Scam forces Airbnb to rethink lettings
On the back of a bad couple of weeks, Airbnb has announced that it plans to verify all property listings by next year.
The news follows a similar announcement, made just a few days ago, where the company also promised to ban ‘‘party houses’’ after five people were shot dead at an Airbnb rental hosting more than 100 people in California.
This, it’s important to state, is a response to a separate incident. The move follows a report published on Vice News where journalist, Allie Conti, ‘‘accidentally’’ uncovered a pretty simple scam.
Minutes before Conti was due to check into her Airbnb rental in
Chicago, she received a call from a number (with a Los Angeles dialling code).
The person at the end of the line claimed her accommodation had a plumbing emergency as the previous Airbnb guest had flushed something down the toilet and had flooded the apartment.
The host then refused to meet Conti in person and quickly gave her an ultimatum. She could either accept alternative accommodation (provided by the host) or cancel the booking – leaving her with nowhere to stay that night.
Predictably, Conti chose the former. And, also predictably, she was met with a sub-standard apartment and cancelled the booking after one night. Her next move was to request a refund from the owners. Nothing.
Her complaint to Airbnb wasn’t a lot more successful. She received a refund of only US$399 (NZ$627) from the US$1221 she paid.
Responding to the article, Airbnb co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky posted the following on Twitter: ‘‘We are introducing the Airbnb Guest Guarantee. Starting on 12/15/19, if a guest checks into a listing and it doesn’t meet our accuracy standards, we will rebook them into a listing that is just as nice – and if we can’t, they will get 100 per cent of their money back.’’
How Chesky and Airbnb plan to do this is still unknown.
However, with Airbnb expected to file for an initial public offering next year, we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s looking to clean up its act and avoid further PR disasters.