Update July 10, 3:30pm CT: A representative for Airbnb told the Daily Dot in a statement: “Upon investigating, the host mistakenly thought her account was hacked. This was an issue of a host not realizing they had another account that they had neglected to deactivate.”
Original story: A woman’s recent struggle with Airbnb over having her home’s false listing taken down has drawn a combined nearly 1 million views on TikTok, where she says it took speaking to four customer service representatives to finally solve the issue.
Posted by user Katie (@hurrikatie), the three-part series of videos sharing her family’s struggles with Airbnb has prompted concern from viewers.
She says her mother has accounts with Airbnb both as a guest and host, and that someone has accessed her host account to list the cottage she is currently living in for weekend stays.
@hurrikatie @airbnb you have the worst customer service ever. someone is literally coming fraud under my moms name and picture and posting our home for rent and yall wont do anything??? disgusted with the lack of urgency involving a case that is revolving around people having their money stolen and peoples homes being posted while they are living there. FIX IT?? #airbnb #airbnbhorrorstory #airbnbhostproblems #airbnbcustomerservice ♬ original sound – katie
“So we’re here living in our cottage and people are showing up thinking they’re going to have a weekend here,” she says in the video. “We’ve talked to three people from Airbnb, I’ve tweeted about it, and they contacted me briefly and then started sending me automated messages, but they won’t take it down no matter what we say. We’re like, ‘This isn’t us, this is not my mom posting this. They’re using her face, her name, and our property, but it’s not her posting it. We are living here, please take it down,’ and Airbnb has done nothing.”
Repeat efforts finally lead to the listing being deactivated and guests who had booked the property being refunded, although she says Airbnb representatives initially assured her mother that her account had not been breached.
@hurrikatie final airbnb update! @airbnb i will simply never be working with u or recommending u ever again! but thanks to ur employee angel for being the kindest and most helpful human in the world. #airbnbcustomerservice #airbnbhorrorstory ♬ original sound – katie
“I will simply never be working with u or recommending u ever again!” she captioned the final installment in the Airbnb saga. “But thanks to ur employee angel for being the kindest and most helpful human in the world.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Katie via TikTok comment.
Many viewers advised the poster to call the police, which she shared she was close to doing if the situation was not resolved by Airbnb.
“I feel like it’s like someone stole her identity… I would contact the police. airbnb would move faster if the police were after them,” one user said.
“Try filing a police report for identity theft and providing the report to Airbnb,” another suggested.
“Contact the police, that’s not cool at all,” a commenter wrote. “So sorry this happened to you guys!”
