When Your Landlord’s Property is Listed on Airbnb Without Consent
Imagine logging into Airbnb and stumbling across your own property being advertised as a short-term holiday let. This nightmare scenario is exactly what happened to a landlord who discovered their letting agent had secretly listed the property online, pocketing the proceeds from short-term stays.
The landlord had agreed a standard long-term tenancy. What they didn’t know was that the agent had used their keys to stage photos, upload the listing, and begin taking bookings without any authorisation. Guests were turning up, suitcases in hand, expecting a serviced holiday let, while the genuine tenants were left baffled and frustrated.
This bizarre case shines a light on how critical it is for landlords to keep tabs on what their agents are doing with their properties. While most letting agents act with integrity, rogue behaviour like this not only damages trust but also puts landlords at serious risk of breaching mortgage terms, insurance conditions, and even local council licensing laws.
Stories like these are why we are running this new series. We want to hear about the most unbelievable letting agent fails you’ve come across. Perhaps you’ve experienced one first-hand, or maybe you’ve read about something that left you shaking your head in disbelief.
Please remember: when sharing your own experiences in the comments, do not name specific letting agents or individuals. Our moderation policy exists to protect both our readers and our platform from potential libel issues. Focus instead on the behaviour, not the names.
This story was first reported in the media. You can read the original coverage here if you wish to see the source.
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Member Since July 2024 - Comments: 112
8:25 AM, 20th October 2025, About 6 months ago
I rented an Airbb whilst doing regular maintenance on one of my properties and thus started chatting to the too charming host. I signed a badly plagiarized terms for 2 properties and the biggest mistake letting him own/ put up the listings. Once someone puts up your listing you can fight forever with Airbnb and Booking.com to remove this non owner and you can’t win, proof of deeds and ownership included – these hopeless US run companies will not rectify ownership. i had to put up an altered address for my own properties to take control. Airbb does not make money because the costs are too high, areas get saturated fast, clients are quick to give poor reviews, scammers are the norm. I brought in the final very large windfall client to rent my whole house all rooms for a long period, I very honestly handed the client over to him to handle, he decided not to pay me for this propery and the second property, He also owed his cleaner a very large sum on money. He is now an “FX Trading guru” with a string of companies he’s dissolved or trying to dissolve – the one I was associated with I’ve prevented him from dissolving. It’s shameful HRMC doesnt do more to go after these repeat scammers who have strings of companies, don’t do filings etc. Checking online for your propery – you would need to get on the sites then find a map to see if your place is listed – but getting it unlisted as a major battle. As long as the listing is associated with someone else it’s their reputation being destroyed but I’ve heard this many times – I have a friend hosting the top places in Koh Samui, people turn up with suitcases frequently.