PROSTITUTION & AIRBNB

[Johnny27]

Have a friend who recently rented out to a girl only to find out she was using his place as a brothel. This seems to be a growing concern in our city of Vancouver. Especially downtown Vancouver. There should be a way to screen out this type of activity in advance. I'm sure that most people hosting on here would not appreciate their place being used as a brothel.

Any suggestions??

[Christian65]

It's really all about screening and communication during the booking proces. If a guest looks or sounds fishy I always ask for more info and ask them to tell me about what they plan on doing and if they are indeed all alone. 

I usually avoid last minute bookings but you can't be a 100 percent sure about anything but look a reviews and ask for more infomation and listen to your gut! 

Did this entrepreneurial lady have any reviews?

[Petre-Liviu0]

Hi Chistian !

Do you have any idea if you are alowed to go in your own house if you see something suspicious like for example , extra people that are not booked going in to your house ?

[Letti0]

@Petre-Liviu0  You need to have it in your rules and or rental agreement. I have this in mine:

• Owner and Owner's Representatives entering Property– Occasionally, the Owner or their designated representative(s), including Housekeeper, caretaker, or repair person, may enter the property at any reasonable time for inspections, maintenance or repairs with a minimum of two (2) hours advance notice to Guest (from when a message is left on Guest's cell phone). Pest Control spraying, Landscape and pool maintenance personnel may enter the grounds of the property at any time, without prior notice.

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

bonjour @Johnny27

If you have questions such as how to come into the building, if is there is an access code etc, it may be suspicious.
It is complicated to receive clients when the prostitute has to go down to open the door because the entrance door works with some key or pass.

Or turn the listing to families in order to avoid those problems.

There is no big warnings.
If you receive a request from a group of girls wanting 'to visit the city' (not saying the city will visit them) , it is not obvious.

[Johnny27]

thanks for the tips.

It's pretty difficult to know 100% what these girls true intentions area when renting out a place.

I suggestied to my friend to install a webcam in his unit. But even then, how would u know the difference between friend's coming over to visit vs. a "client" coming over to visit. Almost impossible. Unless you had cameras in the bedroom too....which would be highly illegal as well....I believe.

[Sandra126]

You would have many more than one person entering the building if they were dealing or selling services of any kind. You could make a house rule about visitors, and camera up the outside. Someone mentioned too having a door counter as part of his security system???

[Prue0]

n my case it was a normal booking for a flat 10 days from a European girl and her 'sister ' during the summer- they were reluctant to let us in to service half way through but otherwise fine.... they rebooked recently - 10 days same girl plus 'friend' but this time my cleaner saw 3 different men going into the flat when she was down there on three separate occasions over the ensuing 24 hours... and the female friend had changed since the arrival. 

When I checked her history I found that she had visited either Bristol or Cardiff every month for a while for the previous six months... hard to know how anyone can afford a social life on that scale!

There was no sign that the young women were scared or intimidated.... but neither was there any sign of the wealth needed to not work every month for 10days.

I suspect there was something going on that was not legal so I reported and she has been removed but obviously others will have realised that air bnb places make a good base for sex work as well as drugs. In this case I think the history/reviews gave the clearest clue. If you find someone has been visiting the same city regularly but not going out to work it might be questionable.

But just like hotels there is no really failsafe way to check everyone.... had she not rebooked with me and had Lucy not been forced to visit the other flat more than once, noone would have noticed what was happening.

On balance i think that the important thing is to report any suspicions and -if you have occasion to contact airbnb because you are worried- make sure there is a note against the guest name so that they can build up a picture. It is hard- not to say possibly silly- to believe the first report but by the third airbnb should have a clear picture. I say silly because someone posted something about a single woman booking into his place and assumed she might be (and I quote) a whore. As a single mother of two single grown up daughters I find that attitude repulsive and feel that he is not fit to host.......

[David126]

Well it is not just AirBnB. Depends on your circumstances, if you are on site I assume it is less of an issue.

I agree there are things you can do to minimse the exposure, I assume that most would look first to Instant Book and no check in process, a lock box or something similar.

You may pick up the less intelligent ones who can not put together a back up story.

[Claire263]

This just happened to me!!!! Arrrrrrr! Neighbours complained to police, and I had to clean for 3 hours!

[Silvina87]

Disgusting, happened to me too! Do not want to go near my bed now! What can be done? 

[Alex944]

Hi Johnny, my name is Jenny and on my friend's account. I am curious about the incident you wrote about. May I give you call? Let me know your number please. Thanks.

[Sophie630]

Good evening everyone,  

I have been a host for about 2 years now and I have met amazing people from all over the world.

Yesterday as I was leaving work around 3:30pm my building manager called me saying that the girl renting my condo was running illegal business and that there has been many man up and down all day from my unit. So I made my way to the building where my condo is and the manager showed me the video of everything happening. She never brought a suitcase in just a massage table and lots of oil and towels.

It is clearly illegal to run a business out of my unit, so I called AirBnB and requested to have her evicted. They said that if wanted to cancel the reservation they would be happy to do so, but I would not get paid for it. I do not understand how there is no procedure in place to help host in dealing with this kind of matter. I called the police and they also did not want to help me as they said it was a tenant dispute.

So I phoned airbnb again and said that I needed help and answer and at that point a man came out of my unit and I felt very unsafe. They said they had no proof and that I would need to submit paperwork.

Well what kind of paperwork!!! Then they proceded to say that someone from the claim and safety department would email me and that from now on this would be dealt over email. So Im a woman alone dealing with this asking for help and no one was willing to help me. I felt very unsafe. 

I called them back 3 times requesting to talk to someone and requesting help and they said email only.

In time of emergency they should have someone talking to host and guiding them through the situation.  

My husband fianlly joined me and then She finally came out of the apartment and my husband took my keys from her and then he changed the lock code. She didnt argue as she was well aware of what was happening.

Anyway all this to say that I felt very helpless until my husband showed up. This is not a situation that I would like any other host to go through so I am asking all of you for some idea on how to approach this with Airbnb and have them do something for future host. Also, I know all the neighbours on my floor and I didnt like how I had maybe put them in danger with having this guests there. So Airbnb should also consider them too.

I am not asking here about how to manage my listing or on how to screen guests as I already do all this ask lots of questions and often decline booking that I do not feel comfy with. All I want to know is how to deal and complain to Airbnb.

Thank you so much for all your support.

Sophie

[Colette-and-Bruce0]

We have had the same problems in our condo in Edmonton, AB Canada. We have installed a security camera outside the unit and have mentioned it on our listing but more recently have changed our booking  timeframe to at least one day's notice and that seems to have filtered out most 'rift raff.' The other thing we've done is not lowered our prices last minute to get a booking on an available date. I've noticed that bad guests tend not to plan ahead or want to pay regular prices. We would rather the suite is unoccupied than have people who would compromise our intentions and disturb the neighbours.

[Lauren144]

It has been my experience that Airbnb is 100% behind guests and that hosts will never be prioritized over guests.