Lord Alan Sugar has claimed he has been embroiled in an Airbnb scam after a family allegedly arrived at one of his homes in London expecting to stay there.
The Apprentice star, 72, has accused unnamed fraudsters of taking photographs from an estate agents' website and advertising the home on the company's website.
Writing on Twitter, Lord Sugar said: "WARNING AIRBNB SCAM: Yesterday a American family of 6 turned up at one of my proprieties [sic] in London.
"They had been scammed to think they could rent it for 3 days.
"The scammers took a photo from an estate agents web site and stole over $600 from these poor people. B*****DS ".
Lord Sugar did not say if he has contacted the police.
A spokeswoman for Airbnb told the Standard Online: "We were disappointed to hear about this experience and are looking into the matter. More than 2 million people check-in to Airbnb listings each night and while bad experiences are incredibly rare, we work hard to make things right when they do occur."
A representative for Lord Sugar declined to comment further.
The property magnate – whose business Amsprop has dozens of commercial venues across London – was previously the victim of a burglary at his mansion in Chigwell, east London.
David Buisson, 49, was jailed after stealing watches and jewellery valued at £184,000 from Lord Sugar.
Buisson was handed an eight year sentence after stealing nearly £1 million from homes and businesses in east London and Canvey Island between December 2015 and June 2017.
Several families have previously stated that they have been scammed out of hundreds of pounds after falling for bogus properties on the website.
Anne Bradbury, a marketing executive, told the Guardian that she had lost nearly £800 after booking a flat to rent in Amsterdam for the weekend, which turned out to be a scam.
According to Airbnb’s policy, if a listing is “misrepresented” on its website or app, a user may be eligible for a full refund.
Lord Sugar has previously used his Twitter feed to air his grievances.
Earlier this week, he criticised an article by entrepreneur Matt Clifford in CityAm, where he says The Apprentice "misrepresents many things about being an entrepreneur."
Lord Sugar has also apologised after comments he made about the Senegalese football team on his Twitter feed.
He has also denied accusations of being homophobic after posting a tweet about the cereal, Sugar Puffs.
