AirBNB Search Map Showing Burglars Exactly Where Your Home - AriBNB Does Not Care! BEWARE

[Alan138]

That discussion title sounds outrageous but it is actually true! AirBNB is showing burglars exactly where our homes are without ever having to do the booking and in our listing photos we are showing burglars all the nice things in our homes to steal.

Go to AirBNB and search for a home or private room. DO NOT click to select a listing. On the right side click "Show Map" to turn on the map display. Now zoom in and zoom in and zoom in on the map .. until you see street names. Then slide the map around until you see a dollar sign icon for a listing.

The dollar sign marker for YOUR house is right on the exact street name where you live. Now AirBNB will tell you that it is not right on your house. But guess what? It is very close to your house and all a burglar has to do is go to that spot on that street and look for a house that matches the photo of the front of your house. And if you do not include a photo of the front of your house all they have to do is go and watch for someone coming out of the house that looks like the photo of the host. And we all have host profile photos that are close up head and shoulder photos that very clearly show what we look like. Burglars are of course stupid to be criminals but make no mistake they are crafty and smart enough to figure out what became obvious to me seeing the search map function.

Now go to Google search and type in "Burglars use AirBNB to target homes" and you will see about 200,000+ search results.

I have shown this dangerous and irresponsible flaw in the AirBNB search map system to managers at AirBNB no less than 10 times over the last year and they have not lifted one finger to fix it to protect us from being robbed. I even gave they the perfect and simply solution to fix it. Show a red shaded circle on the map that represents a certain number of mile radius. As you zoom in and out on the map it tells you the mile radius currently represented. Then below the map in rows and columns show all of the dollar sign icons that can be clicked to view homes within the represented mile radius on the map.

SO PROTECT YOURSELVES FROM AIRBNB - They obviously do not care one bit if we get robbed. AirBNB is NEVER GOING TO GET IT and never going to change their map function .. I have given up. Maybe if a thousand hosts comment on this discussion demanding they fix it, that might work. I doubt it though but maybe if 10,000 hosts comment on this discussion SCREAMING at them? If you are reading this and care please comment.

TO PROTECT YOURSELF

1) If you have a photo of the front of your house, remove it immediately.

2) Removing your profile photo or replacing it with one that is hard to tell what you look like may not be something that will prove heloful to your booking rate.

The only 100% safe solution is to delete your listing and rebuild a new listing using an address that is not your actual house address. Use an address that is several blocks away and in an obviously different neighborhood when looking at the street map for your area. Use a street address that is not actually a house address that exists. You can use Zillow to see what the house numbers are on a street and then use a street number between the numbers that do exist. This is so that you do not bother another resident with people knocking on their door in the rare event that a booked guest does not follow your instructions you provide with the correct house address.

Doing this of course will requre that you send a message to every guest that completes a booking to give them the correct house address. It is actually easy to do and has just become a simple step I now do. I just copy the message I sent to the last guest and send it to the new booked guest.

Below is exactly what I write to each guest after they book if you want to adopt the text for your own use. I felt it was important to explain to a guest the reason the address is different so that they are not concerned but actually relieved knowing that they do not have to worry about the possiblilty of a burglar breaking in while they are staying at the home. I tried several types of explanations and the one below that I now use produces 100% "no problem" responses from guests.

----

Hi John,

Please reply to confirm you got this message with the correct house address I am providing below in this message.

Please ignore the address to Airbnb gives you. It is a few blocks over in the same neighborhood. Burglars use the Airbnb search results map to find homes to rob and so far Airbnb has refused to fix it so we had to use a different address on our listing to protect ourselves.

The correct House address is XXX Street Name, City, State, Zip. The house address numbers are on a lighted sign above the garage doors on the right side

.... And then whatever else you want to say to welcome them to your home .....

[Alan138]

LOL I luv Ya Martin ... No idea why my topic of discussion seemed to bother you so much.  

Yes YOU ARE RIGHT your place is very hard to pinpoint from the map and other helpful tools like Google maps "street view". Apartments are very hard to pinpoint.

But I AM RIGHT that a single house is very easy to pinpoint.

I obviously do not use my actual street address or sure as heck I would not be showing any exterior photos and only show the bedroom and bathroom.

One thing is true from this discussion thread .. Not very many hosts have figured out that everyone on the internet can know exactly where their home is without ever booking a reservation. That by the way was the main purpose of starting the discussion thread. To inform hosts that did not know and may want to know. 

And the other thing we have learned is that people offering an apartment do not need to be concerned about this topic as I was not able to tell you the exact street address of your place.

Spread out single family homes in America that are showing pictures of the front of their house are very easy to figure out the exact street address without ever booking the place. AirBNB can easily revise the search map and eliminate this completely unnessary risk for some of us here on AirBNB. 

[Alan0]

@Paul154 @Martin27 You're taggin the wrong Alan.  I don't care about security at all!

But I would like to stop geting notifications about this topic.  So please tag the other Alan - the guy who is paranoid ; )

[Judith650]

 Martin here’s some proof:

I’ve been working from home since March, early one morning my teenage Daughter looked out the window and asked me why the new guest was there so early and using the back door to leave the unit. 

It was not a guest, we were being burgled at 9am in broad daylight and the guy was stuffing all our belonging into his suitcase and was heading right for our open back door towards me and my girls!!!

I confronted him and we struggled. My daughters had to run and hide while calling  the cops. They tracked the guy down a few blocks away due to the fact a Good Samaritan followed him at a distance. He had knives and property from other vacation rentals around us, it was petrifying!!!!

The cops said they’ve had plenty of calls because thieves check for rentals in a certain area, see what’s available. Look at exterior photos and then use the Airbnb map to locate the property by simply walking down the street, then break in and take what they can or simply sleep there until hosts notice or even worse new guests find them!

And while many on this thread claim ‘there’s nothing to take in an Airbnb’ I will tell you that we were scared for what could have happened. It cost $300 to change all the locks, I lost a days pay talking to cops and a 3 day booking because crime scene had to come out to take finger prints and I still have to go to court!

So there is your PROOF.

And we were the lucky ones I guess, at least we weren’t hurt, we got our stuff back and the guy was arrested. But it could have been far worse.

Airbnb need to scramble the maps until you actually book!!!!! 

Thank you @Alan138 for sharing, I’ve also tried calling Airbnb 3 times about this.

[Helen56]

I agree, I would probably cancel my booking if a host told me it was in a different place.  I often book places near my daughters, or near an event I'm going to, or near the subway in NYC.  I would be really suspicious if a host told me this.

I have also looked at my listing as a traveler.... and my dollar amount shows up as a mile away, actually in a different neighbourhood, so I think you are wrong about the map.

[Sarah977]

Even with the exact address, even taxi drivers and people who've lived in my town for years can't find my house. No one can find it without precise instructions and my hand-drawn map. None of the house numbers go in order and I'm on a little unnamed dirt road off the main road.

I'm lucky not to have the "exact address" worry.

[Timon2]

Honestly, I wouldn't be too concerned with that... If you're scared of being robbed, set up some camera and use a smart lock. 

[Pete69]

First of all, I tried zooming in and and there is NO dollar sign marker on my street. It's showing up on the wrong street just as it does on my listing page. So that is false.

And even if they could figure out exactly where I live, how are they going to be better educated as to when someone is home at my home versus someone else's home???? You have to stake out ANY home before it's burglarized. And big deal if they know what I look like. I live in MY home... What a shocker! And what do other people living in my home look like? They don't know. It's still a guessing game, just like with any other house.

For my personal situation there's been one break in over the last 18 years and it ended badly for the burglars. Anyone who doesn't belong on my isolated street sticks out like a sore thumb.

[Paul154]

@Alan0,

Yes, it is pretty easy to surmise where a listing is with a little detective work.

Yes, Airbnb is lax about your information. They could do better. I'm glad you've found a way to feel safer.

But there is no correlation between running an Airbnb and burglary. If anything, an Airbnb would be LESS attractive to a burglar. Random comings and goings are a burglar's enemy. 

Also a well run Airbnb would know NOT to have a lot of valuables lying around.

Burglars love wealthy neighborhoods with childless professionals who leave the house on schedules. 

[Alan138]

@Paul154 Thanks Paul !! Finally some sanity to the conversation. Yes, AirBNB is adding an unnessessary level of risk to us by giving anyone on the internet a way to easily locate our homes. They could easily change the way the search map works and then they woudl be meeting their promise to us of only giving the locaiton to people who have completed a booking.

The reason burglars ARE using AirBNB to target places to rob is because it gives them one HUGE advantage over a home that is not on AirBNB (Or not on a real estate for sale). Pictures of everything in the house. They can see what is worth stealing or not, plan their moves through the house to get in and out quick with what they are going to steal, maybe see motion dectectors or alarm systems in a photo, etc. Major advantage over breaking blindly into a house not even knowing whats in their worth steal or not. 

So if you are using your address on your listing, have a lot of things worth stealing (that you don't want to put away because you like to enjoy your home) ... then don't show interior photos other than the bedroom and bathroom being offered. And maybe tell AirBNB to change the way the seach map works to remove the completely unnessary added risk they are exposing us to.

[Paul154]

@Alan0,

As you are concerned about safety, do consider removing "Million dollar house" from your listing. It's kind of an invitation to bad people to do bad things.

Worse, you may be putting off good guests. You may be telegraphing "As a host, I confuse the price of my house with the value of the service rendered."  

Good luck

[Alan138]

@Paul154 I especially appreciate your sensible contributions on this topic. So many have written somewhat hostile replies towards me like I am a crazy person. I think what I have learned is that there certainly is not a majority on AirBNB of people with muti-million dollar homes filled with nice things hosting rooms in the house they live in. Some may host the entire home like a rental property that are expensive homes. If I did not live in the home I would not be concerned, insurance would cover the loss. But the thought of a burglar entering my home while I am inside the house is NOT something I want to have happen and **bleep** sure not because AirBNB is so stupid they are showing right where my home is to anyone on the internet. The very thing they promise all of us they do not do.  I do AirBNB for the interesting company and not for the money. This big house gets WAY too quiet with just me here everyday.

I do not use my actual house address on my listing so the search map shows a marker nowhere near my house. The only way a bad person can find out where my home is would be to complete a reservation which a burglar is less likely to do. 

I live in a very competive area with hundreds of available BNB's. The listing title "Million Dollar House" is what has finally worked to secure bookings when so many other homes in my area are being offered at half the price I charge. I live in a neghbood of multimillion dollar homes surrounded by low end crappy neighborhoods. Most people browsing see the photos first and any photo of any room in my home obviously looks like an expensive home so not sure it makes a difference what I say in the title when considering burglars browsing AirBNB to target their next home.

Thanks again Paul for your kind contribution ot a legitimate topic. No matter how you slice and dice it AirBNB should change the way the search results map works to stop showing the "bad people" where our home is located. The are exposing all of us to a completely unnessary risk and it is just wrong.

[Kenneth12]

Every home in Hyde Park is a million dollar house.  Big deal.

You may indeed place the marker where you wish.

And yes,  I find your hardly concise posts,  rather histrionic,  young Level 2 Paduan.

[Martin27]

@Kenneth12

"histrionic" is much better than drama queen 🙂

I will keep it in my fundus for the future. Thanks for that.

Best

Martin

[Kenneth12]

@Alan138,

The average burglar is in your home for six and a half minutes.  They don't want to be caught.

The average burglary is a crime of opportunity-- burglars aren't PhDs and they rarely plan.

Typically,  a burglar will head to the master bedroom and search or jewelry,  securities and other items that are easily sold.

Chill.

[Alan138]

This will be my last participation on this discussion. It has proven to be a complete waste of my time.  If you want to contact me about this topic please message me off my profile and please spare me the criticism and insults.

@Paul154Also pointed to another interesting aspect to this discussion when he said that "a burglar would not want to consider a house with random people always coming and going". Hosts that list a property where it is a whole house listing (ie" you don't live there and it is empty when not rented) the calendar also shows a would be burglar the dates that no one is going to be home.

Anyone That Wants to See if a Burglar can find your house from the search results map and without booking, follow these steps:

1) From the main AirBNB search page turn on the "Show Map"

2) Locate your listing marker on the map. Zoom in until you see the street names.

If the marker is on the same street name as your home and your live in a house not an apartment (Apartments are hard to pinpoint - Single family homes are easy) ...

Look at your listing photos. If you have a photo of the front of your home all a would be burglar need do is drive down the street and match up your listing photo to the houses on the street.

Do you have any photos from inside the house looking out a window or any other exterior photos that would be able to be used to match your listing photos to a house?

Also Google maps has a "street view" function that can be used without even going out to scout the street to match up a photos to an exact house. Using google maps zoom in all the way until the map changes to ground level view that is photo images of the street. (The google car may or may not have photographed your street yet) Again look at your photos and see if you can find your house by looking around using the street view.

.... Obviously remove any photos that can be used to identify your house. Google maps street view also shows the exact street address of the building showing in the photo(s) as you move around. ...

Burglars ARE using AirBNB to select homes to rob for the one obvious reason .. the listing photos show them what is inside worth stealing before they take the risk of breaking into the house. The listing calendar also shows them the date(s) no one will be home (if it is a whole house listing) and/or when less people will be there (if the host lives there and just renting a room or two).

Finally anyone seeing this that thinks AirBNB should change their search map please write to them on their feedback tool and talk about it when you have a need to call in for something else.

------------------------

FOR AIRBNB - If you want to fix this gaping hole in your search tool and stop helping burglars figure out where our homes are ...

Change the map to show a red shaded circle that represents a certain number of miles. Show the miles number under the shaded circle. As you zoom in or out, the red shaded circle now represents a large or small number of miles. Never show less than 1 mile radius. Below the map show the dollar amount icons in rows and columns that are homes available in the area selected within the map red shaded circle. Th icons can be clicked to view the homes same as currently functions.

This revision will still give guests what they really need to know and prevent would be burglars from figuring out our house address without completing a booking. Guests just want to know that a place is within the general area of where they need to be and 1 mile radius is certainly good enough for a guest to decide to book or not.

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I did not  start this discussion to be told it is not an issue or I'm crazy or that I'm trolling (whatever that means). I wrote it to alert other hosts that may not know and wish to reduce their risk of a burglary by removing any photos from their listings that shows exterior views that could be used to match up the house from the search map. And to hopefully get more hosts to tell AirBNB to change their search map function.