Competitor using my photos on their listing

I have been checking out my competition on AirBnB, and have discovered that one of my competitors is using two of my photos for their own advertisement. They are a professional agency, and have promised to remove the photos, but this has not been done. I have reported this to AirBnB and nothing has happened.

They are thieves. Book a night with them and take it out in the review! Tape a sign on the door of the listing saying its an illegal listing! Or just keep at the “professional” company to remove it or pay you $500 for the photos.

Good luck

RR

4 Likes

Are they photos of the surrounding area or something?

Seems like that is the normal case, although some hosts have said that occasionally Airbnb acts on reports. Most likely they only act quickly when they can be held liable.

I think @RiverRock is half-joking here, but don’t do this. Airbnb calls out this type of behavior in their policies and it will get your account suspended.

I hope that was obvious!

RR

1 Like

No they are my own photos of the shared swimming pool, it is obvious they are my photos, as I use them on my own listing, which has been on ABB for a lot longer than theirs.

This is infuriating. When I first started 5 years ago another host lifted most of my description and just changed some wording to fit his place. I actually wrote him and demanded he write is own stuff but he denied doing it. I reported him, Airbnb seemingly did nothing. He did change a few words but it was clear the lunk just didn’t know how to write. He probably spent his whole life copying someone else’s work.

Anyway, I would keep trying to get them to remove the pics but if they won’t your best option is to change yours out. Maybe watermark them so they can’t be used again if you think they will do that. Sounds like you are in a complex with lots of rentals and everyone’s looks about the same. I’m not sure it gives you much competitive advantage either way.

3 Likes

My husband is a professional photographer, and I wish we could watermark all our published photos. A few of our photos on our listing have our watermarks. For others that we posted with watermarks, Airbnb told us to take them down. We redid them without watermarks.

It is really infuriating. I am not going to change the photo in my own listing, as it is a particularly spectacular shot of the pool which my husband took a few years ago. I have others, but none of them are as good as this one.

Interestingly some people get away with having words superimposed on their photos and some don’t.

1 Like

Maybe you could edit it to put some wording on there. I’d probably also mention somewhere (on the photos or in the text) in your listing that you take all your own photos and manage your own listing. If I were looking carefully at staying in your complex and saw that a corporately managed listing was pilfering another host’s photos that could be a deal breaker for me. You only need to take a few bookings from them over it to make it worth it.

Send them a Cease & Desist letter as your husband holds the copyright.

2 Likes

Which country are you in? Laws differ, but there is recourse if your husband holds the copyright.

JF

Is there a lawyer in the family or a friend that can send them a letter. Once they see the letterhead from a law firm that might motivate them to remove the photo. I have also noticed “report this listing.” Click on that and report that they’re misleading guests by posting photos from other listings.

https://www.airbnb.com/terms/copyright_policy
This should help - I would pursue this IMMEDIATELY. They have had every opportunity to do this the easy way.

Once they understand that they can literally be tossed off the platform, they’ll take their own photos.

2 Likes

I doubt AirBnb will care. They have done nothing about the person advertising MY property still fraudulently. I think it is snoozed now as the cancelled 9 bookings but I can still bring up the listing from when I stayed there before the property purchase.
Don’t worry about the photos it’s not a big deal. It won’t affect your bookings.

As this is a shared amenity in the location, I can see Airbnb giving a virtual shrug saying same building, same pool…

1 Like

The property next door to our complex started renting out a room and lifted my listing word for word. It was daft too because they had left in the multiple uses of the word ‘apartment’ when they were just advertising a room.

I let Airbnb know about it and sure enough, the listing was changed. It wasn’t immediate though.

2 Likes

Technically they “have to care” once one pursues their official process. Outside of this, you are very likely correct - they won’t care - “wrong dept” - aka “SEP”.

2 Likes

Can I ask, do they share the same pool as in your photos?

I hope that the OP has got this sorted out. Let’s hope she’s busy with turnovers because I always think that it’s such a shame when people post here and don’t keep us up to date or answer members’ questions. It would be nice to know what Airbnb said so that can be added to our knowledge base here.

Anyway, over the years I’ve had plenty of articles and photographs lifted and put on other sites. The best way to get them sorted I’ve found is to issue a DMCA notice to the hosting company of the offending site.

1 Like