Guest didn’t show up, but tried to rent my villa to someone else without my permission- has this ever happened to anyone?

Azzuri0
Level 5
Ubud, Indonesia

Guest didn’t show up, but tried to rent my villa to someone else without my permission- has this ever happened to anyone?

I had a guest which booked my villa for a month and then changed her mind off coming to Bali (went to Thailand instead). I have strict cancelation policy and so she never canceled because she knew she would not get a refund.

 

On day of her check in I started getting WA messages from strangers and people coming to my villa that have nothing to do with the booking but were requesting to enter my villa.

I found from one of these people showing up that the guest was promoting my villa for her friends on her Instagram, offering strangers to  come use my villa because she cannot make it.

I contacted airbnb regarding this issue and they actually canceled the booking (but waited 24 hours for their response). They rewarded the guest a full refund but they did pay me in full out of the resolution right away (around 5000 USD).

 

Next day in a huge public fb group for rentals in Bali to my shock I found a rental company trying to rent my villa, they completely copied my listing description and every single picture from my Airbnb listing without ever asking permission from me. I contact them and they told me my guest requested them to rent my villa and that they have the permission from airbnb resolution for this.

 

They didn’t even delete the fb post right away even although I showed them the guest doesn’t have a reservation with me anymore, they deleted it after another 24 hours.

 

I contacted airbnb about this rental company  as they also have hundreds of listings on airbnb and this is a serious breach of several of their community standards, but unfortunately after 8 days of waiting I just got some random message that they cannot arbitrate disputes, so basically they don’t care they have this scamming company with hundreds of listings on their website.

 

Has anything like this ever happened to anyone here? Any advice?

 

5 Replies 5
Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Azzuri0 you are very lucky to get a payout! I have heard of fake listings and usually it is very hard to take them down (or at least it sounds like it) so 24 hour turn around time is great! Very disturbing that these people kept showing up. Sounds like a good ending after all

They listed my property on a Facebook rental group, but since they have hundreds of listings  on airbnb it might have also been there, I have no idea about that.

 

I am lucky I got the payout, I am just surprised that this guest got a full refund and no suspended account for what she did.   Airbnb also  don't really care about this company operating fraudulent listings, violating others’ privacy, copyrights, or trademarks.  I sent the CS screenshots of proof with my communication with this rental agency, it should be easy to track their account, but airbnb just doesn't care about the community standards they set. And as the rental company said to me, maybe air CS even authorised them to make a 3rd party booking, who knows, no body wants to check anything.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Azzuri0 

 

Thanks for letting us know about this. That's very troubling. CS really shouldn't be giving the guest any refund. She wasn't due one under the cancellation policy anyway and then she seriously breached Airbnb's own policies and not just once. Likewise, one would have hoped they took the scamming more seriously. At least you got paid, which is good to hear.

 

Otherwise, it's just another confirmation of how hit and miss Airbnb CS is. Too many badly trained reps who don't understand policy.

Jillian115
Level 10
Jamestown, CA

@Azzuri0 That is very disturbing. I can't imagine why Airbnb wouldn't want to get involved since the content is coming directly off their website and is clearly fraudulent.  So crazy. 

Helen744
Level 10
Victoria, Australia

Helen@744. It is lucky that u realised this was happening . Invest in cameras and change all locks. not many people are travelling in your area so scammers abound. Maybe they are taking advantage of the fact that many hosts are stuck overseas and their rentals sit empty. Contact a local newspaper and give them the story .Cheers H