Ottawa woman says her home has been mistaken for an Airbnb four times

Strangers, insisting they had rented out her home using the popular website, started knocking on Camille Xu’s door about two months ago, even though the recent mother says she doesn’t don’t even have an account Airbnb and that, therefore, she is unlikely to have her house listed on the site.

When CBC contacted the company, Airbnb justified the series of unwanted visits by a typo on the ad in question.

And that the error repeats itself four times?! It seems a bit ridiculous to mereacted Ms. Xu, who says she considered leaving the neighborhood because of these strange and disturbing visits.

Ms. Xu, who lives in barrhavenin the southern suburbs of Ottawa, explains that she was confronted with several travelers, with their suitcases on wheels, that she had to convince that her house was not available.

Each time, the travelers tried to prove to him that they had indeed reserved his house. Each time, Ms. Xu was forced to close the door, leaving complete strangers behind who had already paid non-refundable fees.

You are approached by strangers who want to move into your housesummarized Ms. Xu, who finally posted a handwritten sign on her front door to discourage visitors.

A house for rent nearby

Ms. Xu explains that she contacted Airbnb twice. Each time, he was promised that a team would be responsible for answering him. Which has never been done.

They keep blaming it on you instead of understanding what’s going on. How come no one solves the problem? she asks.

Ms. Xu learned from unwanted visitors that the host offering her house for rent was called Books. She finally downloaded the app Airbnb in order to be able to check the availability calendar accessible on the offers associated with this account.

It makes me crazyshe confided.

Airbnb declined an interview request to comment on the matter, but told CBC that when creating the ad for a new rental in the neighborhood, a user made a typo when entering the address of the property.

The company said that to avoid misrepresentation, only Airbnb can modify the address of an accommodation once an advertisement has been put online.

Travelers kept coming

Even though Ms. Xu contacted the company about these unwanted visitors for several weeks, travelers continued to be directed to her house.

When he was approached by CBC, Books denied any trouble.

I never heard anyone tell me that he had gone to the wrong address. Take care of yourselfhe simply replied, before preventing the journalist from continuing to send him messages.

Ms. Xu wonders why the listings associated with this account are priced at about a third of what similar homes in her area cost.

An experiment ladleaccording to an expert

CBC failed to track down one of the four groups that arrived at Ms. Xu’s home, as they never complained to Books of having been sent to the wrong address.

Asher Fergusonwhich investigated the complaints filed against Airbnb for several years, however thinks that people have probably complained. He called Ms. Xu’s experiences ladlesrecalling the 2017 encounter that motivated his research.

At the time, Asher Ferguson and her young family struggled to find their Airbnb rental. They were redirected once and then told they would have to pay cash due to a payment processing problem with the platform.

Asher Ferguson still believes that the platform should do more to verify that listed properties are where they claim to be, and to ensure greater security around verifying host identities.

He believes some hosts continue to advertise properties that don’t exist or create multiple listings for the same location at different prices, only to cancel the booking of guests who booked at lower prices.

Asher Ferguson recommends that travelers avoid listings with reviews less than 4.85/5 and those with less than 30 reviews.

With information from Stu Millsof The Canadian News