Nearby host is falsely listing parking on site as amenity

I am new to hosting and live in a small village where parking is very, very difficult to find. The streets are very narrow and cars have to park on the pavement.

There is one other host locally and she lists “Free parking on premises” as one of the amenities. But she has no such parking whatsoever. His property is basically a flat with no space outside.

I have respectfully suggested that the listing should more accurately describe the amenities but met with refusal.
I do not wish to stoop to this level of deceit in order to compete.

What else can I do?

Report the listing along with photos of the lack of parking. There’s a place you can do that.

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Thanks. Where is the place to do that and will AirBNB take any notice.

Or just wait until they get nailed by guest reviews.

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I wonder if this is where you report it. Under ‘other’

https://www.airbnb.com/neighbors

Of course, I don’t know who would have the data to know whether Airbnb will take notice.

How long has she been hosting? One would think that if her guests found her description to be inaccurate and objectionable, it would be mentioned in some reviews or low accuracy ratings.

And as a new host, I would concentrate on making my listing stand out in some way, so guests book with you because they find your listing to be attractive to them, rather than concerning myself with whether another host is being inaccurate with her amenities list, and even considering “stooping to her level in order to compete”.

If her guests are taking up resident street parking, that might be a matter to take up with your local authorities.

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Most guests are too good natured to give negative reviews. What is frustrating is that this host is inclined to cheat the system. She is “Super Host” in our village (Horwich, near Bolton UK. She converted an old storeroom in a derelict building, called it a “cottage”. and then let it out on AirBNB. The Planning application to Bolton Council for the conversion was refused TWICE. Planning issued an enforcement order for the conversion work to be un-done. She did not comply and lodged an appeal. The appeal was thrown out. But she still persists with letting it out.

Several local residents have alerted AirBNB to the facts and supplied evidence of the enforcement order and the appeal rejection.

Bolton Council will now proceed to prosecute but the BIG question is why does AirBNB allow this listing to persist when the host is not complying with local and national regulations. And condoning the use of premises which are officially stated as being unsafe.
Lying over the issue of parking is the least of her misrepresentations.

Myself and other neighbours have raised this with AirBNB but they do nothing.

It really does destroy one’s faith in human nature.

Ah, now I realize you posted the same thing on the Airbnb CC and have beeen asking this question over and over again, even when you get the question answered by other hosts.

Airbnb doesn’t remove listings unless they are somehow forced to, or the bad PR from letting them remain overweighs their only real concern- making money.

They refuse to remove listings that have been reported as being illegally listed by a tenant in violation of a their no-subletting lease, allow listings which have been reported as scams or clones of other listings to stay up.

So they certainly aren’t going to remove a listing just because an amenity is falsely represented.

And as far as

goes, I’m not sure where you got that idea. I can assure you that guests are not too good natured to mention misrepresented features about a listing if it affected their stay. Nor does including a few “cons” in a review, make it a “negative review”. Reviews are meant to be honest, and may point out both the good and the not so good or bad.

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I wonder if she is carrying insurance on an illegal living space….?

Sit back and wait for karma to bite him in the tushi. He’ll get one star reviews for accuracy and angry written reviews from guests that couldn’t find a parking spot.

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Reviews will resolve this quickly. Unless their business was hurting you - I’d let this play out naturally

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It is hurting! But I will not stoop to this level of misrepresentation. I have standards of integrity and would rather quit that compromise my values.

You can’t control other people. Choose your battles wisely. It sounds like this one will eventually be sorted out by guests. Run your rental in the best way possible and move on.

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So you think she’s getting all the bookings in your area just because she advertises free parking on premises? I kind of doubt that.

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Ah, now I realize you posted the same thing on the Airbnb CC and have beeen asking this question over and over again, even when you get the question answered by other hosts.

didn’t you say you got banned? haha, have you found a way back in, to lurk?

Anyway, @Tomdhu there’s no way this person is going to be able to continue if her listing is inaccurate, guests will nail her eventually.

I’d personally ignore her and just focus on being amazing… oh wait, are you even a host?

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You can read the CC without signing in, but you can’t get into the Host Circle section or post.
But the weird thing is, their tech is so bad that I am able to sign into the CC from my laptop, because when I got banned, I was using my phone, so different IP address. So I could start posting there again, but they would just ban me again when they saw that, so I wouldn’t be able to read the posts in Host Circle. I don’t want to screw that up, so yeah, I’m undercover. :sunglasses:
:shushing_face:

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That’s hilarious, @muddy! I must be missing some really juicy stuff over there. I better go take a peek :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I would let guest reviews deal with that one.

I have always been leery of telling on people, even for good reasons, but never more since I read that, in occupied France, there were 12 million letters of denunciation during the German occupation, then another 15 million after the Liberation. I have to think that most of them, before and after, were written by the same people… The poet Robert Desnos (deported, died at Theresienstadt death camp) wrote a famous article titled “J’irai le dire a la Kommandantur” (“I’ll go tell the Gestapo”) about it.

So, as I wrote, imho, better let guests deal with it and keep our hands clean.

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I like being able to read that section because it’s used for things hosts would prefer guests (who aren’t also hosts) can’t see. Haven’t seen anything real juicy there lately, but that’s where the post about Airbnb giving the address out to a guest who didn’t have a confirmed booking nor had paid, appeared, which was an interesting read. Also a host from Maryland who has gotten the weirdest guests has posted some real doozie stories there. She should write a book. One of her guests took it upon herself to repot all the plants, killing a bunch in the process. Another left a pile of dead squirrels in the yard that he’d killed with the pellet gun he brought along.

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My friend said that to me. But I told her my stuff was child’s play compared to what some of my forum friends have endured. I can’t wait to share these examples. I can’t believe someone hasn’t compiled a booked yet. It should be called something like “The Twilight Zone: AirBNB Edition” :alien: :space_invader: :japanese_goblin: :smiling_imp: (revision: added this emoji for that crazy plant-repotter - :herb: :joy:)

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