Strange profiles asking for a video

[Enrique1340]

Hi community...

I'd like to share something weird is happening in the last weeks:

I've been contacted by supposed guest profiles requesting strange dates (off season, very long stay) and in the second message they quicly ask for a video of my property.

I don't have a video, and it never was a problem... till these profiles seemed to be very interested in it. Another strange thing: they are all chinese. I even had a video call from one of them, a beautiful chinese young lady. At that point, I was already aware something was not right.

But I can not understand what's their benefit? looking for my alarm brand? looking for expensive stuff? well, you can spot that in the photos (btw, I don't  have anything very expensive)...

Yesterday I had my third profile in 3 months acting like that: asking for strange dates (my house is only rentable during summer, we don't get many clients off season), no worrying about price, and asking for a video.

Is this happening to any of you? have anyone got an idea of what's the purpose behind?

Thanks for the replies. And forgive my English 🙂

Enrique

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

@Enrique1340 

Your English is great! 😊

Yes, this is mostly likely a common scam and many Hosts have seen these:

- New to Airbnb (just created profile)

- No reviews

- Extended stays

- Asking for information that is clearly shown in the photos

- Asking for a video of the property

- Not responding to your questions or being evasive

They will eventually try to get you to reveal your phone number by sending the video of the property and disguising their photo number (Airbnb doesn't allow phone numbers on inquiries-only after booking and will flag the message if the bot sees it) via WhatsApp. Not sure what the end scam is, but don't waste your time. You can flag the profile or the message by using the flag icon. We have eventually seen them removed from the platform along with our message threads. 

Click three dots in message:

Under Profile Name, Click Report This Guest:

[Kia272]

@Enrique1340 It's a scam. And don't EVER do a phone call or video call with prospective guests. Any potential guest asking to do that is a scammer. 

[Joelle43]

Hello @Enrique1340 

There are so many hosts reporting the same Video requests from "guests" as you, not just on this forum but on various Facebook groups too.  I've never seen so many hosts from many different countries reporting the same thing - but as @Kia272 and @Joan2709  say, these are scammers and we need to report them to Airbnb.

Some may want to obtain a visa, (hence the long stay to prove to the authorities that they have a place to stay)  some may want to use the video footage to recreate your listing elsewhere?  Who knows but it's a worrying trend nevertheless.

All the best
Joëlle

[Enrique1340]

just replying to myself to say thank you to all the ones posting their answers!

It seems this is common, and happening to many others.... not sure anyways about the purpose of it, but certainly nothing good can come out from these requests. I wonder how far can I go to find out (hahahaha)

Thanks to all!

Best regards

[Marcin65]

Yes, I am also a host who reports such profiles. They are all from China, ask for long stays of 2-3-4 weeks and are women. They regularly ask about my two listings every 2 weeks or so since May 2024. In every exchange of information on AirBnB messenger, at the end they try to give their phone number and suggest a conversation via whatsapp. Recently they also ask to share videos. I do not understand what the purpose is.