Last night, I came across a very interesting post on Instagram (see embedded video below). The caption on the post read: “We were scammed by Airbnb hosts in Paris” and then they wrote “How to avoid this happening to you …”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rebecca Trekker (@rebeccatrekker)


That’s a great attention getter, eh? The description of Rebecca Trekker’s post after a girl’s weekend was as follows: “Two weeks ago we stayed in a lovely apartment in Paris for the weekend booked through Airbnb. The day after we returned they sent us a 600€ bill for one pane of glass in a window they falsely accused us of breaking. It’s so obviously a scam. If we’d broken something we would have done the decent thing and reported it.

“Airbnb don’t want to know. They say if we can’t offer evidence that we didn’t break the window we have to pay. How do you prove a negative?! The photos they provided show signs of photoshop. Airbnb won’t even tell us which of the 20 plus windows in the apartment they refer to and refuse to give us a copy of their formal complaints procedure even though I’ve requested several times.

“Such a shame as I’ve used them a lot over the years and I realize that the majority of hosts are genuine.

“From feedback I’ve received, I’m pretty positive that Airbnb scams in Paris are rife and wanted to warn everyone. Has anyone else had similar Airbnb scam experiences?”

I’ve rented from Airbnb multiple times and never had a problem but it’s been a while. Airbnb is so big that it has to be difficult to figure out what’s legit and what’s not. But by the comments on this post, it seems these bills after you depart could be part of a growing trend. Here are some of the top comments:

Zorymory: Last time in Paris our Airbnb wanted to charge us $2000 because they said we broke the counter top!? Luckily when I got to the Airbnb I took a photo to send to my family to say I’ve arrived and in that photo you could clearly see the crack in the counter top (and the photo had a timestamp at check-in)!! I was so lucky to have that evidence!!!

@mommamoran4: I take pictures when I enter and when we leave. However, I had an Airbnb host in Spain accuse me of taking a $10 hair iron. She left me a terrible review and Airbnb wouldn’t take it off even though we had multiple 5 star reviews all over the world. She was trying to scam money from us because we were there in Seville during the Easter parades. We spent $$$$ to get to Spain why would I want her crappy flat iron ? We will prob never use Airbnb ever again. Oh and she entered the apartment without our permission when we weren’t there and told us later.

@sab9704: I had a very Bad experience in Paris with Airbnb as the Apartment was so Dirty. Bedsheets only for two people but we were 4 of us. When I wrote it in my reviews the Host wrote Bad things about me ( being rude etc) until Airbnb stopped him. Since then I Never used Airbnb again.

@christina__nuttall: I won’t use Airbnb anymore the fees are outweighing the benefits. Back to hotels a few years ago and so much happier

So what should you do to avoid having to pay a fix-it bill? Rebecca’s best advice is to “film the whole place on arrival and departure and ask Alexa what the time and date is in the background.”

Not every apartment will have Alexa but your phone’s camera does have timestamps, so it’s a great idea to film the whole apartment when you arrive and again as you’re leaving. Be sure to include the drawers/cabinets with its contents and everything else (including the windows) so you can’t be accused of breaking or stealing anything and keep the camera rolling until you lock the door to exit.

I do this when I rent a car and one person on Rebecca’s post said they do the same:

decoraddict79: We had a similar situation with a car rental at the Marseilles airport. They sent us a bill for thousands of euros for supposed damage, except they didn’t know we had video/photos of that exact damage being present at time of picking up the rental!!! Time stamped, dated and photos taken on their lot before departing!! We still had to fight hard with enterprise FR to reverse the charges but in the end- we were successful. Never ever rent anything without in depth inspection at time of rental and in the case of housing- how you left it. Completely agree!!!!! 👍”

KEEP READING:
Is your hotel scamming you?
Don’t fall for it: Scammers are pretending to be customs and border protection agents
Cybersecurity and fraud expert shares tips on how not to get scammed when traveling
How to avoid vacation rental scams
Don’t fall for these QR code scams

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