Bed Bug Scam

[Brian1775]

I’m in a brutal situation.  

Had a guest claim there was a bed bug issue at the house.  I was horrified.  An Airbnb case manager was immediately assigned, the guest quickly refunded and relocated for the remainder of their trip.  My listing was paused and all my upcoming reservations were canceled for the next 3 weeks (over $1300 hit).  While painful I understood it.  

This was over the 4th of July so took me a couple days to find licensed bed bug exterminator to inspect the home.  I met the exterminator at the home and was there for the inspection.  No bed bugs and no sign of bed bugs.  Still sold me on a “preventative” $400 treatment.  

10 days ago I provided a receipt to Airbnb that outlined his findings of no bed bugs.  Crickets!!!  I’m out $1300 in reservations and $400 in expense to treat an issue that apparently never existed.  I did some research and found out this is becoming a common claim and way for people to get free stays.  I’ve called and messaged Airbnb and all they will tell me is it’s with a case manager and they will get back to me “immediately” yet they will not give me a timeline.  So disappointing.  I’m a super host with extremely highly cleanliness ratings and 100% response rate and Airbnb won’t get back to me.

 Any recommendations?

[Lisa723]

@Brian1775 it sounds likely to me that the guest made an honest mistake, but at this point it's mostly moot. If your primary objective is to get relisted, I would suggest trying contacting Airbnb on FaceBook and Twitter. Many people have reported getting results this way.

[Claire511]

@Brian1775 would you be able to provide an update once you get a resolution (hopefully you've already had one!). I'm in a similar situation and I can find a lot of forums where other hosts have had similar problems, but none that indicate what the final outcome was. Thank you in advance!

[Ashley647]

Still occurring, they just hit us with same scam. Now folks can as well buy bed bugs.

[Rosey-and-Gretchen0]

We are also being hit with what appears to be the same scam. We experienced an actual bed bug situation in Orlando 10 years ago, and these guests who are immediately threatening to sue, claiming doctor bills, car decontamination bills, etc. have done this before. We will never again rent to someone who has a newer profile and no credentials. The persons profile was only started in December, and they had no address on file. Deeply disturbed and concerned that this is going to rip apart this community. We cannot do business under constant threat from scams.

[Matthew1844]

this just happened to me, and i am afraid to even talk about it...

[Mica271]

Looks like you are the latest one to reply in this thread. Within 15 minutes of checkinn I had a guest wage 4 complaints against my place with me, I felt like it was a setup and called airbnb immediately. I just had guest dump roaches in my place which is treated every quarter and had just been treated. It cost me $250 extra outside of my contract because the roaches are no native. They didn't even cancel they stayed however requested $1500 from me and threatened me w a bad review if I didn't pay. I just had a call from airbnb and they gave them $700 of their money back with nothing I can do. There is no protection for host only guest. I am finishing up the rest of my reservations and going strictly with vrbo for all of my places. VRBO much host friendlier. I am 3 yrs of being a superhost and 99% 5 star rating on all of my places. Good luck with airbnb, these sort of things keep happening to host with no recourse. 

[Sean-And-Jenny0]

This happened to us. We now have an exterminator  between guests and monthly so we can charge guests if they bring bugs into the space.

[Anita781]

Big scam. Also no support from AIRBNB on this issue. Guests can order bed bugs on line to take pictures of in your property. They get free stays and you get the shaft.

[Robert-L-0]

Hi Brian,

We too are in your same situation!!! Ours may be slightly worse!!

We are a small company who has hosted on Airbnb exclusively for the last 5 years. We are "Superhosts" with nearly 700 reviews, almost all of them praising our cleanliness. 

Recently, we had a guest who reported we had beg bugs on one of our mattresses. We buy all of our furniture new and we have protective casings on all of our mattresses. So, when this guest said they found a beg bug inside a mattress, we immediately become suspicious.

Without notification, Airbnb cancels this guests reservation ($600). Charges us a cancelation penalty ($250). Cancels 21 days of upcoming reservations. (Almost 3k in losses). Removes us from searchable listings. And requires us to get a professional pest control company to do an inspection. ($200). All without even having spoken to us. They claimed the guest provided "valid documentation". 

We immediately contact a pest control company who then does a full inspection. They state that there are no bed bugs in the home whatsoever. They also state their is no evidence there ever has been. They state that it would be impossible to even have a minor infestation without any signs. They put this in writing on our inspection.

At this point, we know we have been scammed by the guest! We share this documentation with Airbnb and got the run-around for a very long time. When Airbnb did finally respond, they paid for the inspection, removed the penalty, and added us back to searches but They did NOTHING to help cover our nearly 3k in losses.

The guest left a lengthy review. We asked Airbnb to remove the review and they wouldn't. Airbnb's stance on this is: If a review is only partially false, but does contain other statements deemed true - then the true statements give the false portion of the review immunity. For example, if a review says, the check in was smooth, the kitchen was nice, the neighborhood felt safe, but I was sexually assaulted by the host. Although the sexual assault portion may be false, Airbnb will not remove the review as the other statements are still considered relevant to that guest's experience.

Hmmmm.......

We are seriously reconsidering hosting on Airbnb. You should too!