Has this happened to anyone else? Scary story....

[Robin611]

Had someone see my listing and zoom in on the map.  The map basically pinpoints where my house is located on the map (with a little house icon) but doesn’t give the exact address (unless of course someone has already booked).  In any case, not sure why AirBNB has this map so detailed.   A man and his friend showed up at my front door yesterday afternoon telling me they saw my listing on the AirBNB website.  I asked him how he found out my address.  He said easily, there is a house icon pinpointing exactly where your house is located and I’m familiar with the area.  He told me he didn’t want to go through AirBNB and get charged from them and thought he could save me $ too.  I took his number and told him to contact me later.  I called the non emergency police.  He is legit and lives in the area.  Police weren’t concerned.  I sent a message to AirBNB.  They never contacted me.  Just called them and they had no answers but will send it to the tech team.  Is there never any sense of urgency with AirBNB and their customer service reps who answer their phones?  I’m furious.  Totally unacceptable! 

[Rowena29]

@Robin611 

As a host, I'd be more concerned about why a local wants to rent your property??

Unless he has family coming to stay or some other legitimate  reason, that would be a big red flag to me.

I dont' know your specific area, but for my listing, the map  gives a REASONABLY good indication of where my house is - however without exterior photos, which I deliberately do not include, I don't think even a local could determine which precisely house was mine - unless he asked around the neighbours. Would this be the case with your listing do you think? There are quite a lot of people in my area who I  don't know, who are aware that my house is an airbnb house - the message could have been passed along within the neighbourhood?  

I think it's extremely unlikley that airbnb are going to change their algorithim for how houses are shown on maps.  I

It is of course very much against airbnb policy to try and book off the platform.  However as this guy is a local I can kind of see how he thought it might be ok to approach you. It might be inappropriate but doesn't necessarily indicate danger - a bit like asking a tradie for his cash rate is probalby how he sees it. 

Interestingly I was reading a travel forum where is was telling guests things to be wary of with airbnb, One of the things they specifically mentioned was   airbnb adds an extra 12 - 18% on top of the hosts rate. so hosts are willing to accept a rate less than airbnb charge - that was exactly how it was presented - implying to guests if they just approached the host directly they could get a cheaper rate.

AFter all it's well known that you can usually get a hotel more cheaply if you go straight to the hotel rather than use a hotel booking platform - I can see how a guest might think it's perfectly ok to approach a host.

It's easy enough for you to decline. Explain about the host guarantee, and public liability that the platform offers that won't be available if you go off platform and say it's a security issue.

Hope this helps

Regards