Airbnbs used to be the way to go when you wanted to travel and save some money. They are also convenient for big groups who want to travel together. Lately, with the increasing prices, hidden cleaning fees, and scams on the site, hotels seem like the better option.
One TikTok user named Olivia, who goes by @livvoogus, would agree. She recently was the victim of a scam but fought back using her internet savvy. She booked an apartment through Airbnb to attend a music festival on New Year’s Eve, but when she arrived, she was locked out. Apparently, the owner, named Tyler, had been evicted because Airbnbs were not allowed in the building, but he never took down his listing from the site.
Ahead of arrival, Olivia says there were some red flags. “The Airbnb host had sent us two different codes for the door and just stopped responding to any questions that we had, like where to park or how to get into the building — just kind of went ghost,” she recalled.
When she and her party arrived, a neighbor told her what was up. “[The neighbor] actually asked us, ‘Hey, are you guys trying to get into an Airbnb in this building? Because a couple was here last night and the same exact thing happened to them.’ The person who had lived there got evicted because, according to the lease, you’re not allowed to do Airbnbs out of the apartment, and he just never took the listing down,” Olivia explained.
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Tyler initially did not answer any of Olivia’s calls. That’s when she got to work using her internet skills. She found out a ton of information on him, including his parents' address, by googling his name. She called him out. “This man called me back so quickly,” Olivia said.
She and her friends ended up having to stay on another friend’s floor that night because there were no hotel rooms available in the city. They were eventually able to find a hotel room. Airbnb refunded them and paid for part of their hotel costs.
