Blackmail and holding host ransom over threats of a bad review

Carole489
Level 2
Folkestone, United Kingdom

Blackmail and holding host ransom over threats of a bad review

Hi everyone,

In the past 3 weeks I have had 2 extremely bad experiences hosting guests and I wonder if anyone else has suffered the same, I am located in Southeast England. Three weeks ago a guest contacted me on checkin day as the were lost due to them not having the address, they also had no checkin information, this set alarm bells ringing for me but I gave them directions and met them at the gate to let them in as they had no codes. From the outset the female guest was aggressive. I gave them access to the apartment and left them to it. 3 hours later she contacts me, not via airbnb, she had sent me her phone number earlier, not the one registered to her profile, when she was lost i had called her back. She said the apartment was freezing and the heating wasn't working, I asked her to look at the thermostat and tell me what it read as I knew the apartment was not cold, she refused, I offered to go down a nd take a look. The thermostat read 23 degrees! I explained that the heating wouldn't come on whilst the apartment was already hot. She demanded a full refund and was extremely aggressive accusing me of being rude and sarcastic and claiming I had said things I hadn't. I explained that I did not have their money and that they needed to contact Airbnb and that I would also be contacting airbnb about them. She then sent me threatening messages saying if I didn't give them a full refund she would leave me bad reviews, report me to Airbnb and Financial Ombudsman. I told her it was with Airbnb. She made up ridiculous and easily disputable lies when she contacted Airbnb, they investigated and because I had photographic proof and timed messages that proved they had stayed far longer than the hour she claimed, Airbnb supported me. She did of course leave a terrible review, but after further dialogue with Airbnb it has been removed as it was lies and slander. 2 days later I accept another booking, I should have known better, like the previous guest they had no reviews and no email address connected to the profile, they checked in on Sunday some time after 4PM, by 4.30 they had cancelled with no contact to either Airbnb or myself. They left all the lights on so I knew they had entered the apartment, I messaged them to ask if everything was ok, they responded that apartment was noisy and not as depicted on Airbnb, I have over 200 reviews from happy guests! At 11pm I receive a message from her demanding a full refund and saying she will report me to Airbnb, they have made no refund request via Airbnb. I texted back explaining that I refuted their claim at that my previous reviews support this. She has now left me a review, I have not reviewed her yet, but clearly it won't be a good one, at no point has she contacted Airbnb. These guests have both attempted to blackmail me, demanding payouts directly from me. the first only went via Airbnb after she was well aware I had.

My suspicion is that they are using stolen cards to book and then demanding payouts direct from hosts under threat of bad reviews etc. I believe it's a criminal gang, there are too many similarities for this to be a coincidence, I have never experienced anything like this in my 4 years of hosting. I wonder if anyone else has been a victim of this scam?

Carole 

12 Replies 12
Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Carole489 Have you taken down your listing? It doesn't seem to be attached to your profile.

@Mike-And-Jane0  I have, I’m done with Airbnb, 

Laurelle3
Level 10
Huskisson, Australia

@Carole489 Sad and sorry this has happened to you, I was wondering if you feel that this a scam can it be reported to the police even though they say they have booked through Airbnb. This event makes you think it is reason for an up todate photo for hosts to verify the guests booking in. 

It wants to make you to ask for extra identification on arrival eg. Divers licence, identy card. 

Katja202
Level 10
Ruinen, Netherlands

@Carole489 I wonder, would it be possible to refund after the 14 day refund period? Because when that’s possible you can turn the hole thing  around. For example: i will refund after 14 days, when you leave a bad review i will not refund. I don’t know if this is even possible, but looks to me as calling their bluff.

Groetjes Katja
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Katja202 

 

No, you can't do that. That's blackmail and it's against Airbnb policy to try to extort a good review out of someone. 

 

If the guest is threatening to leave a bad review if they don't get a refund, they can be reported to Airbnb for violating the review policy, which is another reason why it's best to keep any communication about important issues on the Airbnb messaging system. However, if the host then promises a refund in exchange for a good review, then they are violating the policy. I just don't think it's a good idea.

Tracy839
Level 1
Dallas, TX

What about the other way around? I was a guest recently and the airbnb I rented for one night wasnt ready for guests, they didn't even have toilet paper. It appears they got nervous because they know they messed up and messaged me after I left, saying if i didn't leave that out of their review they were going to write false accusations about me in my review. I have never gotten a negative review from a host. I always leave places clean and tidy and follow check out instructions completely. This is the first time I’ve experienced something like this on airbnb, I’ve been an active guest here since 2017! I have not written a review yet or reported this person to airbnb because I fear retaliation. But I also don't want to let this host continue blackmailing their guests. On the other hand, maybe this was just a momentary lapse in judgement on their part, so if it was, I would be understanding and definitely wouldn't want to do something that may get them kicked off of airbnb. What would you do in this situation? 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

 

Not clear from your post what you felt was wrong with the listing apart from not having any toilet paper so can't comment on that. 

 

Your host has been ridiculously stupid to have  made those types of threats to you. Call Airbnb and flag the hosts threats to you on Airbnb messaging @Tracy839 


Read Airbnb's review policy and you will see neither hosts nor guests can threaten bad reviews 

@Helen3Thank you so much for your response. Im starting to lean that way too, I tend to make excuses for people and forgive too easily but the situation just feels so wrong. Regarding the problems. there were a bunch. It was basically not ready for guests; no toilet paper, barely any paper towels, had to search for towels, not enough pillows, looked like a tornado came through the backyard, lots of debris that could be dangerous, shower looked dirty, etc. 

Katja202
Level 10
Ruinen, Netherlands

Yep, but who is blackmailing who? ….. Then i would immedeatly report it to Airbnb. It wasn’t my intention to get a good review, it was my intention to stop the blackmailing. 

Groetjes Katja
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Katja202 

 

The guest was blackmailing you, but my point was, if you engage in the same tactics, then you are also breaking Airbnb policy. You did the right thing by taking the high ground and reporting it to Airbnb and having the review removed. 

 

Another tactic (never tried this myself but perhaps someone else has and could let us know if it worked) is to copy/paste the section about extorting reviews from the review policy and send it back to the guest.

Katja202
Level 10
Ruinen, Netherlands

@Huma0 Oooooo that one is briljant! 👍🏻😀 I keep that one in mind. 

Groetjes Katja

There are clearly guests who find things to complain about with the tacit threat of a bad review if they don't get some sort of refund. It's a way of life for some unscrupulous travelers and it often pays off.  It's a major flaw in the review system but hard to see how to fix it.