The home rental business is booming.
The industry was valued at $100 billion in 2016, and is predicted to reach a worth of $167.9 billion by 2019, according to Smarthosts, a forum for vacation rental hosts. Companies like Airbnb, Home Stay, Booking.com, are all racing competing against each other for a slice of the pie, but they're not the only ones.
Scammers are eager to take advantage of the opportunity as well, many times crafting convincing websites that are dead ringers for the companies you trust.
Travel blogger, Nick Wharton, a savvy traveler himself, says he was almost duped into shelling out $3,000 by a convincing scam.
He wrote about the experience on his blog Goats on the Road, to warn others.
He and his wife had been searching for a nice apartment in Lisbon, Portugal for several weeks. Having no luck, they turned to Craigslist where they found a beautiful place.
They contacted to "owner" who told them he would feel more comfortable booking through Airbnb.
Because Wharton was so familiar with Airbnb, he was able to spot some red flags.
For example, the URL said "airbnb.com-request-booking-space."
They also noticed a live chat option (Airbnb doesn't have one) and the listing included the apartment's exact address, which they knew Airbnb doesn't show until after you book.
But other than that, the site was almost identical.
Luckily the Wharton's caught on, but there are many other scams just like it. And they infiltrate all home rental companies not, just Airbnb.
Airbnb asks anyone who comes into contact with a similar scam to contact them. In a statement, Airbnb told us:
"If a community member ever finds a fake Airbnb website or receives a suspicious looking email, they should report it to our Trust and Safety team at report.phishing@airbnb.com, who will fully investigate. We provide useful information on how to spot a fake website on our help center and work closely with external partners to report and help remove fake Airbnb websites. "
The takeaway? Always book directly from a home rental companies website. Don't click on any links or deals. If a price looks too good to be true, it probably is, and double check the URL. It might be just a word off.
Airbnb also provided these additional safety tips:
- Always check the website address. If it’s not Airbnb.com, it’s likely to be a copycat website. You can always enter https://www.airbnb.com into your browser to access our website.
- You can tell if a website is secure by looking for a lock icon in your browser’s address bar. All of Airbnb’s websites will show this icon. If you don’t see this icon, your connection to the website isn’t secure, and you shouldn't enter any personal information.
- Always check the sender’s email address. It may be made to look like Airbnb.com, but isn’t. A full list of official email aliases can be found here.
- As long as you stay on the platform and only pay via Airbnb, scams simply cannot succeed.
- If someone asks you to pay for your reservation off of the Airbnb.com website, do not send them money, and let us know. We’ll never ask you to pay for anything outside of our site, through email, or through a third-party booker.
- If you paid for your reservation outside of Airbnb (for example, a wire or bank transfer), you may have paid for a fraudulent reservation. To get help, let us know immediately.
- If you’re not sure, you can check if your reservation was booked through Airbnb.