- On Christmas, Molly Flaherty came home to find a family on her doorstep. They'd booked it on Airbnb.
- But Flaherty said she never listed her home on the vacation-rental site.
When Molly Flaherty walked up to her home in Philadelphia on Christmas night, she was shocked to find four people huddled around her lockbox at the steps to her front door.
"It was 10 o'clock at night, so I was a little scared at first," Flaherty told Insider. "Were these people that were trying to break into my house? Or were they at the wrong house? I even thought was there something wrong with my house? Was there gas or smoke or something?"
The group seemed more confused than anything, she said, so she approached them and introduced herself as the homeowner.
Nicole Brunet, who was standing at the lockbox, told Flaherty she'd rented the property on Airbnb for her parents, who were visiting for the holidays from California, Brunet told Insider.
But Flaherty had never listed her home on the vacation-rental website.
The listing was real, but Flaherty didn't make it
Brunet said she initially thought she might have the wrong address, and Flaherty assumed the same.
But when Brunet pulled up the Airbnb listing, Flaherty said the address and photos matched her house.
Flaherty shared screengrabs of the listing — which has since been removed from Airbnb — with Insider. She said the images of the home's interior were taken before she bought it in 2020.
After Flaherty insisted she'd never listed her house as a vacation rental on Airbnb, Brunet realized she'd been scammed, Brunet said.
It's what Airbnb calls an "account takeover," when a scammer steals an Airbnb owner's password.
An Airbnb representative told Insider that the listing for Flaherty's home technically wasn't fake but was an outdated listing that was likely reactivated by a scammer.
The screengrabs showed that the listing had a 4.7-star rating and more than 100 reviews when Brunet reserved it.
"I'm a tech-savvy person," Brunet said. "I read reviews. I looked at the pictures. I walked by the house before I rented it to make sure my parents would be happy there.
"That's the craziest part about this whole thing," she continued, adding that the listing "had every component of a real account." The experience, she said, has "shattered" her trust in Airbnb.
In a statement sent to Insider, the company said that "issues like this are rare, and we were disappointed to learn about it." It added, "We provided support to the guests at the time to help make things right, including a full refund, and have deactivated the listing."
Brunet said that when she reported the listing to Airbnb that night, the company offered to book them another Airbnb. But she said there was "no way" she was going to do that since "there was no way for me to tell if they were real or fake."
Instead, Brunet found her parents a room at a nearby hotel that she said they paid for out of pocket. A few hours later, Brunet said, she received a full refund from Airbnb. She said she spent more than $1,000 for the week's stay.
Flaherty said it took a week for the listing to be removed from Airbnb
Flaherty also reached out to Airbnb on Christmas to alert it that the listing wasn't legitimate. She hoped it would be taken down quickly, but she said it remained active for a week.
Fearing that other people had booked a stay at her house, Flaherty put a note on her front door that read: "If you rented this address through Airbnb it is a fraudulent listing. This is not a rental. Airbnb has been contacted multiple times."
Flaherty said she was constantly refreshing the listing and checking its calendar for any indication that it had been booked and that she could expect strangers at her front door. Luckily, she said, it seemed that no one else had booked the Airbnb in the near future.
Still, Flaherty said she worried each time she left her house that she'd come home to strangers. "I didn't feel comfortable thinking that anyone could show up at my house at any time — day or night — thinking that they could get in," she said.
The following week, Flaherty reached out to Airbnb numerous times to get the listing removed, she said.
She said she was told a specialized team was looking into the situation. But as the listing remained active, she turned to other strategies. She had friends and family report the inaccurate listing and sent Airbnb a link to a Philadelphia database that listed her as the property's owner.
"After several days of back-and-forth, I was pretty much told that I was considered a third party because I wasn't the host and I wasn't a renter," she said, adding that she was told that "Airbnb doesn't arbitrate these disputes." An Airbnb representative said the company has to perform its due diligence when a third party makes a complaint.
It wasn't until Flaherty reached out to The Philadelphia Inquirer to share her story — and the reporter Ximena Conde followed up with Airbnb for comment — that the posting was removed, Flaherty said.
Flaherty said she never received confirmation that the listing was taken down. Airbnb's representative said this was likely because of privacy concerns since Flaherty was considered a third-party member.
Flaherty said she was frustrated by how long it took for the listing to be removed from Airbnb's website. "I would think that if you're getting that much feedback, it'd be something that you might want to pay attention to," she said. "And they really didn't seem, to me, to have any concern whatsoever."
Flaherty said the incident added stress to a holiday season she'd hoped would be relaxing. "I had holiday time and plans with friends and family," she said. "I didn't enjoy that time as much because I was worried about this."