Is it just me or are there more scammers trying to get free srays? Its being taugh online!!

[Shaun124]

I am seeing more and more guest trying to scam the system and it appears as if Airbnb is falling for it. 

A friend showed me a post he had found where someone online and explains in detail how to stay in Airbnbs for free.

He explains that within 24 hours of check-in, a guest needs to "stage" pictures of cleaning issues and notify Airbnb but not the host. Then on the night before checkout swamp the host with complaints about the cleaning issues and everything  else they can find.

The writer goes on to say that 9 out of 10 times Airbnb will refund the guest without contacting the host. The article went on to explain by the time the host figures out, the guest has left and the host is left trying to deal with Airbnb and in most cases its impossible for the host to have Airbnb rebill the guest. If the host works something out, Airbnb pays the host without recovering from the guest.

He goes onto explain, this "method" of staying for free is best on 2 -4 day stays.

I had a guest who staged pictures of a camping experience we host, claiming bugs in the bathroom. They were dead bugs and in an outside bathroom the is partially open to the outdoors.  Airbnb refunded the guest without contacting me, cancelled his stay, left the dates blocked as punishment and put a warning on my listing. They refunded the guest the entire stay claiming they did me a favor as he only stayed 1 night, yet I have proof he stayed for 2 and most of the 3rd day of a 4 day stay.

Despite all the proof I have given them, they(Airbnb) CS) don't want admit they made an error.

In the past 5 months, I have had 3 different guests stage photos trying to get a refund after staying in the unit for a few days and then try and claim it was on check like this on check in. The one guest wasn't very smart and had the TV on in the background and you could make out the news was on  and reporting done was the same day photos were sent.

WOW. I could not  believe this if I had not had him read me the article to me.

[Patty352]

Sorry for your distress. I hope you have had better experiences since your March 2022 post and this incident was an exception.  As a newbie to Airbnb, but not to holiday lets, I would say it is really important to get cleaners in asap after check-out time.  Make sure the cleaner has a suitable device for taking photos / videos.  I believe you can get an app which puts date stamps on photos which might be worth investigating.  How are you getting on now?

[Shaun124]

@Helen744  You are right, I dont care about the money at this stage. I am horrified at the process that Airbnb thinks is fair, when despite the evidence is not. I guess they are to big tom say a mistake was made.

[Elaine701]

Really, truly, the only effective way of avoiding this problem is prevention. 

Look at who's booking. Ask questions. People who are willing to behave this way will exhibit "signs". I can't go into a long list of things to look for, but in general, inconsistency is a big flag.

For example, they inquire for 5 pax (or are totally inspecific), and write something that just sounds "off". People with bad histories generally can't instant book. The odd ones will often just "test the water" with an inquiry, rather than a "request".

You respectfully thank them for their interest and then ask a few benign questions, like "You are requesting accommodation for 5 persons. Are you couples or singles? We want to make sure we prepare the right configuration of beds". You may get a perfectly legitimate answer, but a scammer is more likely to respond with something even more confusing. The more dialogue you have the more they reveal themselves. You'll start to see it. They're inconsistent. Something isn't making sense. 

If you feel uncomfortable, just say no. There's another booking just around the corner, usually from a perfectly legitimate guest, so don't be desperate. 

[Shaun124]

As an update, I insisted that the agent elevate this to a supervisor. She made all reasons why it should not be elevated. I told her that as far as I am concerned she mishandled the case and was biased as she never included me in the decision making. I was not afforded the opportunity to present my side of the story at the time. If she denied me the opportunity to present this to a supervisor, I would call in and open anew case and elevate that to a supervisor.

Today I got a response back saying they were refunding me everything except 75% of the last night stay.

I guess this was to prevent me showing a supervisor how badly the case had been mishandled.

[Roxy32]

It’s only gonna get worse now, they are now saying the guest has 72hrs to report a problem, 3 days to stage everything! This happened to me but thankfully I was able to prove she was lying. But with this new policy it’s just going to get worse!

[Suzann0]

I have had the same things happen to me today and not response from Airbnb.