Airbnb nightmare as home turned into ‘brothel’

WHEN the mystery woman asked to take the transaction offline, alarm bells should have rung for this NSW homeowner whose property was allegedly turned into a brothel.

A NSW woman had her home turned into a makeshift brothel after listing her property on accommodation sharing website Airbnb.

The woman, who had regularly rented out her home without incident, was contacted by the alleged prostitute through Airbnb but the transaction was made in cash outside of the website.

Booked for two nights, suspicions were raised about the ‘guest’ within hours of her arrival after a steady stream of men were seen by neighbours entering the home.

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The owner of the home was living in a studio at the back of the property when she leased out the main part of the house on Airbnb.

After being contacted by worried neighbours, she returned home on Friday to confront the woman, who left in a taxi within half an hour.

The home owner contacted Lismore police to make a formal complaint on Monday.

She produced a series of text messages exchanged between her and the occupant, asking her to leave the property.

Inspector Nicole Bruce said police contacted the occupant but could not prove any illegal activity had taken place at the property and there would be no further investigation.

Airbnb have strict terms and conditions that insist users perform the entire transaction on their platform to help avoid situations such as this.

Despite that, an Airbnb’s Australian General Manager Sam McDonagh told The Daily Telegraph they had been in contact with the host and offered her assistance after the incident.

“This was not an Airbnb reservation. More than 40 million guests have stayed with Airbnb, and problems for guests and hosts are incredibly rare,” he said.

“The bottom line is when you book a reservation through our secure platform, you receive the benefits of Airbnb’s global trust and safety program and $1 Million Host Guarantee. It’s why there is a reminder to only book through Airbnb next to every message thread. We have been in contact with the host to offer our support.”

The accommodation website is massively popular with travellers across the globe and has been used by more than 40 million guests since being launched in 2008.

A recent $1.5 billion round of funding valued the company at a whopping $25.5 billion, more than a number of international hotel chains.

And with that size and breadth comes inevitable problems.

Earlier this year a Canadian coup

le received worldwide media attention when they returned to their home to find it had been ‘destroyed’ by guests who had rented the property through Airbnb.

More than $50,000 worth of damage was done to the Calgary home of Star and Mark King after the guests threw a massive party, with busloads of people turning up.

Airbnb, which has a million dollar guarantee in place to protect hosts, covered all the damage to the Kings’ home and is known to react quickly when bookings turn ugly.