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This is worth a read:
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/airbnb-montreal-aj-host-suspended-accounts-1.5252233]
Out to make a quick buck, I feel this is the result of ABB moving to the “Hotel format”, and their apparent push away from home hosting.
And just how the heck did “AJ” manage to create the bogus accounts and reviews?
He must of had insider help at ABB.
With over 90 listings posted in record time, this should have been a red flag. Clever con man or team, what do they call that " bait and switch"!
I thought the article explained it pretty well. Three associates booked a whole bunch of reservations across the ~90 listings and then wrote shill reviews for those stays. Some of the actual reviews even indicated they were 3rd-parting bookings. They probably did it at the minimum discounted nightly rate allowed (US$10), which would cost them less than US$2.00 per review and you could get ten 5-star reviews per listing in just ten days. If you timed it right, this would earn you superhost in a couple weeks and give you 3 months to screw over prospective guests. You could also just have the same 3 associates last-minute book every available night to get more shill reviews that keep your ratings high enough to prevent Airbnb’s automated warnings.
We all know that airbnb is lacking resources in both their customer service and trust and safety departments, so you could get away for quite a while, at least until enough guests complain about it.
Yes my research partner on these bogus reviews sent me this article back when it appeared (April).
I discovered this in my city a year before this article appeared. Have informed all the top folks at Airbnb. Of course, nothing happened, and the fake review ring I uncovered (operating in Md., Va., California, Nevada, W. Va., Israel, Central America) is still flying along happily w/ their ring of fake reviewers.
Anyone reading this can look at their local Airbnb investors and look for the pattern I discovered, and this article explains, and @Brian_R170 summarizes well. Find the first three reviews of the listing (they have been shuffled out of order since 2016 to HIDE this pattern, due to Airbnb wanting to be less obvious of its tolerance of this practice). Look to see if the first three reviews are the SAME three people as for all the other listings the investors have launched, OR fellow hosts that received a reciprocal fake review.
It is weird though that the first listing shown in this article has the 3 reviews but the average is 3 stars!!! That is not indicative of the rest of the scam process.
