Copy cat listing and stolen profile photos

[Kory0]

Hey Everybody,

I am having an issue where another Host with a condo unit directly behind mine has stolen some of my profile photos, and even went so far as to mimic my interior deco. Why does this host need a photo of my washer and dryer? Sure my pictures are great, but get your own!

What I believe is happening is that this host is trying to cause confusion and drive my traffic to hers. I am not too worried as I have the reviews to back my property up, but the host is not acting very "Super Hosty".

So I did reach out to Airbnb, and all they said was I could file a copyright claim, etc. I can understand that they cannot do anything about how the host decorated their interior to mimc mine, but they do not take any action against the host for taking my photos at the very least. 

Has anyone had to deal with this? Comments or suggestions?

Thanks!

[Alexandra316]

@Kory0 It's really disappointing that Airbnb wouldn't take action over the stolen photos. Their listing should accurately reflect their listing, simple as that. I would try contacting them again through social media, personally: I've found contacting via Twitter @Airbnbhelp to be good.

In terms of copying décor, I had a competitor who did that to me also! They put up some of  the same artwork, chose the same colours, etc. Even though it was bizarre and it really annoyed me, I just let it go. I wanted to do something petty like have a friend stay there and leave them a bad review, but I didn't. 8 months later, I'm still in business: their listing is gone. You're a well-established host and hopefully are appearing in search rankings well above them anyways.

[Kory0]

Thanks for your response. I'm surely over the decor part, but action should be taken against the unauthorized use of my pictures. Airbnb is quick to ding us hosts for items involving a guest stay cancellation, etc, but yet has no care on theft of intellectual property by another Host. Yes they supplied a link to copyright protection, but my thoughts are that Airbnb should be taking the action against the other Host by way of taking way the Superhost status, etc....