Check out this Scam - Cleaner listed my property on Craigslist

[Lisa975]

I had this happen and caught it right at the beginning.  But it goes on.  Three years ago I had a friend of a good friend want to rent my condo.  Our Condo was in Myrtle Beach SC.  At the time I still lived many hours away.  I didn't have time to get a smart lock or a Lockstate lock on the unit so I went with one of the over the handle lock boxes.  I went to SC and looked up the top ten cleaning companies at the beach.  The 2nd one on the list came out and told us all they did and priced it and such.  We hired them. 

Everything was fine until about the 2nd month.  The cleaning company called and said they needed to check the schedule.  I told them the last guest was leaving on July 9 and the next one was coming in on July 21.  Those were Airbnb guests.  I forgot to tell them about the friend coming from July 11-18.  The friend goes to the condo on the 11th and calls and says someone is there.  I said what do you mean there.  He said there were pizza boxes out, tvs were on and cloths and phones on chargers.  He offered to wait until some one showed up.  About 30 minutes later a man and his wife and 5 kids showed up trying to get into the condo.  The friend called me on the phone.  I asked to speak with the man.  I asked him who he was and how he got into the condo.  He said he rented it for a week from a listing on Craigslist.  I asked from who.  He told me the name.  It was the lady who owned the cleaning company. 

I told him he couldn't stay there and could get his stuff.  He asked about the $800.00 he paid for the week at the condo.  I told him that I wasn't the one who rented it nor the one who took the money and that he had been scammed.  He still asked about his refund.  I told him it could be handled one of two ways.  He could leave or I could call the police to have him leave.  He left with no problem.  I called the cleaning company and they denied it.  I reported it to the police and they acted like it was the first they had ever heard of anything like that.  Needless to say it did no good. 

I know this goes on in a big way and people need to be aware of it.

[Ute42]

Hi @Lisa975 ,

oh boy, what a story. Who would think of that one.

This scam of course makes a lot of sense. They have almost full control about Your place and You are hundreds of miles away. They're making more money on this scam than with their cleaning. I could think of cleaning companies who only accept owners that live far away.

I will copy Your story and send it to a friend who lives in Germany and has a vacation rental in the Netherlands run by a management company.

Thank Your for sharing this.

[Colleen47]

Woah! That is outrageous! Fortunately I manage my listing and am always around, but i have often wondered if people are looking for opportunities to break in later. That just takes the cale though. Sub letting your home on another site. Kooks. Hopefully they got punished and won't be cleaning homes again. Thanks @Lisa975

[Fred13]

What a scam. This happens to be quite common in my area, the owners are not only somewhat 'absentee', but actually most come just once a year and live in a foreign country.

[Zacharias0]

if youre listing your place and arent an onsite host its always good to have cameras set up somewhere on your property. im surprised a cleaning company would ruin the chance at long term gain vs short term money. 

[Rebecca181]

I stayed in a short term vacation rental when first relocating to Oregon and had been thinking of leasing it long term. Long story, but the short version is it soon became evident that the cleaning gal resented my being there. Turned out she and her handy-man partner were using it for friends to stay in and they also were partying in it so they could enjoy the hot tub and panoramic ocean views and my possibly being there on a longer term basis was most annoying to them, and they didn't hide this much at all (although they WERE hiding from the owner that they were using her place for their own purposes; I now wonder if they were also renting it out via Craig's List and pocketing the money). I think these sorts of things happen far more often than people think. Glad I live on site and can manage my rental closely!

[Deb125]

Some of the onsite rental managers, aren't very trustworthy either... it happens a lot 

[Nanci9]

That's a terrible story! I am new to AirBNB and just had a "woman" email me that her son was coming in from a college and needed a place to stay a week the next day. On such little notice I wasn't prepared but let her know I just have a bathroom, TV and futon bed upstairs. Her son called me the next day and asked if he could come over that night - late, as he was partying close by...the $ never hit my account, its already the next day, and there's no way in hell I'd let a strange young man into my home w/o upfront payment. The whole situation was annoying and gave me the creeps. Who would allow a college kid to come into their home after midnight with no sign of money? I told the young man that if he had $100 he could stay the night, but he just put me off and said his "mother" would contact me as she used her Visa card to pay. I never heard from the mother but got an email from her saying she was sorry... what the hell does that all mean? I've had requests to throw a party at my house (NO!), to house a toddler up a flight of stairs, if I'd allow a couple and child to rent my guestroom...does anyone in here have a positive guest experience? I'd love to hear it! 

. 

[Jim166]

Wow, Nanci, that does sound creepy, and I will admit, we've had a couple of things along that vein, where it seemed to possibly be grifters attempting to work a scam.

But, buck up lil'camper! 🙂

We've had 97.5% amazingly awesome guest experiences, way too many to even begin to relate here!

And, it's absolutely restored our faith in people; being a part of the airbnb community for us, being among people who are willing to be in community *together*, has been a truly beautiful thing!

We're sending you our best wishes that this goodness starts to roll your way soon!

~Jim & Tamaya

[Robin4]

@Nanci9

Nanci as you say, you are new to Airbnb and may not be aware of the way that Airbnb runs.

All payments are made to Airbnb and any financial arrangements are handled that way. Airbnb do not allow payments direct between guests and hosts! When a guest books a property they pay Airbnb by credit card as soon as the reservation is made. Unless payment has been made to Airbnb the booking will not proceed and no confirmation will be issued by Airbnb.

Airbnb then release that payment to the host 24 hours after the guest arrives. It works this way because both the guest and Airbnb need to know that the host has honoured the booking. Before this became policy a host would accept the reservation, take the money and not proceed with the booking and guests were being stranded. So all hostings are paid for this way.

Where there would be an issue with this booking Nanci, Airbnb do not allow ' third party'  bookings! That is people who use their account to book for someone else. For Airbnb to accept a reservation the guest who books must be one of the guests who stays.

I hope this makes the way Airbnb operates a bit clearer for you Nanci.

Cheers......Rob

[Joseph313]

I have plenty of great guests — some repeats.  

You have to set the standard and stick to it. 

Id rather feel comfortable than risk it.  

[Mary703]

Hi Nanci, I also have a policy that I don't rent to someone who does not have any previous Airbnb reviews. That just makes my life easier!

[Deb125]

Yes many excellent guests, however we'd be bored hearing about the good guys.. and theres ALWAYS a bad guest in the mix..after reading all these posts, its getting scarey..   thats why airbnb's system is so askew there are no rewards for being a "good guy"  when that one bad guest can take that good guy (a/k/a superhost) reward away 

[Susie5]

I had a suspected scam over the spring break, which may be useful for other guests to know about. I got a booking for my studio apartment which has two beds. A young Russian with a sketchy profile (in retrospect...) booked it for one person.

When the day came, he turned up with 3 other young students from local universities. They proceeded to trash the place and break just about all my house rules.  One apparently complained to my co-host that "it wasn't worth $600.'' The rental fee to the Russian was only about $450 - but I suspect he was SUB-LETTING my place to these other 3 Chinese guys and pocketing $1800.  Of course they would trash the place if they expected a bed but got a "nest" of my blankets, duvets etc. on the floor in the bathroom or kitchen!!  Just an FYI to be aware, especially in student areas and around vacation times. I had a similarly bad experience over New Years, with students again.... I will be extra, super-vigilant around student vacations in the future!

[Jo504]

Lisa did you find a cleaner fir your Myrtle beach property I'm in need of one in Myrtle beach myself??