Another local host has copied most of my listing description word for word to their own listing

[Catherine365]

Another local host has copied most of my listing description  almost word for word to their own listing. What can I do about this? There is absolutely no doubt that it has been copied.

Catherine

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Catherine365

this is outrageous!

[Catherine365]

I've given her time to delete the copied text, and if it's not done within a couple of days, I'll be reporting her to Airbnb.

I'm new to Airbnb, only 1 month, but I have but alot of time and effort into creating a great description and uploading and sourcing great photos. She has Superhost status, and should be penalised for using my description. It was almost 500 words that have been copied, not just a little paragraph or an odd sentence.

Am outraged!

Catherine

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

Good plan

[Lilian20]

agreed

[Zacharias0]

Your description is not copyrighted material and theres nothing anyone can do for you.

I'd consider it a compliment. Keep in mind what works for you will probably not work for her in the long run. You'll find yourself updating your description so often over the next few months that your two listings will look nothing alike very soon. If the other host is lazy, which it sounds like they are, youll be getting more bookings by always adjusting your description more often.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

I am not a copyright/intellectual property specialist, but I do own a number of them and know that Copyright law is complicated, especially in the digital age. It is a legal specialty, and an opinion on this situation would be quite interesting.  I would not venture to speculate as to whether or not her literary work is protected.

[Catherine365]

Hi Kitty and Creek,

Thanks for your response. I doubt that her material is copyrighted either! I thought that good manners might prevail, that if asked by me to remove it, that she might be a little embarrassed, and change or remove it, but that didn't work, I'm sorry to say!

Catherine

[Catherine365]

Hi Zacharias,

Thanks for your response and your support! You are right, I have edited mine further anyway, regardless of this incident.

Catherine

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Your listing is public domain. 

[Catherine365]

Thanks Cynthia and Chris,

Looks like I'll just have to take it as a compliment!!

Catherine

[Dee9]

i was going to say just rewrite your ad and make it even better.... but if you want to 'scare' her you could threaten to flag her account and let her know that that would risk her superhost status by being flagged, Ive noticed that superhosts really freak out about being demoted lol

[Catherine365]

Hi Diane,

I did message her, and suggested to her to change or delete my text within a couple of days timeframe, or I would report her to Airbnb, but she's a tough cookie, and ignored me! She has more experience with Airbnb than me, and maybe already knew that Airbnb don't do anything about this.

Catherine

[Maria-Lurdes0]

HI @Catherine365  I know it's a massive headache, I had the same issue here with some local hosts, and this one host in particular was the worst - he copied blocks of text the day after a local meetup that I hosted!

I contacted him and suggested that if he wasn't comfortable writing his own text that I'd help him create something, but stealing my copy wasn't a solution.  He was very uppity about it and I didn't want a fight so I dropped it.  I do love to read his reviews indicating things like "there was no great coffee shop on the corner as described" "there was no piano as is written".  Ha.

Unfortunately, I don't think Airbnb will have your back on this one so I'm afraid I can't offer any strategy for you, I can only commiserate.  I am going to see what I can find out, as I'm pretty certain that copy that we write isn't public domain, but I'm not sure how it's categorized.

[Huma0]

@Maria-Lurdes0, that is so funny. Why would anyone use a description that doesn't even fit their property? Seems pretty dim to me. All you can do is laugh I guess...