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Airbnb ‘loopholes’ could put holidaymakers at risk

Sunday 10 December 2017

The Independent

 

News

Airbnb ‘loopholes’ could put holidaymakers at risk

A travel blog examined more than 1,000 ‘horror stories’ from guests
(Reuters)

Airbnb has been accused of failing to close “multiple dangerous loopholes” leaving holidaymakers vulnerable to scams and potentially dangerous situations. Up to 5.6 million trips went wrong last year, according to new analysis, which also found the most common problem was hosts cancelling at the last minute.

A travel blog looked at more than 1,000 “horror stories” from Airbnb stays. Among the worst was was a guest being held hostage and sexually assaulted by a host. In another grim story, a group of young friends who rented a home in a Paris suburb were shocked to discover a badly decomposed female body at the bottom of the garden.

Travel blog Asher & Lyric said representatives of the lettings company told them “the number of problem Airbnb stays is between 3 per cent and 7 per cent”. With 80 million trips completed on the website last year, between 2 and 5.6 million stays ended in disappointment. A spokesman for the company said these were not official statistics, but was not able to provide accurate figures to The Independent.

Asher Fergusson, who runs the blog, said: “Since Airbnb doesn’t require any ID other than an email address and phone number, anyone could be your host. They don’t even require real names or profile photos. This means you could end up staying with a convicted felon, a registered sex offender, a thief, or a conniving scam artist.”

To discover the most common problems guests were experiencing, the travel blog examined 839 online reviews. In 20.5 per cent of cases, guests complained their hosts cancelled their stay less than 24 hours before a booking, or never showing up to let them in. This could be connected to a scam, where a host has multiple listings at different prices and cancels the lower price, the blog said.

In another 15 per cent of cases, guests complained about scams where hosts demand more money, set up fake emails to take bookings or falsified damages after guests had left. Other problems included properties not appearing as advertised, fake listings or hosts discriminating against their guests because of their race or sexual orientation.

Airbnb said it takes safety seriously and accused Mr Fergusson, of making false claims because his blog is is partly funded by TripAdvisor.

“It’s no surprise that someone who makes money from our competitors is smearing our community and making false claims about us, our hosts and our guests,” a spokesperson said.

“There have been more than 260 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings to date and negative incidents are extremely rare but when they do arise, we work hard to make things right. Plain and simple, the stats they cite aren’t statistically significant, nor are they accurate, and the claims are misrepresented and flat-out false. Building a safe and trusted community is our number one priority and the most important thing we do.”