An AirBnB host that joined in May 2017 stole my photos and published them on all the 14 listings

Mii-Shzuen0
Level 1
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

An AirBnB host that joined in May 2017 stole my photos and published them on all the 14 listings

Hi, 

 

I am an AirBnB host in KL, Malaysia since 2013 (total of 4 years). Recently, I noticed my AirBnB bookings dropped tremendously and I found out someone new on AirBnB (joined in May 2017) in the same building has stolen my photos without my permission from one of my listing (which I took them from my own camera) to post on all her 14 suspicious listings (with different pricing). I have all the proofs that the photos belong to me because I have all the hi-res files with dates. Plus, I can actually go into my apartment right now to snap of photo of myself watching TV if you need me to proof to you instantly. 

 

She has generated quite a number of bookings using the stolen photos that I snapped and some bookings generated her quite a few of bad reviews whereby the guest complaint that her apartment wasn't the same as published on her listings. 

 

It has already affected my bookings and I hope AirBnB can quickly investigate and take rightful action to ban her from posting further on AirBnB. 

 

I tried calling AirBnB twice. Once, on 10th of Nov 2017 and today, 15th Nov 2017 and still no actions were taken as AirBnB is still taking their own sweet time to investigate. I am trully dissapointed. Kindly advise what else I can do. 

 

The culprit that stole my photos does not have a proper AirBnB host name and she called herself Maxhomes. If you read her reviews on her profile, some guests called her by the name Kate. So, I assumed she is a lady since her name is Kate. On her profile page, she did not publish an actual photo of herself and I believe she used a stolen photo again.  And I noticed from her profile page, she actually just joins AirBnB as a host since May 2017. It gets me really mad when she uses my cover photo as her cover photo as well. 

 

This is my listing title: Golden Triangle 3-Bedroom Apartment 

And here is the link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9855321?preview_for_ml

 

That Maxhomes lady practically stole my photos from the above listings and post them on all her 14 suspicious listings as show below: 

[Link hidden for privacy reasons]

 

Please advise me what else I can do to stop this person from stealing my photos.

 

Thanks

 

Cheers,

Mii ****

 

 

13 Replies 13
Clare0
Level 10
Templeton, CA

@Mii-Shzuen0 The listing that you reference, www.airbnb.com/rooms/132572608, does not exist on Airbnb anymore.  Is that the correct link?

This is the correct link: [link hidden for privacy reasons]

 

 

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

Hi,

 

It is remarkable that some pictures are exactly the same (main photo) , although viewing more pictures in the listings, they seem to be  taken in the same building, but not showing the same appartment. Also the pictures of workout-area and swimmingpool are different.

Every listing has a "report this listing" option just below the "request-to-book" button, so maybe that's a good start ?

 

Hope things will be sorted out well,

Emiel

Thanks Emiel. I've done that too. Let's see what else AirBnB will do in return. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

As you have already flagged the hosts profile and called them, I would contact them via their FB and Twitter pages. Say the host is scamming guests by using your photos to say this is what her listing looks like and this can't be the case as they are your personal photos. That should get them moving 🙂

 

**[Moved from duplicate post]

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Mii-Shzuen0,

 

Lovely to meet you. 

 

I am sorry to hear that someone has used your listing images without your permission, I can imagine how frustrating this can be especially when you have gone to all the effort to take these. 

 

It sounds like you have done everything right here by reporting this to Airbnb. This will have been highlighted to a specific team within Airbnb who will be looking into this further. It can sometimes take a little bit of time, as you can imagine they will have investigate a little more into this. Hopefully it will be sorted soon though.

 

In terms of your post, you may have seen I have had to remove the link to the listing profile, this is because here in the CC we speak in more general terms and so I do have to remove any personal information shared. I hope you understand my reason for having to do this.

 

Thanks,

Lizzie


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Justin1068
Level 2
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I made a booking with Maxhome Guesthouse (Which I'm assuming it's the same host) through AirBnB on 15th May 2020 for 16th-17th May 2020 as it was showed available, booking reserved was confirmed.
 
The following morning of 16th May 2020 I received a message saying that this unit is not available, and asked me to check in to another available unit. I declined as that unit was not suitable for me and by that time I have already found another unit on AirBnB.
 
Then on 17th May 2020, I realized I got charged for the room which I did not get. I suspect it was because the listing was shown to be available and after the host cancelled my reservation outside the AirBnB platform, the booking was thought to have went through and thus charged me whereby the host gets the money. Could this be intentional?
 
I contacted the host regarding this issue but no refund has been made until now. When I contact the host, my messages and calls are ignored and ended. 
I have contacted AirBnB support at 2.01PM, 22nd June 2020 and have yet to receive response yet. 
Please advise on what I should do to persue this matter. Should I lodge a police report as this is almost no different than scam, but using AirBnB platform to run their MO?
I hope this will be looked into by the AirBnB team quickly and stop this host so that other users will not suffer the same fate 😞
 
Thank you in advance
 
 
Host contacted me with these details:

**Personal information hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines] - Please note that it is not allowed to share any personal details publicly for your own privacy

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Justin1068 

Unfortunately the whole booking one room and then moving you into another has usually been linked to a known scam. 

 

I would recommend you contact airbnb and report them, twitter apparently is best. 

Otherwise, I would email 

 

@Lizzie @Quincy @Stephanie @Liv @Nick personally, as they should be able to direct you to the best point of contact.

Thanks and good luck.

Yadira 

@Yadira22 

Oh really.. That I didn't know.

I've tried contacting them through AirBnB support but still waiting for response until today. Maybe I'll try to contact them in other ways. Thanks for the recommended contacts, I'll be sure to bring this up to them.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Oh dear what a horrible experience @Justin1068 

 

And lots of shaky reviews - did that not put you off?

 

Not clear from your post, when you  contacted  Airbnb at the time to alert them that the host had said your accommodation was no longer available - why didn't they just transfer your money to the new booking you had made?

 

I would call them back and chase up your refund. All the ways of contacting them are on the Contact Airbnb post at the top of the forum you are posting in.

 

 

Justin1068
Level 2
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

@Helen3 

Yes it was a harrible experience 😞

 

Most of the reviews seems ok coupled with the price they were offering at the time. & I was also rushing to get a room (Booked for the following day). 

 

And no, I did not contact Airbnb at the time they told me the accomodation was no longer available. What happened was -

15/5, 10-11pm, I made the booking for the stay on 16/5-17/5. And after I received confirmation of the booking I went to sleep.

16/5, 12.30am, they sent me a message through Airbnb saying that the room is no longer available and that they would like me to check in to another residence together with their whatsapp contact.

16/5, 6am, I woke up and noticed this message on Airbnb, I replied but I was worried that they won't respond.  So I panicked as I'm supposed to check in a few hours more and contacted them directly with the whatsapp contact they gave me. So from there they told me about the other residence and after looking at the listing, it was bad with tons of bad reviews. Therefore, I declined their offer and they said ok. (Here's where I thought the booking was cancelled) 

I then quickly proceeded to find and managed to book another room through Airbnb. 

 

And thanks for your advice! I'm planning to give Airbnb a couple of days to get back to me through support else I'll try contacting them in other ways.

@Justin1068  A booking isn't cancelled unless you see it officially cancelled on your account. Just the host telling you that it's cancelled means zero. 

As Yadira said, this is a scam- called a bait and switch. If this ever happens again, contact Airbnb ASAP to report and have them cancel it for you.

And good luck with this one you're dealing with now.

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Justin1068  It pays to use the official ABB Dashboard  for msgs  over and above using WhatsApp that way also ABB Customer Services have a copy of communications and can help you.

 

 If you look up WhatsApp here in ABB CC , use the searchbox)  you will see scams about people who have tried to get hosts to contact them that way & who have been stung.

 

Take Care