Among a sea of Airbnb profiles, one thing seems clear: whoever is behind this is probably called Christian. Or Robert. I scroll through my inbox, remembering that when I booked my Airbnb I had been spammed with emails from a management company. That company, Continental Apartments, had offered to upsell me, among other things, a portable air conditioner (from £15), an additional set of linen (from £35), a highchair (from £16.67), an airbed (from £127.78) and a London Cheese Experience (from £25). A company number listed on the website of Continental Apartments (which is embellished with reviews from delighted clients – Lance K, Annie G, Joel S, Marcellus N – the profile pictures of whom have all been taken from stock photo libraries) leads to a firm called Lusso Management, which was founded in May 2018 by a German man called Christian Robert Baumann.
I had, finally, found my Christian. And my Robert. But I’d also found something else. A scam, co-ordinated across a number of Airbnb accounts, encompassing hundreds of listings and thousands of reviews. Many of the reviews and host profiles are fake or misleading, and, in some cases, the properties listed don’t exist. In one instance, pictures on a listing in London Bridge are mirrored versions of the pictures used on another. The bottle of wine on the counter, the microwave and the washing machine are all, curiously, backwards. Two other listings, which appear to be from the same building, again use the mirroring trick to flip the lounge, bedroom and kitchen.
According to Inside Airbnb, a service that scrapes Airbnb to shine a light on the platform’s impact on cities around the world, there are an estimated 36,964 listings on Airbnb in London that are listed by a host with at least one other listing. While Airbnb presents itself as a sharing economy company, the business of hosting is becoming increasingly systemised and professionalised, with critics arguing that businesses are able to make huge sums of money at the expense of local residents who are unable to access properties locked away by the short-term rental gold rush.
James Temperton
Wherever there’s quick money to make coupled with lax regulation or enforcement, there’s bound to be people exploiting the situation by scamming others – and Airbnb is no exception. Fake profiles writing fake reviews for fake properties – one has to wonder how much of Airbnb’s listings are artificially inflated this way, especially in popular cities like London.
I have never shared other people’s enthusiasm for Airbnb, neither as a service nor as a business, and lately I have seen more and more people complaining on Twitter about hidden fees and increased prices. Airbnb remains an alternative to hotels, but it seems to me it ceased to be the default choice that many assumed would disrupt hotels entirely. If you’re travelling alone or in a couple, for a short vacation, a hotel stay seems the more appealing option, as you can easily get breakfast included and don’t have to worry about leaving the place in pristine shape. Frankly, having to clean up my room before leaving always spoiled the whole concept of Airbnb to me – not to mention hosts are charging cleaning fees anyways.
Post a Comment