Scammed by Guests, Punished by Airbnb… Anyone Else?

[Ben Tutewohl]

Hey everyone, wanted to share a recent experience and get your thoughts because I’m very frustrated with how one-sided Airbnb feels when it comes to guest vs. host protection.

I had a group stay 4 nights at one of my STRs. On the last night of their stay, they messaged claiming they found a bed bug. They demanded a full refund plus $300 in additional compensation for “trauma.” I freaked out because bed bugs are every host’s nightmare. I was ready to offer full refund until we had pest control out the next morning. They confirmed there were no bed bugs at all.

I looked more closely at the photo the guest sent. It was a super-zoomed-in bug on a white sheet… except it didn’t even match the texture of our sheets. I reverse-searched and literally found the exact same photo on google, total scam.

I reported it to Airbnb, thinking this was a clear-cut case. Their response? They said since the guest didn’t have proper photo evidence they wouldn’t force me to refund the bed bug claim. BUT they then asked me to refund $100 because one of the T.V. remotes had dead batteries. (which the guest also conveniently mentioned on the last night). And of course, the guests left a bad review, which Airbnb doesn’t seem in any rush to remove.

So now the scammer keeps their account, gets to leave a damaging review, and likely tries this same trick on another host. Meanwhile, if a host tried to pull something like this, they’d be banned instantly. The guest-favoring bias feels insane.

My questions for the group:

• Has anyone else dealt with “fake bed bug” claims or other obvious scams?

• Do you feel Airbnb’s policies protect guests way more than hosts?

I lost sleep thinking I had an infestation, only to realize it was a scam, and yet there’s no real punishment for the guest. Curious if I’m overreacting or if others have run into similar issues.

[John Underwood]

The Airbnb crowd can have many troublemakers. 

Seems much less likely to happen on Vrbo.