Airbnb banned me – how a ML model can misfire?
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.