> Airbnb’s response reiterated that the company doesn’t “own, manage or control accommodations” and can’t arbitrate these disputes or private contract terms.

> “There really was no way to tell” the listing was fake, said Brunet, noting it had more than 100 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5. “It looked just like any other listing, which is kind of the most scary part about it. I’m just like, well, I can’t trust anything.”

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This happened to my friends sister (but in another state). Some people showed up like 2 days before xmas and thought they rented her place despite her not being a host. It was really bizarre.

Airbnbs are shit these days, particularly greedy US hosts who nickel and dime you for crappy digs promoted with misleading photos but ironically enough the best (and also reasonably priced one) I’ve stayed at to date was when we moved to Philly over the summer while waiting for our moving truck. We were in a section of what I assume used to be a huge old mansion in Society Hill since the manicured courtyard for our dogs was ginormous. I initially thought we were renting a unit in a small condo complex but then realized they sectioned off several smaller 2 story rowhouse size spaces with their own entrances in addition to the main house at the front where the owner lived.

Regulate any place that rents rooms. It’s insane that these are not held to the same standard as hotels and motels.

I rented a place in Brooklyn and when I got there…. There was no building. When we called the owner he offered to meet us at a bar nearby… lol… thankfully we got our refund.

AirBnB is a garbage company. And “I never had a problem when I used them” is not a good excuse to give this company money.

I’m seriously waiting for someone to walk into my house thinking it’s the air bnb next door lol

So it's that common of an occurrence? The only time I used air bnb was when I went overseas. Can't imagine the dread if that turned out to be fake.

I don't understand the fraud aspect. This makes sense when someone lists a fake apartment and collects payment through a Western Union, but wouldn't AirBnB be the ones getting the money in this case? How does the scammer profit from this?

Unfortunately no, Airbnb charges a service fee to those who want to use their platform. The hosts are the ones getting the vast majority of the money & they get the full amount of the entire stay on the first day of the guest's trip.

The scammer can literally take your money & run away the day you show up to find out you've been scammed.

Edit: Was a host until it was simply not worth the headache

That’s kinda scary. I’ve never had a bad Airbnb experience, which I find somewhat incredible with how ubiquitous complaints about the platform are. I chock it up to having a personal policy of only staying at places with >4.8 rating, and usually look for superhosts. The thought that people can somehow fake those details concerns me a lot.

I don’t use it that often. In this case there were no red flags. The account had reviews and everything… all fake.

This is an old scam rebranded.

Years ago, some people thought they rented my parents house. They drove up in a U-Haul and everything. They were quite shocked when there were already people living there.

We found the rental listing online and it was all pictures of the actual house from the Zillow listing from before my parents bought the place.

This has been happening in the suburbs a lot, where someone will list a house and collect payment and they don’t even own the home. Not sure how they get away with it but who knows.

>some guy gives me $100 to rent a thing that I legally own

>redditors don’t like it

What part of this should be illegal? I’m harsher on AirBnB than most redditors but telling people they can’t do legal things with their own property or within the lease the pay for is not how you fix anything.

What about “I never had any problem when I used them” and “they’re much cheaper than a hotel where I’m going” combined?

Airbnb method goin crazy

When I visited London last year, I was researching Airbnbs and apparently that kind of experience is practically the norm. It's a huge problem over there. You see a listing that looks nice, and you get put up in a shabby apartment building that's been converted to 100% short term rentals.

Who cares?

Isn’t it funny how all these start-ups were going to “disrupt” their various industries and it’s only work to further complicate matters?

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The owner of what?

But how do they get the payment from airbnb before the guest stays? This seems like a REALLY easy problem to solve...

> “provided support to the guests at the time to help make things right, including a full refund.”

Except a place to stay in a foreign place. Im done with air bnb. Hotels for the 50-75$ extra a night are it for me, not worth the hassel, though ill miss being able to do laundry

Just from a safety aspect YES! You are leaving your lives in the hands if a host that may or may not have functioning smoke detectors or might have an emergency exit sealed shut for some reason.

What I dont get its that this only really works once right?

The lister account gets banned and they gotta make another. But shouldnt verification pretty much make that difficult as possible.

Whoever was pretending to be the owner/manager of the property.

AirBnB is great as long as everything goes smoothly. If things get messy, AirBnB treats you like you're a scammer until you prove that you're not. I used AirBnB a fair amount in the past but after my first experience with AirBnB's 'customer service' people last year, I'll never rent through them again. (Short version - Our rental's heater couldn't keep the place warm, the absentee landlord said it was our problem, we turned to AirBnB for help, and they treated us like dirt.)

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Laundry is literally THE reason I’ve done some AirBNBs. I don’t have enough clothes to last a week.

It certainly made using a European approved carry on (5-7 days, 8 if you REALLY push re wearing pants/shirts) and not having to worry about checking bags really nice.

Especially when you could pack like ~4 days worth of stuff, do laundry 1-2x and then be able to have 30% of your bag for things you bought.

But alas, I am done with AirBnb, my last two experiences the place certainly was not cleaned by a 250$ cleaning fee type of service (lucky if it was cleaned at all) and the beds were one step up from cots at a sleep away camp. I think it came out to 190 a night, and for that I can find a hotel.

Air BnB needs to guarantee the transaction like paypal the scam is to easy its goin to put them out of business

I saw a TikTok where the airbnb owner faked a text conversation between them and the renter so the renter's claim was denied and they didn't receive a refund because they didn't have any proof that the rental wasn't real.

this happened to me in new york, it was in the pretty early airbnb days and i think the person was trying to sublet the apartment they had, for airbnb.

No so this whole thing is weird. I guess though you could either argue it or rely on some people canceling and get $$ that way... I guess. (Like if you don't have a free cancel policy you'll prob collect a few hundred bucks here and there without people ever realizing it's fake) Seems inefficient and likely to not work for long

Maybe the fake listings are actually scams for people looking for Apts and this is just part of the ruse...? Somehow...

That happened to me once. I’m just glad I wasn’t sitting on the couch naked when they walked in. I’m also incredibly glad the house next door isn’t an Airbnb anymore.

Hahahahaha that sucks!!!! I’m gonna make them feel at home lol