Homeowners Paul and Christina Wrabko live in a well-maintained bungalow in Markham’s Thornhill area, near Yonge Street and the 407. It’s an area they love to call home.
“It’s peaceful, quiet, I can see why it would be attractive to stay here,” Christina said.
“A good neighborhood in a nice area, walkable and close to highways and transit,” Paul added.
Those desirable features have been attracting a number of unexpected guests to their home. It began in September.
“I was outside watering the flowers, and two men pulled up in the driveway in a car,” Christina said. “They rolled their windows down and said, ‘Oh, we’re here for your Airbnb.’ I said, ‘I don’t have an Airbnb here’ but they insisted, ‘no, we’ve booked to stay here.’ ”
Christina apologized and said there must be some mistake. The guests were frustrated but left without any issue.
“Maybe it was just a miscommunication, so I thought nothing of it,” Christina told us.
But then, several days later, more people showed up.
“It was almost nine o’clock at night, and two people rang our doorbell,” Paul said. “They said that they were here for their Airbnb stay, and they wanted to check in. I said, ‘this is not an Airbnb house.’”
The couple then knew something wasn’t right and quickly went on Airbnb’s website trying to find their home listed.
“We couldn’t find it. I put in the address, I put in the postal code, nothing came up. But it could be what I was searching for was not available based on the parameters.”
A few weeks after that, earlier this month, a third group of people showed up.
“Obviously this is no longer just a coincidence,” Paul said. “I asked them if they could show me the Airbnb confirmation, and they did. I was shocked, it was right from Airbnb, an authentic listing which showed our address. Someone had posted our home as a rental.”
Even more confusing — there were several five-star reviews from people who claimed to have stayed there.
“People were giving reviews and saying the check in was smooth. The host was great,” Paul said. “We have never listed our home as an Airbnb, they were all phony.”
The photos on the ad did not show the exterior of the home but had several interior shots of bedrooms and bathrooms.
“Those photos are not of our home, none of them,” Paul said. “They’re nice but look nothing like our inside.”
The couple was angry. They went to police to show them the listing.
“I don’t think there’s much they can do, because it’s more of a civil matter,” Paul said. “So we also reached out to Airbnb.”
The couple shared with us numerous back and forth messages with Airbnb staff that went on for several days to try and get the listing taken down.
“They kept telling us someone was looking into it and asked us to keep checking to see if the ad was still up. Never did they ask me to prove we were the homeowners, and we have that proof, but they didn’t seem to care,” Paul said.
“We thought it would be as simple as us telling them we own the home and they should just take it down,” Christina added. “But they were arguing with us.”
After what they call a frustrating effort to get the listing removed, it was still active when they reached out to Speakers Corner.
“It’s scary. I go to bed at night and hear noises looking to see if someone is trying to check in,” Christina said. “We were concerned that these guests would start thinking we were scamming them. Luckily none of the people who came so far were angry with us but you just don’t know.”
After the couple brought their issue to Speakers Corner, we reached out to the host who had listed their home. She answered our call but quickly hung up when we identified ourselves and asked why she was listing a home she did not own.
We had also contacted Airbnb for a response by sending them the couple’s complaint. Within 24 hours the ad was removed.
When we asked Airbnb why the Wrabko’s multiple requests weren’t enough to remove the listing, they did not answer.
“We have suspended the host in question as we further investigate the issue. We require all hosts on Airbnb to meet our ground rules for hosts, which include accurate location information on the listing page,” a spokesperson told us.
While the Wrabkos are thankful their home is no longer listed, they say it shouldn’t have been this difficult.
“To me, it’s unacceptable to allow someone to put your address out there to advertise anything when you didn’t do that. It’s a violation,” Christina said.
Some municipalities, like the City of Toronto, have short term rental bylaws that require anyone who is listing a rental to go through a screening process which includes proof that the home is in fact their residence. In Markham there is no such screening process for a simple reason.
“We do not allow Airbnbs in Markham,” a City spokesperson told us.
The Wrabkos hope their story sends a warning to Airbnb to better screen hosts.
“It’s shocking that there was nothing to stop this person from listing our home,” Paul said. “I would have thought in order to list a home you would have to prove that you own the property. Had they done that in this case we wouldn’t have had to go through this.”
If you have an issue, story or question you’d like us to look into contact us here.