it's definitely a bug and just ignored them. Afterwards I received a message that one of my listed experiences that was on pause for some time now (it already had clients and 5* reviews in the past though) needs some changes to be accepted. The same minute I received another email saying that the experience was removed. And right at the same time I received a message that my account is now suspended! All 3 at 16:20 local time.
By that time I finally got back home to France so I could log in to check what's going on and what all these "suspected' reservations were, but the website wouldn't let me anymore. I appealed to this decision, and all I got back was a standardized automated message that this decision is final.
I am sure that I have not violated any policies. My last reservations as a host were 8 months and 3 years ago, so there's no way that the system discovers a problem with the payment only now, besides even if 3 years ago one of airbnb clients used a fraudulent method of payment to book my place - how am I responsible for that and why my account is now suspended?
This is a horrible situation for me, because with my husband we planned renting out some properties on airbnb in the upcoming year and having hundreds of positive reviews and trust on the platform would really help. All my hard work and my contribution to the community is now gone because of some algorithm problems on your side!
This is very frustrating!
Hope someone can help me with this issue. What's the logic that lead you to conclude an account being banned after you received and ignored a string of unexpected fraudulent reservation emails is due to a "misfire in their ML model"? Troublesome there is no reasonable recourse to get your account reviewed but the part you're actually posting about (the account getting banned because of unreliable ML) seems hard to agree with. No email where received besides the automatic ones from the customer service. I have 2FA also that makes me very confident my account was not hacked. I'm glad you're confident your account was not hacked but that's not related to anything I said here about the lack of logical conclusion between emails on fraudulent activity leading to the account ban and the misbehaving ML. You might get more visibility sticking to how you're unable to review this with airbnb get any details or correct the account. Probably a bit late for this post though. Sounds like your account was taken over. Rotate passwords that you have in common with AirBnB. My account taken over while I had 2FA activated and I never received any emails about suspicious transactions besides the support. Doesn't seem right. But I will definitely change the password once I get it back. Maybe it's time for some platform regulations like they do with credit cards. Start with some basic due process requirements. I think big, life-encompassing platforms like Google especially need this kind of regulation. Getting unceremoniously shut out from Google is no minor thing and, by all the accounts I've read, getting someone on their end to talk to you when it happens is nigh impossible unless you have a large social media presence. Or you know someone inside who can escalate the review to an actual person. Who then says "Ooops, don't know how that happened" and restores your account. Especially when you're dealing with real property, which is governed by municipal agencies. Revoke their immunity from small claims court (or all claims, i.e. say arbitration doesn't apply if the dispute has to do with real property in a physical place). If you get ripped off by Airbnb sue them in whatever location the property was in for the amount you are due, plus treble damages. You live in France, so the major tech powers don't have unregulated power. Under the GDPR, you have a right to access the personal data that AirBnB hold about you under Article 15. You have a right for errors to be rectified under Article 16. If a decision was made about you via any automated system, you have the right to human intervention under Article 22. https://gdpr-info.eu/chapter-3/ Direct your request to the Data Protection Officer at dpo@airbnb.com. If they do not respond to your request promptly and to your satisfaction, make a complaint to the CNIL. That's a good plan, Merci. I will ask to access the data to understand why I was banned and then appeal to the decision. > You live in France, so the major tech powers don't have unregulated power. Because that's reserved for the government? :) It's the opposite in democratic countries such as France: while every other person or entity is free to do everything except what's explicitly regulated, the government only has those powers that are explicitly granted to them by laws and regulations. The comment you replied to was referring to the EU regulating major tech powers through e.g. GDPR and DSA. > I appealed to this decision, and all I got back was a standardized automated message that this decision is final. This is the part that should be made illegal. We're only going to suffer more from this if businesses continue to scale their size and revenue but not actual customer service performed by people. We're being boiled alive by automation. Have you thought about suing AirBnB seeking an order that they restore your account or pay you what you have lost? It may be the case that there is an arbitration clause in a contract you have entered into with them, but you can be just as vindicated there as in state court. If I were you I’d talk to an attorney (although naturally, the real solution is to talk to HN and find an AirBnB troubleshooter). I am praying for the day when Airbnb disappears entirely. Another type of cancer in our current society. any chance you use phone for authentication and you have changed phone numbers and someone else is using your old num? or that you reuse a password with airbnb that was in a password breach/leak? could be account takeover. I had 2FA, with a phone number that didn't change, and I didn't receive any emails about bookings (but my email address associated to the account was not changed by a hacker), so I really don't understand what happened. Do you use text messages for your 2FA setup? It's more work but phone-based 2FA can be circumvented without you receiving a message.