Firstly to start, I love Airbnb and it has allowed me to optimise my apartment to travel the world. I have regularly rented the apartment over the past 5 years & when I feel ready I will do again.
However I am very disappointed with a recent interaction with Airbnb. Although I do not blame Airbnb for this situation I am upset by the lack of assistance that was provided. Please find a summary of the situation.
On the 29th July my cleaner arrived at the property to complete the check out of a guest called David who supposedly was in London for a business meeting.
On arrival she found 2 groups in the property both of which seemed to have had a dealing with the said guest. (Who is a fake/scammer by the looks of things and his name is not David). I am still shocked that 1 week after this situation his profile is still live and Airbnb seem to have taken no action on this.
He had drawn up a fake rental contract and had taken cash from these people. The first was a Ukrainian family and the second two gentlemen. The later sent me copies of the fake tenancy agreement. He took nearly £3k from each in cash.
I was away supposedly on holiday. So I had to call on a professional freelance property manager to immediately attend the property. He informed all parties that they had be scammed and looking into this I now understand that this has happed to Airbnb hosts before
The Ukrainian family understood the situation but the other two gentlemen refused to leave. (As they were ultimately the victims of a scam).
This was at 12pm on the 29th July. Thus I had no option but to inform Airbnb to cancel the next booking who was arriving on the same day. Basically they would not be able to go into the property as it was uninhabitable because of squatters.
I then immediately informed Airbnb who seemed to struggle with understanding the situation and just decided to inform me that I would be fined for cancelling the booking. (They have now removed the fine for this). At this point I was in another country desperately trying to sort the situation and ensure that the guests arriving were able to get their refund (I had already contacted them so we just needed the refund to be processed). The agent from Airbnb definitely added to the stress & seemed to be just reading from a script.
I then spoke to another team member who informed me to ring the police. Which I did and they informed me that under British law that they could not remove the squatters. The only option I would have would be to contact my solicitors and get a court order to have them removed. As per British law.
At 11pm the night of the 29th July they were still in the property and I had to give up for the night trying to remove them. I was stuck in the Netherlands and could not get home.
I rang Airbnb 3 times that evening and no one could seem to understand the situation. I was promised several times that I would be called back.
On the morning of the 30th July the police were still not able to attend, I decided I needed to cancel my holiday and started to travel back.
The property manager returned to the property and confirmed that the squatters were still in the apartment. I spoke to them again and realised that they were adamant that they were not going to leave.
I rang Airbnb again and had to cancel all reservations for upcoming stays throughout July as under British law it can take months for the squatters to be removed from the property after a court order is raised.
Hence the property was unable to rent due to this, I was shocked that the responsibility of this all fell to me and at no point did Airbnb offer to help contact the upcoming guests. But to ensure that all guests had adequate time to find alternatives I wanted to make sure they were informed instantly.
Around midday on the 30th July, I was in a very heightened emotional state as there seemed to be no way to get these squatters out. I then contacted a friend who works for local estate agent and she was able to attended the property with a property manager.
After 4 hours of negotiations & with the squatters initially requesting £2800 to leave the property they eventually saw sense and decided to leave of their own free will at around 5pm on the 30th July.
I was then informed by the police to immediately change all locks and assess the property for damage.
I was told to put in a resolution and that if the guests did not respond within 72 hours Airbnb would get involved. (A strange suggestion based on the fact that the guests are seemingly a fake).
We are now 1 week on, I have had no response from Airbnb. I rang again yesterday and as the supposed ticket was closed.
My disappoint lies in the fact that I can’t not understand how Airbnb have still not cancelled this guests profile to avoid any other host having to go through this. Never once has Airbnb contacted me to discuss the situation & all it has been is a labyrinth of different Airbnb employees saying that they need to refer it to another team.
Naively I always felt protected within the Airbnb community and was expecting further guidance and assistance. The situation left me feeling very vulnerable in what was a horrible situation.
Again, I do love Airbnb and I know that they cannot be held responsible for these scammers who create Airbnb accounts, but I did expect more assistance.
Danny
