Reporting a listing and getting it taken down

[Lucy46]

We own and host this listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12849655

This morning someone pointed out that this user: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/88026367#reviews is infringing on our copyright and is illegally using our photos here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/18567856

I have noticed them listing our property on their website without permission before, but did not go through the trouble of getting our lawyer on to this. This, however, is an entirely new level.

I reported both the user profile and the listing profile but doubt Airbnb will take action on that. Any way to escalate this and get these people shut down? I bet all other listings under their profile also did not give their permission to be used in this way.

[Vanessa-and-Kurt0]

@Lucy46, Sorry, I don't know the answer to your question but WOW, they stole your photos! That is crazy! What will they do if someone actually wants to book the house? Hopefully you will get some sort of solution from AirBnB.

[Lucy46]

I know @Vanessa-and-Kurt0 - I did end up speaking to our lawyer now and we will send them a cease and desist letter as well.

Other hosts beware! I believe it is Airbnb´s responsibility to use some sort of image-scanning software, that checks if the photos someone uses when uploading the listing, are not already used in another account. It is technically not very hard to do (compare pixel counts, color schematic etc.). At the very minimum, it should raise a security flag and manual review is done.

[Quincy]

Hello @Lucy46,

Welcome to the Community Center.

I am sorry to see this happening with your photo's. 

I want to let you know that there are a couple of things you can do to flag this to Airbnb so they can investigate this for you. One is if you go to their listing/profile, you will see a button called 'Report this listing' or 'Report this user', however, this you have already done.

Also, you can flag this to Airbnb through the Support Team, here is a Community Guide on the different ways to reach them. 

I hope this helps—Please let us know. 

[Linda108]

@Lucy46  I wonder if this business should be reported to the appropriate District Attorney.  It has elements of fraud with 39 gorgeous villas listed.  There are two reviews on the site, one of which is an automated cancellation.

[Lucy46]

@Linda108 our lawyer is drafting up a cease and desist letter today and we do reserve our right to go to the DA and better business bureau.

[Linda108]

I hope you keep us posted, @Lucy46.  While your listing is a luxury villa, I have seen other posts about listings being "highjacked" and it poses a danger to guests and hosts alike.  Thank you.

[Linda108]

Just had another thought, @Lucy46.  I wonder if you are aware of the list of recent log in to your account that can be found in your account.  Here is the article about how to access that information.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/900/can-i-see-a-list-of-recent-logins-to-my-airbnb-account

Might be useful to see when this all started.

[Lucy46]

@Linda108 the log-in history is not related to this. Our account was not hacked - they just duplicated everything. Copy-pasted the photos, took some of the description, and created their own listing with our photos. 

This is either a scam ripping off Airbnb users, or, more likely, someone trying to advertise other people´s houses and then "sell them" the leads.