Hosts who’ve had to shut down their business because of an Airbnb host who cheated them out of hundreds of dollars in tips will soon find it hard to move on.
Airbnb has been the target of a massive, multi-million dollar lawsuit by hosts who allege they were forced to shut their businesses, and that they lost money because of the company.
The lawsuit is ongoing.
In it, Airbnb said that the host violated several of its terms of service, including not using the host’s name in advertising, and was removed from the platform within the last two weeks.
“The allegations against Airbnb are absolutely outrageous, and are a blatant violation of the host terms of use,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wrote in a statement to The Verge.
Airbnb is now facing an onslaught of complaints from hosts, who are suing it for not protecting them.
“I’ve lost over $200,000,” one host told The Verge after discovering that he had been banned from the site.
“A host can’t be responsible for everything that happens to a guest.”
Airbnb says it has more than 3 million verified hosts.
Airbnb hosts are allowed to advertise for their business on the site, but not in any way that would allow someone to gain access to their personal information.
In fact, Airbnb has explicitly stated that it doesn’t have the right to read host accounts or even the personal information of hosts who are not verified.
Airbnb says that it only logs information that it collects about hosts, including the IP addresses, and only in certain circumstances.
However, in a post on its blog, Airbnb’s Chesky said that it had “made a number of changes to our rules and policies regarding hosting, including a requirement that hosts provide detailed information about what they have done with users’ personal information, including whether they have used the host host’s profile or their own account to track users’ location and activities.”
In its statement to the Verge, Airbnb wrote: We take this issue very seriously and are taking steps to review our policies.
As part of our review, we are removing hosts who have violated our policies, including suspending or terminating hosts who do not follow our policies or conduct themselves in a manner that is inconsistent with our terms of usage and/or violates our community standards.
Airbnb will continue to investigate and take appropriate action to take steps to protect our guests.
Airbnb said it will make changes to its policies and enforcement mechanisms to protect the privacy of hosts and to prevent abuse.
Airbnb did not respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.