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Fiascos and Fixes
These tales cover a variety of Airbnb problems that guests — and sometimes hosts — have brought to Consumer Rescue. Each article tells a dramatic story and highlights our advocacy team’s efforts to investigate and resolve the issue.
Joanne May and her extended family got a terrible surprise when they arrived in London. The luxurious eight-bedroom, six-bathroom Vrbo vacation rental May reserved for the group of 15 was suddenly unavailable.
The rental host assured the family not to worry; he’d already moved them to a similar Vrbo nearby. Not only that, he claimed the new apartment was actually a complementary upgrade… it definitely wasn’t.
A shady Airbnb host charged former guests of his Parisian vacation rental $3,500 for a coffee stain. But even more shocking than that outrageous payment request was Airbnb’s response to it.
Despite the host having no evidence of damages to his vacation rental, Airbnb approved his claim.
Expensive, vacation-ruining travel scams are popping up everywhere this summer. Travelers must be on the lookout for predators running money-draining schemes before, during, and even after a trip is complete.
But there is good news.
You can outsmart the bad actors whose only wish is to relieve you of your hard-earned travel dollars. By familiarizing yourself with the latest scams aimed at tourists, you’ll be able to stop the thieves in their tracks.
Here are the top travel scams and schemes to avoid this summer.
An Airbnb host sent Janet Reel a surprise $790 damage bill… three weeks after checking out of her vacation rental. Reel says she left the property in perfect condition and considers the accusation outrageous.
The recent LA wildfires temporarily displaced Rahul Kapur’s family and pets from their home. The Kapurs temporarily relocated to an Airbnb rental in nearby Marina Del Rey. They reserved the unit for two weeks and hoped to return home after their stay. But as the fires continued to burn, it became clear that wouldn’t be possible.
They were displaced again when that apartment wasn’t available beyond the original contract. However, the good news came when an Airbnb rental in the same condominium became available. The family migrated to the new unit and settled in.
Kapur and his family are still reeling from what happened next.
What if you were gazing out the window of your Airbnb and found a surveillance camera “gazing” right back at you? That was the startling scene that confronted Susan Scott as she relaxed in bed at her recent Mexican vacation rental.
If you find a pile of trash and other debris at a vacation rental when you arrive, report it immediately. If you don’t, you could easily find yourself stuck with excessive cleaning fees, as Airbnb guest Daniel Altschuler recently did.
If an Airbnb host asks you not to come through the front door of the vacation rental, you should ask some questions before you show up. This group of friends wishes they had done just that.
Some of our cases get relegated to the dismissed file simply because of the attitude of the consumer. This Airbnb guest’s story was almost one of them.
Almost.
Airbnb guests Elizabeth Knox and her husband recently discovered bed bugs aren’t the only pests making accommodations uninhabitable in Paris. Soon after arriving at their cute rental in the City of Lights, they found another family already enjoying the apartment.
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© 2025 Consumer Rescue / Michelle Couch-Friedman
