How AirBnb’s Neighbour Tool is PR not Protection, and How That Puts Communities at Risk
A story of our weekend in hell.
October 13th update: there was an AirBnb shooting in my building last night, the second one in the less than two years we’ve lived here. This time bullets entered a neighbouring unit. That’s been my number one fear — I’m pretty shaken by this.
Some backstory…
When my husband and I moved back to Toronto with our young son, we chose to rent a beautiful condo with a spectacular view, a few blocks from the waterfront and within a ten minute walk of both of our workplaces and our son’s daycare.
What we didn’t know is that we’d moved into Toronto’s #1 “Ghost Hotel” a phenomenon that describes large residential towers built for long-term tenants but where most units are staged for short term guests renting it overnight or for a few days.
Indeed, we live in a hotel without any hotel infrastructure or regulations. This creates significant safety risks (in ghost hotels, security cannot enter suites without 24 hours notice — in a hotel there is always security access; in ghost hotels, cleaning staff are independent domestic cleaners, sent into units alone without protection or awareness of their location — in a hotel they are protected staff employed by the building and always working with an open suite door for their safety) and annoyances (damage to building, elevator line-ups caused by large groups with huge suitcases, fire alarms being pulled weekly).
I’ve spoken out before about the challenges of living in a ghost hotel, to CBC News, The Walrus and others.
After a terrible, sleepless weekend of nonstop illegal parties during a pandemic and in a neighbourhood with spiking COVID-19 cases, I wrote this article to talk more about the measures AirBnb has put in place to help communities and neighbours of their rental units, and how shockingly inadequate they are.
Indeed, it’s clear that these tools are public relations efforts, not effective protective tools at all. And I‘m sharing our story to demonstrate just how truly careless and indifferent AirBnb is on issues of safety.
You’ve likely heard of the Neighbour reporting tool, part of AirBnb’s “Good Neighbour Strategy.” AirBnb worked hard to promote it and position it as a solution to these kind of problems when it launched four years ago:
“Our interest isn’t in just serving the guests and hosts. We need to serve the entire community. If that means we have to take action against the host, we will.” — Airbnb cofounder Nathan Blecharczyk
The announcement generated great headlines for the platform, which celebrated it as an “Animal House Button to report party animals” and a way to “Report Rowdy Neighbours” and they continue to highlight it in any coverage of safety issues or incidents involving their platform.
It sounds great! But is it true? Absolutely not.
COVID-19 and Our Building
While short term rentals were banned during the first lockdown, many continued to operate in our building and this area. Today, they are back and fully legal again.
Protecting ourselves from COVID-19 has been an active and ongoing challenge, as it is for many. It’s particularly tough in a ghost hotel. Short term renters are far less respectful of building pandemic safety rules, often not wearing masks, invading personal space, trying to cram in elevators beyond the three-person limit and getting aggressive when we tell them not to enter, often doing so anyway. I sympathize — elevator waits here are very long and annoying but that’s no reason to expose my family or each other to risk.
These issues are awful and ongoing, but not really reportable to AirBnb, more just the grumbling annoyance of life in a ghost hotel during a pandemic.
I’ll focus on where things stood on Friday, September 25th. There are three important things to note:
- There is a ban on all indoor gatherings over 10 people.
- The case rates in our Province have risen to the highest rate since January, particularly in Toronto.
- Our neighbourhood is showing a significant cluster of new cases, speculated to be related in part to short-term rentals.
This is a screencap taken today (October 6th) on the City of Toronto’s COVID-19 Case Map:
What happened this weekend
We started hearing signs of a party in the unit beside us around 8 o’clock on Friday night. After hearing the door knock several times, each one adding additional party guests, it became clear that the gathering was well beyond the 10 person legal gathering limit.
Things got particularly loud at about 9:30pm — yelling, loud music, repeated banging on balcony glass, roaring crowd noises — so we asked our building security to address it. As I was informed later by building management, the party was so loud that security was unable to contact them by knocking on the door. Instead they contacted the owner/agent for the unit. Here’s the email I got confirming this:
A large group left the apartment shortly after, but the party continued raging. As previous experience has taught me, AirBnb loves to suggest that problem units might have been rented by another short term rental platform, so I have learned to listen closely for the kind of comments I heard as they left:
“Are they going to be in trouble?”
“No, it’s just an AirBnb.”
Host? Owner? Manager? Oh my!
You may note that in the email from the property manager, they talk about contacting “the agent for the unit”.
I need to take a quick break to talk about how Airbnbs work in ghost hotels like mine, and frankly in many other places too. Far from the quaint picture that Airbnb likes to paint of a gentle retiree renting a guest room to friendly travellers, the platform is in fact a complicated professional network of predators and profiteers. It works like this:
An owner of a unit is the one with the formal relationship to our building. They’re the name and contact information that our building has on file associated with a specific unit number, and they’re legally responsible and accountable for it.
These owners often hire professional AirBnb managers to host and manage the properties. As you can see from the quick Google search below, this is a thriving business, making it easy for owners to join the AirBnb world, and distance themselves from the problems they create in doing so.
Sometimes these managers are these professional services, sometimes they’re family or people personally known to the owners. In either case, these managers create and host listings under their own or invented names. The listings on AirBnb in large condo buildings do not ever include the unit numbers of the listings, often not even the address. As these units and listings all look similar, it is truly impossible for neighbours like us, or for our building security or management to know which listing or host is connected to which apartment in a building like ours. Remember that detail — it’s important. :)
Finally, renters select and pay for their AirBnb rental properties from these host’s listings. AirBnb forces all communications through their platform where, after securing the booking and paying for it, the renters receive complete rental information from the host, including the suite number, how to access it, and anything else that is relevant.
Making it even more confusing, hosts can list the same unit through multiple listings.
In buildings like ours, having multiple listings under a professional host helps them out a lot. If one unit needs extra cleaning or if guests want to stay longer etc., hosts with multiple listings can be flexible and just move new renters to another unit. These advantages are the same reason that there are few successful one-room hotels. :)
Often this means they have multiple listings associated with the same unit, which AirBnb frowns on but does not prevent, and they swap rental properties on people after they rent other ones, which is totally allowed by AirBnb.
If the new property is of significantly lower quality, it’s one of the most common AirBnb scams.
In our building though, most apartments are comparable. Still, AirBnb message boards show that this behaviour is widespread and goes back several years. Below, AirBnb owner-hosts express frustration about this predatory tactic, while another explains how multiple listings for the same property can help with marketing:
I know this must all seem technical and complicated.
Here are honestly the only two things you need to remember:
- The only place that specific address information and host/listings are linked is within the AirBnb platform.
- The site allows more than one listing for the same rental unit.
Those will both become relevant later.
Back to the weekend from hell
Despite some of the group leaving after the noise/crowd issues were reported, a loud party continued and I tweeted my frustration about it, as one does:
I called non-emergency police at 9:30 because the noise continued to be outrageous and from hearing 5 or 6 people on the balcony as well as a large number loudly speaking inside the unit, it was pretty clear that the gathering size was still above the legal limit. In a building in the middle of a COVID cluster, this is scary for us.
Police called building security and asked whether they should come to address the situation. Building security told them that they could not make that decision.
A Sergeant called me at 10:00 pm to ask me whether I would like them to come to the unit and address.
While the party was still going, I could not confirm the number of people inside, and at 10pm on a Friday felt that a noise complaint was premature. I live in the city. I get it. I declined but told him that we would call back if the issue continued.
I tweeted about it again after this call:
In response to this tweet, the AirBnb Twitter support account (or bot, hard to tell) reached out and asked me for more information, which I immediately provided:
This created a case within their official neighbour reporting system, and assigned a specialized team with a case manager to this problem.
And here’s where things fall apart.
Back and forth for more dangerous, sleepless nights
We lost sleep Friday, and woke up to an email from AirBnb’s Canadian Public Policy address:
Ms Young,
We saw your tweet and are reaching out for more details about the event you mentioned that may have occurred contrary to our policy.
We can be reached at airbnb.com/neighbours or through our 24/7 phone line 1–855–635–7754 if there is a neighbourhood disturbance.
Thank you,
(it was not signed)
Okay, got it.
I got a further DM from the AirBnb Twitter account, asking for more detective work on the listing:
Remember when I talked about how owner > host > renter means that the building or neighbours can’t identify which listing is associated with a specific unit?
Guess what? Neither can AirBnb.
This is the issue here. The big, appalling, irresponsible nightmare of it all.
The back-and-forth continued all weekend.
On Saturday night the party was so loud and crowded it woke me up at 3am, and at 3:08 I phoned the 24/7 hotline as prompted by the email. On the eleven-minute call, AirBnb expressed sympathy and requested more details about the host or listing, which for the reasons earlier I was unable to provide. To remind you all: it is literally impossible for me to find this information. The only place that the host and unit information are linked is in the backend (non-public) of the AirBnb platform.
I received an email at 4am from AirBnb, looking to schedule a call and again asking for listing or host information about the unit rented on their platform, for which I provided complete and specific address and unit information:
Hi Becca,
My name is Chloe with Airbnb’s Safety team. I am reaching out on behalf of your primary case manager, Brandon. I’m sorry to hear about this experience. Please know that we take these reports very seriously, and we’d like to gather more information about what happened, so we can fully investigate and take appropriate action.
Please kindly let us know if there’s a good time to reach you by phone, and we’ll do our best to accommodate your request.
If you choose to file a police report, please provide the local authorities with the link to our Law Enforcement Portal in order to reach us directly: www.airbnb.com/lert.
In the meantime, if you have any further details regarding this listing or the host, please feel free to reply to this email. We look forward to connecting with you soon.
Kind regards,
Chloe
At 5am the party noise escalated to loud fighting and screaming, and I called building security who went up and intervened, after which things calmed down a bit.
I replied to Chloe setting up a time to connect, and tweeted my frustration again:
I also reported the incident and challenges directly to the AirBnbHelps twitter account, by far the most responsive representative I engage with, and more than likely a well-built chatbot:
When I spoke to a woman named Hana at AirBnb the next morning, it was the same. I was told they were actively investigating and they again asked me to help them find the host or listing information for the unit. They asked me specifically to follow-up directly with my building to see if they could help AirBnb retrieve the host or listing information and address the issue.
When I asked, incredulously, whether AirBnb truly could not identify listings or hosts based on specific and detailed address information, for units that were rented using their platform, I was told that they “could not comment on internal processes.”
To ensure I was doing everything I could to assist AirBnb in addressing this, I spoke to my building management Sunday afternoon.
They reiterated the same challenges — they know the owner but not the host, often the hosts/managers change their names or listings to avoid persecution if there are issues, and that they are unable to provide any information that could help.
Following discussion with the building, at 3:00pm, I sent the following email to response@airbnb.com and PublicPolicyCA@airbnb.com:
Hi Hana,
I spoke to building security/management and they confirmed that they do not have the information you’re asking for here.
Most listings in this building are run through intermediary hosts. The building has the owner’s name and information. Then the owners hire random hosts and the building has no way of connecting owner to host or listing. Again, airbnb listings do not include unit numbers, so the building is in the same position I am. When there are problems, fines or other incidents, the management office contacts the owner who then contacts whomever is hosting the unit. I’m confident you’re well aware of this setup.
I am utterly bewildered by Airbnb’s inability to identify a listing or host from detailed address and unit info, when all communications between hosts and renters is done within your platform. This includes, after confirmation of the booking, instructing renters where and how to access the units booked, and, of course, what the unit number is. Again, the only place that an address, unit number and host/listing information are linked is on the Airbnb platform. The onus is on you here, not on me to investigate this further.
If your system is unable to follow up on incidents in buildings like mine without information that is impossible to obtain, one must ask whether it is responsible to operate in these buildings. The neighbours reporting tool opens a conversation, which I appreciate, but clearly cannot pursue action. We have been reported to be the #1 Airbnb building in the city, and there was a shooting in an Airbnb here less than two years ago, and so this ongoing loophole is frankly shocking.
Building security’s phone number is (416) 607–**** (hidden in this Medium post to protect the privacy of our long-suffering front desk staff) if you would like to discuss this with them further, and the management office is open M-F.
Thank you,
Becca
Sleepless night three
Sunday night at 2am, things picked up AGAIN.
I called building security at 2:30, and they said they would go up to address it. They suggested I contact police again, and let me know that a police visit would generate a significant fine for the owner, which may create some change.
I shared my complaints on Twitter again at 2:45am:
Finally, on advice from the building, I phoned police and asked them to come and address it. As often happens in the downtown core where, as the individual on the phone reminded me, “the same officers that deal with these parties also deal with shootings and stabbings”, the police never showed.
I also sent an email at 2:30am to all of the addresses I had been communicating with at AirBnb:
Following up: they are loud and yelling again. Building security just told them to quiet down at 2:30am and I have moved forward with contacting Toronto police.
They told security it’s their last night here.
Please advise on any next steps for me or this situation.
Thank you.
An update and where things stand now
I did not receive any follow-up or response from AirBnb from my email sent at 3pm Sunday September 27th.
I continued to ask them for information, sending this note on September 29th:
Following up again.
Despite telling security that they were leaving today, I believe the same group is still in the unit.
My family has now lost three nights of sleep to this problem, and I am extremely concerned about the same happening again tonight. I am exhausted and frustrated.
Can you provide an update on my situation?
Thank you,
Becca
One week later, I received the below reply, again insisting they have no way to find the host of this listing:
This email arrived exactly ten days since the first illegal party next door.
I replied right away with the same old information:
I’m very confused by this message.
I provided detailed address information several times during this process: ** York St. Apartment #****, the nights in question were September 25th to 27th.
Yet your note asks me again for address information? I’m very confused.
As I have said several times, there is literally no way for a neighbour in a building like mine to identify the listing or host. Unit numbers are not included in the listing. My building management only has owner information not host information.
I would absolutely like to discuss this on a call. I am available anytime before 11am EST today and can make time for this.
Thank you.
Finally, today — Friday, October 9th, two weeks to the day after that first party, a seemingly conclusive answer:
Sigh. Case closed I guess.
I asked them for a call. I still have so many questions, and also asked for the host/listing information for this unit, so that I could have it in case of future parties or problems.
I’ll feel more confident in their findings if they share it.
Remember that second important point from earlier? That there are often multiple listings for the same unit, or more shared listings professional hosts use for a few listings to move renters around.
So yes, maybe they’re describing a full, thorough search that confirmed no listings at all associated with this unit were rented on AirBnb that weekend.
Maybe they’ve found a way to show that one of several listings associated with this unit was free that weekend.
I can’t tell from this email.
It’s convenient for AirBnb that they have no responsibility for my situation.
It’s particularly convenient that they discovered this fact after a local journalist followed up with them about my story.
If I’d known on that first night of partying that it wasn’t an AirBnb rental, I’d certainly have managed it differently. And whether it was or wasn’t, how can AirBnb’s neighbour tools protect communities in real-time if it takes two weeks of manual investigation to confirm basic details (are there people renting it? who?) about a unit that we now know is listed on the their site.
At the end of the day, I would rather work directly with AirBnb when there are problems in the future than track down listings on multiple platforms at 3am. AirBnb has a 24/7 reporting line. They have made commitments and investments towards safety and neighbour/community communications.
I’d just like to see them put basic things in place — eliminating multiple listings for the same unit, being able to provide basic information about their own listings, particularly in moments of illegality or safety risk, without these two weird weeks of manual investigation — to live up to those commitments.
Either way — I’m back to where I started. This is not a working system.
The AirBnb neighbour reporting tool does not work in high-density buildings and situations like ours. There is no way for me or my family to address abuse of their platform or illegal rental behaviour.
These gaps in their system have not been solved in the four years since their “good neighbour tools” launched. In a pandemic, they are more urgent than ever.
It’s not just about AirBnb. If hosts and renters behaved responsibly, I’d be far less worried about our safety. If our building didn’t allow them, we’d have greater tools to address problems. If the city regulated them more effectively, short term rentals could be part of communities, not work against them.
Instead, all responsibility falls to neighbours like me.
And as this story shows, simply addressing one party is pretty close to impossible. Our family’s only real solution is to move and make our home either another AirBnb, or someone else’s problem. That’s not community.
Regulation and enforcement of the AirBnb platform and the short term rental market are the only solutions that can keep communities safe.
