Conciergerie is trying to extort money from me - changed my passwords

[Alexandre810]

The conceiergerie who manages my listing in Marseille has changed my passwords, including gmail when she realised I wouldnt be using her services anymore. She is asking me for money in exchange to release my listing. I have called airbnb 3 times to ask them to help me and nobody has contacted me back. This woman has access to my bank account details and all of my information. I cannot believe that nobody in airbnb will help me with this, it is a massive security breach not to mention fraud as this woman has control of a listing with my name, and property on it. She is threatening to delete all my future bookings and deactivating my listing if I do not give her money. She knows I have built up years of great reviews on my property and want to keep my account and bookings and is holding above me. I have emailed the legal team and fraud team and nothing from airbnb. This is extortion and also a data security breach that airbnb does not seem to be taking seriously at all. PLEASE HELP!

[Sarah977]

@Alexandre810  What I don't quite understand is that you say she changed the password on your gmail account, which I assume is what you used to sign into your Airbnb profile? Why can't you just change it again? Usually there is some option like "Forgot your password?" on an email or bank account, and then they send you some code and you can change it. 

 As far as the already booked guests go- Airbnb says they don't care that you are going to change the locks on the doors because this property manager is holding your account hostage, won't give you any info on the booked guests, their booking dates or anything, and therefore the guests will arrive with nowhere to stay? 

[Lisa723]

@Alexandre810 you can't rely on Airbnb to rescue you from this, unfortunately. My advice remains the same as above.

[Cormac0]

@Alexandre810 

Your first move should be to secure the property changing locks etc, I'm afraid you have to write off the bookings , you have been thought  a valuable lesson now learn from it.

Having said the above I'd like to hear the other side of the story because it seems like a very extreme thing to without due cause...

[Ute42]

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@Alexandre810  

My advise: Pay this woman the 1120 Euros she requests, that's the cheapest way for You out of this mess. You've made a mistake: You've put too much trust into an unknown person and now You've got to pay for it. Any other option You may consider will be more expensive and take more time.

[Huma0]

@Ute42 

I am afraid I have to disagree. This is extortion.  People should not be able to get away with that kind of behaviour. Who is to say that if @Alexandre810 hand over this money, she won't ask for more?

[Ute42]

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@Huma0  

Disagreement is the natural status on this Community Center  😊

I'm not sure if this is extortion. This woman wants 1120 Euro. Why exactely 1120? Why not 1000 / 2000 / 3000 ? Maybe Alexandre still owes her money and this is her way to fight for it? We don't know the other side of the story. I'm not going to dig into this any deeper bc that's not my problem.

[Huma0]

@Ute42 

Yes, I agree. We only know one side of the story and that may not be the whole story. However, the only info I have is what @Alexandre810  has offered and so I am basing my responses on that. That is why I specifically asked him if he owed this lady anything for her services and he categorically said no, she had been fully paid but is now trying to extort funds from him for such stuff as returning the keys, releasing the listing etc. 

You are right though, that is a weirdly specific amount!

[Sarah977]

@Alexandre810  You say the listing is under your name- but there isn't any listing under your profile here. I guess you opened a new account to post here because she changed the password on your other account so now you can't access it?

[Alexandre810]

https://www.airbnb.fr/rooms/23535325?preview_for_lys

exactly! That’s the listing. I’m using this account to message Airbnb. I just want to shut that account down at this point and no luck. Airbnb won’t even help with that. 

[Huma0]

@Alexandre810 

Yes I see from this listing that Alexandre is listed as the host and Marion as the co-host. So, I don't understand why Airbnb won't step in, because it looks like this was set this up as a proper co-hosting situation and somehow this lady has locked you out. That's not okay.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  "somehow this lady has locked you out". It would appear that Alexandre was too trusting and gave this woman the password to his gmail account which was the method he used to sign in.

Airbnb won't even remove illegal listings where a tenant is listing on Airbnb without the landlord's permission and in contravention of their lease agreement, even after the landlord sends Airbnb the ownership papers and a copy of the lease agreement the tenant is violating, so I'm not surprised that this host is having trouble getting them to respond appropriately.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

That's worrying! I wasn't aware of that.

Well, as you probably know, I am relentless when it comes to badgering CS and never back down when I believe I am in the right. If I was in this situation, I would not stop hounding them. I am sure they would eventually sort it out just to make me go away!

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  There was a post here maybe 6 months ago where a home owner had found out that someone had listed his property, which was actually for sale, using photos off a real estate site. The home owner wasn't a host at all. He reported it to Airbnb, who said they would look into it, but didn't take the listing down, even though he explained that the calendar appeared to be booked and guests would arrive to find there was no Airbnb rental there.

 I don't know what became of that case- I recall that after many posts on that thread with many responses, the OP never came back to let us know how it all worked out.

 And I'd also read other similar stories here from home owners whose long-term tenants were listing the property- some of them not just renting out a spare bedroom, but turned out not to be living there at all- just listing the whole place on Airbnb. And of course, because they were long-term tenants, at least on paper, the home owners were going to have to go through a lengthy eviction process to void their lease. Meantime the places remained listed.

 Sure gives the lie to Airbnb claiming they are going to verify all listings to make sure they aren't scams, where even when what are clearly illegal listings aren't removed.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Very interesting RE the property that was listed for sale. That is clearly a scam and the fact that Airbnb wouldn't do anything about it is a bit shocking. I mean, even if you forget the host, what happened to those guests who showed up expecting a place to stay?

RE renters Airbnbing spaces without the landlord's permission, I know this is so common. I have at least two colleagues/work contacts who have done this and never thought for an instant that they were doing anything wrong at all. As a homeowner, I would be furious if one of my tenants did that.

The thing is, because this must be so common, Airbnb could lose a lot of listings if they clamped down on that sort of thing. Even though it is against their own T&Cs, which state that you must have the landlord's permission, these are also written so as the user, not Airbnb is responsible with dealing with those legalities. I can see that Airbnb would rather let it pass for as long as these renter hosts can get away with it as they still get their commission, but I'm slightly surprised they don't take down a listing when the landlord gets in touch. I mean it's really easy to prove that that property is yours and that you never gave permission for your tenant to Airbnb/sublet it. Also, subletting is strictly illegal in a lot of places.

[Vicky290]

how did this end?