Hoping to get a better sense of the issue, we asked readers to tell us about their own experiences using Airbnb. In response, we got nearly 1,000 emails, many of them outlining similar tales of deception.
The stories quickly started to fall into easily discernible categories. Scammers all over the world, it seems, have figured how best to game the Airbnb platform: by engaging in bait and switches; charging guests for fake damages; persuading people to pay outside the Airbnb app; and, when all else fails, engaging in clumsy or threatening demands for five-star reviews to hide the evidence of what they’ve done. (Or, in some cases, a combination of several of these scams.)
In the aggregate, these emails paint a portrait of a platform whose creators are fundamentally unable to track what goes on within it and point to easily exploitable loopholes that scammers have steamed their way through by the truckload. After Conti’s story, Airbnb promised to “verify” all 7 million listings on the site by December 2020. Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s CEO and co-founder, said at the DealBook conference that the verification process is part of a dawning realization that, as he put it, “we have to take more responsibility for stuff on our platform.”
“I think many of us in this industry … are going from a hands-off model, where the Internet’s an immune system, to realizing that’s not really enough, that we have to take more responsibility for the stuff on our platform,” he said. “And I think this has been a gradual, maybe too gradual, transition for our industry.” In part, Chesky suggested Airbnb would start asking more specific questions of guests upon checkout—relying on users, in other words, to help police what happens on the platform.
On Twitter, Chesky added, “Trust on the Internet begins with verifying the accuracy of the information on Internet platforms — this is an important step for our industry.” He also said the company would begin offering what he called the Airbnb Guest Guarantee: “[I]f a guest checks into a listing and it doesn’t meet our accuracy standards, we will rebook them into a listing that is just as nice — and if we can’t, they will get 100% of their money back.”
An Airbnb spokesperson provided VICE with some additional details about how the verification process will work. “We will review listings for accuracy and quality and to confirm the identity of hosts,” the spokesperson said. They added:
We are working on the details, and intend to use a combination of community, agent and technological techniques, including Agent reviews and algorithmic screening of the listing contents, pictures, etc., guest verifications of specific features of a listing, in-person inspections, and virtual walk-throughs. Hosts that pass our review will be identified clearly on the platform, but not all will pass initially. We will update our community in the coming months as we build out the specifics of our Verification Program.
If the emails we received are any metric to judge by, the process is long overdue. People said they’d found themselves defrauded, stranded on the street in an unfamiliar city, booked into staying in a shed with no running water (a real email we received), or locked in a bizarre, lengthy argument over alleged damages to an area rug. Here are the most common Airbnb scams worldwide, broken down by category.
As a note: We haven’t picked out emails to share that are the most inflammatory or most colorful. These are, in every case, representative of a far greater number of stories we did not include. These emails have been edited for clarity and readability, but their meaning has not been changed.
The Bait and Switch
One exceedingly common theme across hundreds of emails was the bait and switch: Airbnb users were promised one apartment and arrived to find something very different. Sometimes, the problem was deceptive photos that bore no resemblance to the place they arrived to find. Other times, they were persuaded by the host to switch apartments or houses entirely, only to find that the new location was filthy, unfurnished, or in a totally different part of town. (In a surprising number of stories, the new house was often full of a weird number of beds, laid out in bizarre configurations.)
The Apparent Plumbing Scam
One particular bait and switch seems popular: the plumbing scam. Dozens of people told us that they’d booked an apartment or a house, in cities both in the U.S. and abroad. Days or hours before the reservation was set to start, the host would abruptly tell them that the unit had developed a sudden and fatal plumbing issue.
I rented a place near Glass Beach and a few weeks prior to my trip when I reached out to confirm the booking, the lister told me she had a "septic problem" in the unit and she could see if she could put me up in a larger place nearby. That never materialized but she refused to cancel my booking, saying the first time that her computer wasn't working and the next time, weeks later, that her father had just passed away. I had to complain to Airbnb that she refused to cancel the booking so they canceled it but I was unable to write a negative review. - California
The plumbing scam seems to rest on the idea that if the Airbnb is uninhabitable, hosts can’t be penalized for canceling reservations. That’s explicitly mentioned in Airbnb’s rules for hosts: cancellation fees will be applied except in the case of an emergency or “unavoidable circumstance,” like the death of a host or immediate family member, government obligations like jury duty, or “unforeseen property damage, maintenance, and amenity issues.” Those damage or maintenance issues must be ones that would make it “unsafe” to host or disrupt basic amenities like running water.
Airbnb says it currently requires proof of all those circumstances to allow the cancellation without charging the host penalty fees. A spokesperson told us, “We hold hosts accountable for honoring their reservations, and we strongly support guests with rebooking’s or reimbursements when things don’t go according to plan. For a host to avoid cancellation penalties, we require the submission of supporting documentation. For instance, a host citing a plumbing issue would need to submit to Airbnb an invoice or receipt of services from a legitimate business.” He added that, in general, “If we see a host engaging in problematic behavior, including frequent last-minute cancellations, that host would be subject to suspension or removal from the platform.” (This might, of course, be cold comfort in the immediate present for someone who finds themselves stranded on the street without a place to stay.)
Contact Square House Property Management
To learn more about the Airbnb Property Management Services that we can offer you contact us today by calling (972) 523-1389 or click here to connect with us online.