I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

The bed had 12 full-sized pillows and one sheet, and the sheet was so starched that I pinched the middle and lifted it to head height, and it just stayed there. You could sculpt it.

The silverware drawer had 5 knives and one chopstick. The kitchen trash was full. The shower had a drain full of hair. I had to go buy soap and paper towels at a convenience store.

I called the host (a "retired local woman") and got a man with an indian accent who offered me a "much larger and nicer property a few kilometers away", which I couldn't take because I was traveling with my family and we were just exhausted.

> "Even after a month of digging through public records, scouring the internet for clues, repeatedly calling Airbnb and confronting the man who called himself Patrick, I can’t say I’ll be leaving the platform, either. Dealing with Airbnb’s easily exploitable and occasionally crazy-making system is still just a bit cheaper than renting a hotel."

After an experience like that, I'd spend so much effort warning everyone I know to avoid Airbnb, even with the off chance something like this could happen to them. THIS is exactly why Airbnb doesn't care, the user is so brainwashed into still using the platform even after all that to potentially save a few bucks (which honestly, from what I have seen these days, Airbnb is basically the same cost of a hotel if you buy from any hotel deal site). I just don't understand that logic at all. Fool me once...

For example, why isn't there an Alexa-like concierge device in every AirBnB that answers guest questions by now? Why aren't there smart locks on every home that unlocks with the app? Etc etc.

However I think most likely it isn't that AirBnB has no checks on hosts, they are just a big stupid company dealing with a messy problem. I've heard similar complaints from hosts with their own set of anecdotes where they felt unfairly abused by renters who unfairly complain and AirBnB applying decisions without any transparency or recourse.

Fraudulent sales can be easily reversed by your credit card provider. In my experience, saying "If I don't get a refund, I'll issue a chargeback through my credit card provider" gets them to process the full refund immediately.

Works like a charm, never had an issue!

AirBnB has host and guest verification options. If Becky and Andrew don't have their identities verified via drivers license but manage over 90 properties that is your first red flag right there.

Second, if the host can't accommodate you you reach out to AirBnb and put the onus on them to find you an acceptable property that meets your standards. You don't let the host offer up some random place that happens to be available, that's suspicious.

I've had a number of hosts cancel on me at the last minute recently, I didn't immediately jump to the conclusion that it must be a scam. I simply assumed that their property is also listed on VRBO and other sites and someone either beat me to the punch or they got more money, or they didn't realize that they can't list the unit and forgot to take down the listing.

Mistakes happen. Sure, there are scammers out there on every platform, but in my 3 years and over 100 successful stays, I really find this article's title tough to swallow.

And it's the feeling I have today about Airbnb.. I use to love them, not only because of the concept, but also as a startup pushing innovation, sharing tech and design learnings, etc. It had a sens of contributing to community, and caring its users

Today I despite them for the uncontrolled impact they have in cities, and the we-don't-care philosophy they seems to have adopted (not to mention the feeling of being betrayed by a company I use to look up to). And I can't really blame ourselves for keeping on using it. They created "something that people wants" and now are taking advantage of it.

It's probably our responsibility now to remind those companies that "something we want" is a product along with a care for its users.

Also, why don't people issue charge backs with their credit card companies? Airbnb customer service might suck, but credit card companies almost always side with their customers if there's a modicum of proof showing something henky.

We show up at the property and it clearly doesn't exist, lucky for us the number is disconnected now and he won't answer us. This is clearly a scam. Though it's Airbnb's policy to give the hosts an hour to respond to a complaint even though it's obviously a scam. We then have to wait in the ghetto of LA for an hour so the host can respond, he never does. Finally Airbnb agrees that it's a scam and that the property doesn't exist, the address is dead center in a industrial park. I then have to go book a hotel on my card that Airbnb will refund at a later date that is equivalent to what we booked, nearly impossible for booking on day of. So going forward we spent 1.5hrs driving to the fake property, 1hr waiting for the fake host to respond, 1hr to confirm over phone how to proceed with Airbnb, then another 2hrs going to a hotel and checking in. All in all it wasted over half a day of our vacation, gas money, and frustration, over an obviously fake posting.

Once checkout has completed, both Guest and Host have 14 days (21? 30?) to write their reviews (neither party can see the others' review). At the end of that period, both reviews are visible on the site and cannot be edited.

This has pushed me back to traditional hotels.

In this case, imagine if instead of trash furniture and minimal decor in the "switch" property of "bait and switch" they put in half decent stuff. Renters would probably all accept the story of a plumber and move on. Instead, they fill the property with crappy furniture and leave unhappy customers. They could have gotten away with it.

These scenarios seem like pretty solid grounds for chargebacks.

If they attract enough chargebacks Airbnb will not only take a hit to their wallet (and maybe reconsider their policies if it happens frequently enough) but also might get them in trouble with their acquirer bank (too many chargebacks and your merchant account gets terminated).

The first Airbnb I rented was part of an interview at Airbnb. I was given a credit for a free Airbnb for the purpose of experiencing the product. The Airbnb I rented was in San Francisco and clearly used only as an Airbnb rental.

The second Airbnb I rented was with my family while on vacation in Italy. One afternoon we returned to find out the locks were changed. This was scheduled building maintenance and I was not notified. I chose a place with a special ~'locals badge' only to find out the owner was an American living in the US.

Given this is a tiny sample, Airbnb generally seems to have a problem with borderline fraud.

Just because something is ordered through a phone doesn't make it better in all respects.

I'd much rather plan ahead and stay in a hotel. At least then there's a corporate culture who actually cares about their brand name instead of an IPO. There's no accountability and massive amounts of low key fraud.

But quality is not in AirBnB's interest, apparently - being cheaper is. They get a cut from all financial transactions anyway. Once they're listed on the stock market the people currently running it can retire and it's no longer their problem.

Once I raised the issue with them, I didn't hear from them for over a week. While I was concerned about the ~$1000 they owed me, I was equally concerned that someone had accessed my account. After about a week had passed I got them on the phone again and applied a little pressure, and a couple days later I had my refund. I did this by explaining that I work in the industry and I'm aware of what a big deal the ability to bypass a large company's 2FA is, that there's no excuse to drag their feet over such an obvious scam, and I vaguely alluded to media being interested in a story like this. I don't know how Average Joe would have fared in my case.

By reading the article and this thread there appears to be a variety of ways to conduct a scam on AirBnb.

You have destroyed the rental apartment market in my city. You profit from taking advantage of loopholes in legislation, legislation which protects consumers from unscrupulous, dangerous, and untrustworthy properties.

The sooner every city enacts laws limiting "airbnb" apartment rentals to 30 days per year per apartment, the better. Otherwise it is abused at scale.

It may not recover their loss, but the author wields significant power with this article. For example, I’ll never again consider staying at an AirBnB property. I would caveat that to add “until they fix the problems with their platform”, but I don’t think it’s necessary because (a) I’m not sure they _can_ at their scale, and (b) it certainly doesn’t seem like they _care_.

Sure, I’m only one guy, but this is not the kind of press a company wants before they go public.

Also of course airbnb is to blame for handling the support issue poorly, however my experience with airbnb has been nothing but amazing.

Same nonsense can happen at any 2-3 star hotels.

Never book airbnb without some research. If any issues come then file a complaint before your trip ends and ideally within first 24 hr.

> “If I had another choice, I would not use Airbnb again,” he told me. “I was very put off by getting scammed. But at this point, I feel like if I want to travel, there’s not really much else I can do.”

> I can’t say I’ll be leaving the platform, either...is still just a bit cheaper than renting a hotel.

This blows my mind. I had a terrible experience when Airbnb took over the top floor flat when I used to live on the ground floor, so I decided to never use them, I travel regularly and always use a mix of hotels and vacation homes depending of the destination and I never needed Airbnb.

But even after being scammed and spending their holiday time moving around and being shafted then spending time after the holiday fighting for a refund and losing money these people still find value in the service, mind blowing.

To summarize, the photos and listings are fake, with fake host names and the requisite fake reviews. When you arrive, you get a call 10-30 minutes before check-in and told the plumbing is broken, I need to move you. Then you get put in a "flophouse". I suppose the move is so that the actual address where you will stay isn't listed on AirBNB and you won't be able to street view it, etc. Because otherwise I don't see the point of not putting you into the crap house at the listed address.

Through a process of sloppy ops work on the scammer, and tenacity of the author, she uncovered the name and other personal details of the perp and confronted him. He then removed any digital trails of himself which he had so stupidly had publicly available before, thinking they couldn't be traced back easily.

It's a great revenge story, the kind that gives you vicarious satisfaction.

My only question is, why didn't the author call the FBI afterwards?

Also, for no reason Airbnb prohibits from sorting by reviews or price, so I've developed this script - it's super userful: http://sakurity.com/airbnb.js

My most recent experience was an apartment in Paris that was smaller than it appeared, hadn't been cleaned so it had crumbs on the floor, had a bed with what looked like sheets out of the package (never cleaned), and the owner's dirty clothes sitting there. But the worst was the toilet was electric, requiring being pushed down with a brush when flushing. No, that's simply not the norm in Paris. There was also construction on the building, despite my emailing the host (a company with a person's name), asking about noise.

Like the Vice author, I never left a review because I didn't want to appear difficult or even get a retaliatory one in case I want to use AirBNB in the future. BTW, in Paris it's regulated, complete with an issued ID for the property, but cities care only for tax collection, not consumers.

That may have been the last straw for me.

I had several truly terrible (even scammy) experiences in those two years and not only did Airbnb not refund me a dime but each time I contacted support I was not recognized as a frequent traveler who is used to the system and has great feedback from hosts, each time I was treated like I was some asshole trying to scam them.

Airbnb has a major major quality problem (not to mention the customer service). The platform has turned into a joke. Try this on for size, say "this Airbnb looks great in the pictures" to anyone with experience using the platform and watch their non-verbal response. We know. I wonder how long Airbnb can keep this up.

Lastly, the Airbnb Plus program is no better. I stayed in a Plus a few weeks ago in Milan and it was a dump that looked nothing like the pictures, even with different furniture. That was my second Plus disaster in a year.

If Airbnb would implement a home-owner verification (which is possible in US since they're public record), most of these scams would be preventable. I mean, Airbnb is a billion dollar company, so couldn't they do this?

Ultimately we stayed elsewhere because the condos were flop houses. Chase didn't have any interest in helping us or making it right after dozens of calls and hours of conversations. As far as I can tell the "properties" have all been removed. (There were similar listings for other name chain hotels like the W chain)

"In the United States, mail and wire fraud is any fraudulent scheme to intentionally deprive another of property or honest services via mail or wire communication. It has been a federal crime in the United States since 1872."

In addition, is there any prospect of a civil class-action suit against AirBnB?

I've written-up other advice regarding Airbnb bookings here - https://blog.michaelscepaniak.com/how-to-find-choose-and-boo...

With that being said, scams happen and there's no simple, full-proof way of completely insulating yourself from them.

I'll go back on AirBnb or whatever new platform that gives a 3d reconstruction of the actual place, and the actual sleeping quarters.

The wide angle heavily photoshopped pictures that Airbnb encourage make it extremely hard to know if the place is worth it or not.

And then there's the hidden cleaning fees which could be 100s of dollars. They don't show up on the initial search. The numbers are all towards making it seem cheap but being quite expensive at the end.

AirBnb uses a number of dark patterns on their site and I hate it. I just don't think they are an ethical company who have the customer's focus in mind.

I understand though, they gotta recoup their billions of dollars of VC funding.

I'd rather go for a hotel that I know provides consistent experience every single time.

But after reading this and all the comments here, I'm unlikely to use them again. As far as I'm concerned, Airbnb is complicit in all these scams. They literally give zero shits about these scam artists, because they're getting paid either way.

A trusted third-party could subject hosts and guests according to a more stringent vetting process. It could even scan listings for guests eager to book in the same way Fakespot, et al., do for Amazon product listings. [0]

For those interested in online trust in marketplaces, I recommend Planet Money's episode on the subject. [1]

[0] https://www.fakespot.com/

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/06/27/623990036/epis...

This is what will pop the 'startup' 'bubble'.

Eventually people will get tired of dealing with the 'unicorns'.

I'm not saying Airbnb is great, but I'm curious as to what these eventual scams looked like at the outset.

I suppose it's possible for someone to maintain a legitimate place to accumulate good reviews and then scam some fraction of people, but the existence of the legitimate place is still a nontrivial hurdle for a scammer.

Maybe I overestimate how hard it is to get 50 good reviews.

Same thing with Uber — at least there, you get the convenience compared to having to call a taxi. What exactly do you get from Airbnb?

I travel for business lots, and the last thing I need to worry about is having to deal with these sorts of issues. Having a hotel and a car rental is so much easier and reliable.

I stay at hotels now because if I’m not happy with service, I can get a different room, I can get a refund, I can talk to a human face to face.

Airbnb is a platform that just cares about hosting as many hosts as possible and they’re unregulated. I’m not asking they be regulated, but why doesn’t Airbnb check in on Super Hosts? It seems Super Hosts (from the three times I got screwed) run their places by outsourcing cleaning and maintenance, without ever spot checking.

Airbnb support was completely useless both times. So I cancelled my account everything, and the CC support will deny any Airbnb transaction.

Anyway, it is so annoying to search anything on Airbnb that I am not compelled to use it. The "host" will advertise a one night price that can easily double with all the other fees, and double again for each additional nights.

I'll revisit when accountability standards are raised from the maker to the user.

(edit: added "my account")

[1] - https://abnb.me/eUIhQCkMe1

[2] - https://abnb.me/DvHRkqsMe1

At first, I thought maybe this was just a shady property management company hocking two otherwise-legit, similarly-furnished condos with the same floor plan in the same building through two different accounts - but they are in different buildings separated by about half a kilometer according to the map.

Oddly enough, there was someone living in the switcheroo apartment I ended up in and they were paying £800 a month!

I reported it to airbnb today after reading this story and checking that listing's reviews, almost all of whom had reported the same problem and airbnb have come back to say they've cancelled the host's account and listing.

For that reason alone I will never use Airbnb again, and would advise against it.

[1] https://scalability.org/2014/03/ot-airbnb-and-their-issues/

I'd rather try couchsurfing or stay in a hotel...

eBay's sellers are up in arms because it's trivial for any customer to steal from them and force a chargeback on an honest seller. Sellers cannot even leave negative feedback for dishonest buyers anymore. The customer is king.

AirBnb is exactly the opposite, apparently. Screwing their customers for scamming suppliers that should be trivial to uncover.

I wonder what economics are at play, here?

There are plenty of hotels in Chicago from Boutique to chains to roach motels. Why subject yourself to so much crap by AirBnB? Especially if you’re alone.

https://www.airbnbhell.com/

As long as it's not Airbnb's problem, Airbnb isn't going to solve it.

Why is this not the number one post?

I’d also wager that if every case of fraud had a chargeback to match that AirBnB would start making changes far sooner rather than later.

Has anyone tried (or failed?) to chargeback AirBnB fraud?

It appears they do have some homes/hosts that are verified in-person. For whatever that's worth.

Does it work like that or do I have a misunderstanding of how charge backs work?

Is there a reason Credit Card companies wouldn't step in here for the disputed charge?

It is one of these "growth" problems that a company is good to have and normally solves in an easy way. Furthermore, the author is still an active user of AirBnb.

Pictures on the rental are meaningless. Only the price and amenities matter. Whatever the lowest 10% of price per night for a type of home (private vs shared room etc) is probably a scam. Don't rent in this price range. Money may be different for each person, but the upside of saving $100-$200 is way less than the downside of a last minute booking in a place you're unfamiliar with. I suspect most of the scams happening are people who book something that seems too good to be true.

If you're able to, message the host prior to booking with a generic intro and some generic questions. Many many times when the host got back to me for a great looking listing, alarm bells went off and I moved on. I personally ask what their internet speed is. If they don't know this its not a deal breaker, but their response can be pretty telling.

A lot of professional renters list on Airbnb. Especially multi-bedroom houses where you rent one bedroom. These can go either way, but are often a good deal. I personally like these because its a business transaction for both sides. Usually these types of listings are more open to negotiating on price, but its not staying in someone's home like an Airbnb might be pictured.

Reviews don't mean too much, but number of reviews and/or super host are pretty good barometers for quality. It is much harder to fake a lot of reviews. A less obvious red flag is the age of the listing vs number of reviews. If there are only 3-4 high reviews on something around for a long time, look closely at it. Even if the reviews aren't fake. There is a lot of incentive to not review a bad experience. Unfortunately price usually correlates with number of reviews.

I've personally never booked a new listing (no reviews). I'd be interested to know if I'm passing on some amazing deals, but my risk/reward tolerance doesn't allow it.

TLDR; Ignore the pictures look at price range compared to the marker and message hosts before booking at all.

Adjacent tip: Bring the bare basics with you (maybe this is backpacker logic talking). I usually have a knife/fork/spoon as well as some toilet paper and enough close to be warm without blanks. Don't rely on them to have things you absolutely can't survive without. Its stupid you have to do this, but you can rest a little easier having it with you if something goes wrong.

It is shocking that they are in any way considered a _good_ company.

You book a nice house and they'll tell you a problem came up, but they offer to switch to a different one. The alternative house is cheap and run down, it's their real property though. When you switch and stay one night at the alternative, you can't get a full refund. Because so many bail out and leave, expecting to be refunded, they can make it available to rent again immediately. You're also pressured into not leaving negative reviews, so the cycle continues.

I am not a lawyer (also this is UK law) but I would be really interested for a lawyer to comment on this, because my understanding is that the reason they do this is because the train timetable is an 'invitation to treat' on which you based your decision to enter into a contract with them by purchasing a ticket to transport you from A to B. If they fail to do this in a timely fashion as advertised on the timetable, such that your journey with them is wasted, this is a breach of contract and contract law says that because they failed to honour the contract, they have to, as close as possible, put you back in the position you were in if you had not entered into the contract with them. They can not get out of this with T&Cs because its a basic principal that if you offer one thing obviously and then say the opposite hidden in the small print, the more prominent offer is what you are held to.

In this case (again, remember I am not a lawyer but on the assumption that the same basic principals were to apply) my theory is that the problem is AirBNB's to resolve because the contract would be between me and AirBNB because the money changed hands between me and AirBNB. So if AirBNB advertised 3 nights in a city for £1500, I paid this and then I arrive and the host cancels my reservation at the last minute, after I have expended considerable time and expense already with the expectation that I have accommodation, I would ignore the host and contact AirBNB directly because I paid them the full cost of the booking and the fact that they subcontracted the actual service to someone else is none of my business, it is ultimately their problem to make sure the contract is honoured by putting me up in another equivalent place or by providing a full refund and paying any additional costs involved in me staying in the closest equivalent place available.

So I wonder, if they don't do this within a reasonable time, could I stay somewhere else and then file small claims court case against them for the cost? If the 1/3rd refund thing from another comment had happened to me I would certainly be tempted to try it to get £1000 + hotel bills back + cost of my time to prepare evidence for the claim at my standard hourly rate.

I have experienced one or two situations where companies have tried to rip me off and taking 30mins to tell them in writing that I will claim, how I will do it, what my grounds for the claim are and how much it will cost them has got them to back down and agree a refund and compensation before I got anywhere near having to fill out the online form for the small claims court, which is apparently not a big deal anyway. No idea if I would have won or how much time and cost is involved though... In general, if people would stick up for their rights more, then the costs of shady business practices like this would make them unprofitable.

Could be a great business idea for an online lawyering startup, like those that exist for flight compensation claims.

We went there with a couple of friends planning to have their wedding there, traveling from our homes in London.

We booked two air BnB rooms, both were very nice looking double rooms in central locations next to the old town.

We arrived at the address we'd been given and a local guy "owner", greeted us and took us for a short walk to where we'd be staying.

We arrived at an older looking home, high walls and a large metal gate. He opened it and welcomed us to his home. His grandma's home he told us.

He walked us inside and showed us to a box room with two wooden bunk-beds, the type you put children in. The floor was flooded and the small ensuite was too, flooded.

The look on our faces might have said enough if we hadn't, but we certainly were not staying there.

He suggested he'd try find some "alternative" accomodation. We waited nearby, and a short time later he arrived to show us each to locations he'd found.

First our friends, a nice newish apartment, they were quite happy with, although it was smaller than what they had booked, but still pleasant enough.

He took my wife and I around the corner and into a small home that had painted cement walls, flaking like you see in war films, after the war has been through.

An old man showed us to a small double room where he'd laid a bowl of fruit on the bed for us, he didn't speak English, but although we didn't speak his language either, we felt welcome, albeit slightly uncomfortable.

The place wasn't particularly clean or nice looking, and certainly not what we paid for, but after a bit of a dead end with the original guy we booked with, we figured he's guy is farming off rooms that don't exist and then subletting rooms in others' homes when guests arrived.

We decided we'd take it, but we needed to see the bathroom first.

Again, not clean, not pleasant, but worst of all, a small window, just above the shower opened into the old man's room, and it was open, is wasn't frosted and there was no way to cover it.

That was it for my wife, that was one bridge too far. She can't comfortably bath in there with a window opening into this stranger's room in a strange place.

We told the owner guy it wasn't going to work for us, and this is where the rest of this story breaks my heart.

The owner guy let the old man know we wouldn't stay, and the old guy broke down, he was begging us to stay, he was gesturing at the fruit he'd laid out, questioning what was wrong, but we just couldn't stay there.

The rest of what happened to us is irrelevant here, but the guy we'd booked with was clearly taking bookings he was farming out to elderly locals with any space to spare hoping renters works take whatever he offered.

Both sides of this deal were being scammed, and it broke my heart to know that although we might end up forking out to stay elsewhere was the worst we might suffer through this, this old man clearly needed whatever small part of the rent we paid was going to be given to him.

The rooms we saw online clearly didn't exist, this guy was just conning people because AirBnb allowed it to happen.

https://www.wired.com/2017/02/airbnbs-surprising-path-to-y-c...

Last minute host cancellation is the one thing they can actually something they help with since it ruins the marketplace for them.

As a host I've had my set of horror storied interacting with Airbnb. Most hosts do try really hard, but every marketplace has scams at some level, and I'm not sure how you could find them all once it's under some value/size.