Someone illegally listed my house, Airbnb won’t remove!

I have rented my house to a Chinese woman for residential purposes only and the contract clearly states that she’s not allow to sublet my house in any way. A couple of months after signing the 2 years contract I found out that she listed my house on Airbnb.   So, I got my lawyer to terminate the lease contract and while this is in progress I also contacted Airbnb, providing them will all the evidence including the house deed, lease contract, images, etc., to ask Airbnb to take down the listing. The response I got from Airbnb is that they cannot take down the listing because they are just the “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, so they are not able to close the listing unless the hosts do it themselves. In my opinion, this is ridiculous…so I asked their customer service, Julie, if I am allow list a government building or a palace on their website? Or to list someone’s house without the owner’s consent just to con money from Airbnb guests’ money? So Julie replied “we will not verify, evaluate or arbitrate the terms you identify”. I understand that they are just a “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, as Julie kept repeating during our telephone conversation, but is it right for them to ignore criminal activities to go on on their platform? I have never used Airbnb, (I don’t even have an account with them) and I never will nor recommend to anyone.

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4 Comments

  1. Any updates? We bought our home in February and learned from neighbors the previous owners had been using the home for air bnb. We sent air bnb notice that we had bought the home (complete with closing documents) and requested the listing be removed. It wasn’t. We had a woman show up late at night expecting a soft place to sleep after paying for her stay via air bnb. We looked and it already has future reservations. Air BnB flat out refused to remove the listing.

  2. Hey All, it is happening now to one of my friend. Her property is listed on ABNB, and it is booked till the end of August. We have tried to get an e-mail address to complain to ABNB, but none can be found. The property is in Europe, so it is a bunch of money to call USA. Do you have maybe some contact e-mails, names u can share? Thx Edith

  3. My business partner had this happen. She had to evict her tenants in county court.It took 6 monthes to get them out, while they lived rent free, all the while hosting guests and collecting 400$ per night. Airbnb never took the listing down, She had to send notarized copies of their lease, showing sublets were not allowed, her deed showing it wasn’t their property and copies of all the court proceedings…they finally took it down, 3 monthes after the deadbeats had been escorted out by the Sheriff and locksmith.

  4. I think I kind of understand this.. It’s between you and your tenant and them breaking the conditions of their lease. Maybe under local laws, you have grounds to have them evicted ? It’s rubbish of course.. your tenant is totally taking the piss

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