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I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

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Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#31
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try calling your Credit Card company and flag it as fraud. That's what I would do. That failing I'd submit a police report.

That doesn't work well b/c then Airbnb just bans you from the platform

Why would you continue to give airbnb your business, once experiencing something like that anyways?

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#32
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try calling your Credit Card company and flag it as fraud. That's what I would do. That failing I'd submit a police report.

That doesn't work well b/c then Airbnb just bans you from the platform

Honestly if Airbnb helps people scam you do you want to be on their platform?

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#33
I wonder why AirBnB doesn't pay people Uber-style to inspect properties. $5-10 to go to an address and check that it can be accessed and matches the photos as an unannounced spot check? Send someone out on first listing, periodically, and every time a host cancels for a "maintenance issue" to verify the claim.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#34
post #6

Why didn't the journalist contact Airbnb in the first place? Or after he arrived at the 2nd place and it wasn't the location listed/promised. (yes I can understand being tired, frustrated, etc) 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 h…

>Why didn't the journalist contact Airbnb in the first place? Or after he arrived at the 2nd place and it wasn't the location listed/promised. (yes I can understand being tired, frustrated, etc)

She did:

>When I asked about the status of my refund, they ghosted, which led me to contact Airbnb. Though I had been moved to a flophouse and then told to leave early, Airbnb only refunded me $399 of my $1,221.20, and only did so after I badgered a number of case managers over the course of several days. The $399 didn’t even include the service fees Airbnb charged me for the pleasure of being thrown out on the street. But my power was nothing compared to that of a company valued this year at $35 billion, and I figured it was probably the best I could do.

The article details how much of a pain in the ass it is to get a refund from AirBnB:

>But Patterson didn’t care about that. She knew she had been scammed and wasn’t going to stand down until she received every penny back.

>“I’m an attorney, so I love to argue,” she said. “I just didn’t stop calling.”

>She eventually got her full refund, but it indeed came with a harsh review from Becky and Andrew for doing so. “We would NOT host or recommend her to the airbnb community!!” they wrote. Patterson couldn’t help but wonder how people with fewer resources and no place to crash would have fared in the same situation.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try calling your Credit Card company and flag it as fraud. That's what I would do. That failing I'd submit a police report.

That doesn't work well b/c then Airbnb just bans you from the platform

If this happened to me I would see getting banned as a problem. I wouldn’t be using Airbnb again anyway!

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#37
post #2

I'll ask the dumb question (I don't use AirBnB): why not dispute the charge via a credit card?

Airbnb terms of service says you authorize them to collect the money from you, even if there are chargebacks, and they'll turn it over to third party collections.

https://www.airbnb.com/terms/payments_terms?hide_nav=true

Also there's a binding arbitration clause there too just for good measure.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably AirBnB would ban the user and the user still wants to be able to use the service in the future.

> the user still wants to be able to use the service in the future. And this is why Airbnb doesn't care. This is insane to me that they end with "Dealing with Airbnb’s easily exploitable and occasionally crazy-making system is still just a bit cheaper than renting a hotel." after ALL that. It's like the author has stockholm syndrome. I can't wrap my head around why you'd ever use Airbnb again after an experience like…

Are hotels really about the same cost? My last several vacations have used Airbnb for housing, mostly because I prefer to cook my own meals and like having some space to spread out. Booking a suite w/ kitchenette at hotels in the same areas would have been quite expensive, if even possible.

But, I've never been scammed on Airbnb. My experiences have all been excellent. That's one rental in the US and 5 across western Europe in the last 7 years. Not sure if it matters, but none of these were "cheap" rentals - they were all mid-priced. And almost all with "Super Host" rating (no clue if that gives any extra protection).

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#39
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try calling your Credit Card company and flag it as fraud. That's what I would do. That failing I'd submit a police report.

That doesn't work well b/c then Airbnb just bans you from the platform

simply pathetic.

you have no self worth if you're willing to be defrauded out of hundreds of dollars, then the company sided /with the fraudster/, and you're /still/ unwilling to part ways from the platform

don't bother posting the following, please:

- there aren't any alternatives: legal hotels/hostels existed before, and will after

- cheaper: that you're willing to ignore the law for people who actually live there in order to save money is more telling of your non-existent principles. in many cases this isn't true anyway

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#40

Well, this certainly makes me want to never book an AirBnB again. You'd think AirBnB would be more alarmed about the reputational and consequent business hit of this sort of thing. Maybe they will be after this article?

AIRBNB doesn't care a bit, since there are many more people out there who don't hear anything negative. I prefer to stay at real BnBs or hotels less likely to be scams. I moved into an apartment complex a few years ago and wondered why the apartment down the hall had cleaners almost every day. It was an illegal rental. In fact I found a couple more on the AIRBNB site with my identical kitchen countertops. The apartment complex shut them all down. One had reservations for 3 years already.
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