Instant Book to thieving prostitute with bad ID. No payment or response from Airbnb

FYI - Here’s my public post on the Airbnb Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AirbnbAustralia/posts/850825115061791

You can get an outdoor-rated WiFi camera for $29 on eBay. They work great. You can even get a series of images or a video sent to your email address when motion is detected. Skip the dummy versions.

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Can you post a link?

Oh, look! They’ll have someone reach out to you “soon” they say. Believe it?

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I positively DETEST the phrase “we’ll reach out to you.” Because Bank of America used that phrase every time I had to fight them off from stealing my home. I hate that phrase used in affiliation with customer service. It brings me back to frightening levels of PTSD. Along with their hold music.

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That and “touch base.” UGH

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I just had a call from an otherwise uncontactable secret society calling themselves Airbnb Trust and Safety. Using an undisclosed type of black magic, they released the amount for the booking to me whilst the call was in progress.

Why this didn’t happen during the first of 6 support calls I made to them is beyond me. They confirmed I don’t need a police report and they are very interested in obtaining the message trail and number of my working girl/disaster guest. I’ve been assured that any invoices for damages will be paid and extenuating costs will be covered by their Host Guarantee (we’ll see).

I was told too, that even once their investigation is complete, I may not be told any detail about the cause of the payment or ID issues. So it’s safe to assume this was an issue of stolen ID and credit card fraud. I sincerely hope the company clamps down on this and stops forcing hosts into compromising their security through pushing features like Instant Book.

Thank you to everyone of you for helping me here.

I can only confirm and amplify the posts stating that the only way to reach anyone with authority at Airbnb is to publicly vent on their Facebook page and through any form of media, social or otherwise, that you can generate. That certainly worked for me in this case, thus far anyway.

I’ll keep you posted about the nearly $1000 in damages they claim they will honour. In the meantime I’m researching video surveillance options.

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PS - I also think reaching out is a stupid figure of speech. Like this was some sort of networking opportunity for me to ‘reach out’ to their social media team and ineffectual call centre employees. Er, no.

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I feel for you having both experience of a guest taking the master set of keys both to the rental property and my home and people trying to rent for prostitution. For me 2 new locks cost 800 euros each on Friday. I am in the South of France and list on 2 additional sites to Airbnb. This year was a nightmare with “ladies” attempting to secure venues from which to ply their trade during the Euro football. The first wave of requests started in March as they tried to locate suitable premises and the request would include something like I would love to bring my friend/sister/mother back for all of June if I like the flat. Your story of the last minute booking is also one that a colleague here fell for. Initial contact from a male who was “verified” and as soon as the booking was accepted there was contact saying that his flight was delayed and his girlfriend was flying in earlier from another city so could she pick up the keys please. Needless to say the boyfriend never arrived but a second girl did. On checkout there was plenty of evidence of prostitution. When these incidents were reported to the relevant listing sites there was no apology to be had they hid behind we are just a listing site. Admittedly you have the additional problem of not being paid and that is disgraceful, it was not you who accepted a phony payment and I am sure they have plenty of insurance for these eventualities. Maybe we should share ideas on this site as how to avoid these situations in the future? I resorted to asking for scans of passports for any group of ladies wanting to book. It certainly scared away several requests. Maybe it also scared away genuine guests, I hope not. Airbnb are so big they don’t feel the need to explain their proceedures for verification and at the end of the day it is only one guest, the one making the booking who is verified. Any sustained social media campaign against them will result in being delisted so take care.

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Could you please share the link to this camera? I searched for that one, but I cannot find any livestreaming option which can be installed everywhere.

@jillthepill1 You have a terrible experience! I feel so upset that even experienced hosts face so many problems from that kind of guests. How about trying to insure your property at any insurance company to prevent such awful cases or it will be too expensive and won’t cover expenses? I always conclude a short-term leasing contract with my guests where both sides have to give passport data. Do you have any security cameras in your property? Anyway, I wonder whether it is possible for hosts to validate credit cards by themselves. I do not face that experience, because I always take cash instead, not in AiBnb, but in Booking.com and others, but it also gave you a lot of problems, such as late delays etc.

Thank you for taking the time to reply Aya. I can check with my insurance company but I am fairly certain they will say it is my responsibility. France fairly recently changed it’s law on prostitution making it illegal to look for business in the street so they need premises to work from. If they keep moving on every week they are less likely to be discovered.

:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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I am glad it all worked out that proves to me one more time that Airbnb is awesome.
I know you are frustrated because they kept you in a dark and made you wonder but the fact is that they paid you and i am sure at this point that they will pay you for damages.
Not one any other rental platform will do it. In my case with VRBO, i juts lost my money.

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Because you were talking to the gophers thus far, whose mentality is usually incapable of assessing situations smartly. One who is assigned to read the forum saw your post and brought it up to upper management, problem solved, because your case had merit, not because the threat of bad publicity, which they will constantly get anyway regardless of what they do, especially in a confrontational society. I keep one thought in mind in these types of situations; I try to always remember who these companies have to deal with 24/7 - the human race, where the nightmarish guests many hosts here have encountered come from…

Glad for you the matter will be resolved.

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Thanks. If this saga serves as feedback to Airbnb, I’d offer that they need to make access to their management level support less impenetrable. It’s petty and dismaying to have no other option than to invoke publicity and spray our stories over social media to be granted timely and much needed action.

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True, it serves them well to improve either the chain of command, or get better situation handlers at the first wrung of the ladder.

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Great to hear you’ve had some progress, sad to hear you had to resort to twitter or facebook (I’ve had and closed both…hope I don’t have to rejoin just to get their attention if I ever need it)

Hi @konacoconutz,

Sorry to hear that - PTSD is nasty. As is corporate jargon. I’m also violently allergic to such phrases. And it’s mostly just used as a smokescreen, or a shield to guard against normal human interaction.

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Heh. I joined Twitter just to contact Airbnb customer service. Really.