Host Copied My Listing Writing!

Personally I hate people who copy / plagiarize in all sorts of mediums, but I suppose that’s what people do on the internet these days?

I just found a listing where the girl copied my house rules right down to my unusual smiley. Like totally just cut and paste.

I sent her a message telling her I’m flattered she likes my rules and then I asked her to rewrite them in her own style.

Is this just being sensitive? How would you feel if someone copied your wording on your listings and just changed a couple of words and some parts (like my rules) completely cut n paste???

I had that happen too andcontacted Air Bn b and let them handle it

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Did they do anything?

Not sure. But he changed the wordingof the listing

Hi @teg is this other listing a competitor in your area? I had this happen to me as well…not a week after my listing went live (I’m only in week 3 of Hosting). I was so bothered by it I had to have an extra glass of wine that night :wink:. However, since then, I have changed my copy at least 300 times (haha). I’ve had some great advice on this forum about my listing and have applied much of it. I find that the listing has to continually change and grow to make yourself stand out in a crowded space and to keep up with all of Airbnb’s website changes. This other guy’s listing has stayed static…still has all my old stuff on it. Good. It would be great if Airbnb supported Hosts when this happens though. Keep us posted.

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I have no idea at all why this should be an issue. So the girl copied your house rules. Why bother?

You might like to elaborate why this is a problem for you since I don’t understand this at all. As you rightly say, that’s what people do on the internet these days.

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I would contact Airbnb. My friends listings was completely copied even her photos onto an apartment down the street that was getting bad reviews. Very strange people out there.

On the HA/VRBO forums, people post their rules and agreements for others to use. Consider it a compliment.

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She has changed her rules and reworded them so I am happy. No need to call in airbnb.

@SuiteRetreat Yes a total competitor and she also has my old rules as I have updated mine as well. Like I said, I just find no one respects intellectual property anymore these days. Grrr. d:

@Eberhard_Blocher let me give you an example you might understand. Since you used your full name and picture here (assuming you haven’t in turn stolen eberhard’s identity), a quick search enables me to find your name, number, address, email, work, youtube channel, and a multitude of other details about you of you which I could then steal and use for nefarious purposes such as posting you on Grindr with your contact info. Would you be OK with that?

@felixcat Perhaps if I posted it particularly somewhere and gave the go ahead that’s fine. I do not consider it a compliment hence why I started my post with “Personally…” d:

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This has also been a bother for me. I was one of the first hosts in my area and I took a lot of care to write interesting and detailed information about our area. Other local hosts copied and pasted it, including some references to a coffee shop around the corner from me that is nowhere near them. I also contacted the host and offered to help them write their own copy, but I wasn’t happy that mine was being lifted. Now in one of my listings I write “Herman, stop stealing my copy”.

House rules are a bit different, in my opinion, as they are similar between listings. I’d still be upset if someone did a complete copy and paste though - at least personalize it a bit! I also am always looking at copy others use for ideas but I’ll try and keep all the copy in the same voice.

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I would imagine it’s because it will make them seem like generic house rules when guests are looking at similar properties in the area.

@teg Responding to your example: well, it depends. As you rightly say, everybody could steal Eberhard’s identity and then post this anywhere on the internet. Perhaps the real Eberhard could object, but then again, it might be an honour to him to be copied. We all strive to be a role model, don’t we? Well I do, anyway.

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As a retired teacher I hate plagiarism as well. Intellectual parasites and their apologists abound so I guess we have to adapt to this new reality. In my mind, taking something that doesn’t belong to you is stealing. It doesn’t matter if they did it because they are lazy, or they admire you. If you share your rules or forms and invite others to use them, it’s ok. If someone takes what you did the work to produce without permission it is not okay. A fellow took my description and changed some words. I wrote him and asked him to write his own copy and he denied even reading my description first.
Poor fellow was just probably incapable of writing a coherent paragraph. He delisted without ever getting a single review.

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Hi,

I started hosting in June and have just spotted another listing in Belfast (where I am) which has copied almost word for word my profile… including bits that I was particularly proud of about myself!!

Am a little annoyed, but not quite sure why as my apartment is nicer!

Thanks for the post - at least I’m not the only one!

I’ve just found that the building next door has a room for rent and has copied my listing complete with referring to the ‘balcony’ (which they don’t have) and to the ‘apartment’ (it’s just a single room with en suite - no kitchen or lounge).

I don’t mind that there’s another rental in the building next door as the apartment right next to ours in on HA and the single room isn’t competition for our full apartment but I reported it anyway because I hate plagiarism.

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Wouldn’t bother me in the least if it’s the house rules. I don’t understand what the big deal is.

Mine isn’t the house rules, it’s the entire listing. And inaccurate in many cases, as I said above. I don’t see why I should work for hours on my listing just to have it copied by someone who can’t be arsed to write their own.

They have only three reviews and have already been marked down for accuracy.

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I don’t know much about technology but I know there are some sites which will say ‘right click disabled for this website’ and I can’t cut and paste.

Seems like that would be a nice idea for our listings.

Sorry about that - how frustrating. Especially since they are lying.

I hate to say this but I am a tecky geeky person :slight_smile:

Yes, they are lying. They have altered the parts of my listing that they don’t like. For example, I say that we are located just over a mile from the beach. They changed this to ‘the beach is a twenty minute stroll away’. Sorry but I can’t ‘stroll’ a mile and a quarter in twenty minutes :slight_smile:

But, they are getting dinged on accuracy…

With my tecky geeky hat on, I have to say that it’s easy to copy text from a ‘no right click’ website. Just view the code and it’s all there.

Copyright law though, in most countries, states that when something is published in a tangible form (which includes website uploads) then the copyright resides with the original uploader. I really HATE internet plagiarism / theft! This is especially the case with artists and photographers.

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Wouldn’t mind people copying entire words from my listing. At least it shows how much lack of creativity they have:) I would at least try to explain things in MY OWN words and use some humour or sarcasm.

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