An Airbnb scammer met his match when his victim threatened to contact his parents for a “sleepover”.
In a TikTok video watched more than 17 million times, a woman claims she arrived at an Airbnb property in Jacksonville, Florida, to discover that it was no longer able to be rented – despite accepting bookings.
Unfortunately for the Airbnb host, the would-be guests discovered the tenant’s personal information, reports The Daily Dot.
“Your name is on the Wi-Fi code, Mr Tyler, born in May, 1996,” a woman says in the video. “No, you don’t have an Airbnb, because you got evicted, and you’re either going to send us the $1,000 back, or I’m going to have a sleepover with your parents.”
The woman on the phone, TikTok user Olivia (@livvoogus), shared further information about the incident on her personal account.
She revealed that she’d booked the Airbnb months before as she was planning to attend a music festival on New Year’s Eve. The host was a “superhost” – described by Airbnb as “the best-rated, most experienced hosts” on the site – and nothing about the listing raised any red flags, she said.
As the date of the stay drew closer, Olivia got more suspicious.
“The Airbnb host had sent us two different codes for the door and just stopped responding to any questions that we had, like where to park or how to get into the building — just kind of went ghost.”
When they arrived at the building, none of the door codes worked. Olivia and her friends began repeatedly calling the host before a neighbour spoke to them.
The neighbour informed them that a couple had visited the building last night and the exact same thing had happened. “The person who had lived there got evicted because, according to the lease, you’re not allowed to do Airbnbs out of the apartment, and he just never took the listing down,” said Olivia.
There were no hotel rooms or Airbnbs available in the area so Olivia took to the internet to find out more about the host – discovering his name, birthday, and the address of his parents. She sent the host a message asking if she was supposed to meet him at his parents’ address, including the address in the message.
“This man called me back so quickly,” she said, a call that can be seen in the original video.
Olivia and her friends decided to stay on the floor of a friend’s home. While they were on their way, Olivia received a text from the host’s girlfriend accusing her of threatening the host.
“Babes ur [sic] bf got evicted and is scamming people out of Airbnb’s leaving them with nowhere to stay,” she responded.
Olivia was able to receive a refund from Airbnb and managed to find a hotel room, with Airbnb paying for a percentage of the cost of her hotel room for the following night – though she believe the company should have paid for the whole thing.
In the comments section on TikTok, some users shared their own experiences, with one suggest that Olivia “send a bill to Tyler’s parents’ house”.
Earlier this year a Philadelphia woman was left stunned when she found her own house had been listed by someone else as an Airbnb rental.
The Independent has contacted Airbnb for comment.
