A woman from Florida went to stay at an AirBnB in Tulum and hoped to have a fun vacation. Instead, there was a lot of tension from the finish. Lead guest Amber Jackson and her friends thought they were about to become victims of sex trafficking.
First, there were the mysterious paint splatters on the door that Jackson said looked like blood. She contacted the janitor and was told there was no cause for alarm as it was actually paint. This didn’t allay her fears at all, but she and her friends decided to stay in the rental house as planned.
Next, Jackson noted that there was no way to lock the rooms. According to Apartments apart, “she noticed that the keyboards weren’t set for the bedrooms; this would essentially give anyone access to their room at any time. Jackson reconfigured the keyboards herself.
The third problem happened three days into their stay when a stranger claiming to be a security guard showed up outside the house. But he wasn’t there from the start, which made the guests suspicious.
Jackson contacted the janitor and owner again, but was unsuccessful. She and her friends fell asleep with knives nearby and left the next day.
Wild 94.1 reported that “it wasn’t until Jackson contacted AirBnB directly that she finally heard from the owner who only offered her a refund of $67 when the total was $3,671.65. Jackson then posted a bad review of the house on AirBnB but noticed that his review had been deleted.
Fortunately, Jackson and his friends escaped unscathed. But when she shared the experience online, other women leveled similar accusations against the same owner and property. After receiving a series of bad reviews, the owner changed his name and profile picture on AirBnB.
This isn’t the vacation rental giant’s first tango with sex trafficking.
In 2018, global citizen reported that the police Toronto “noted a growing trend of AirBnB rentals being used for human trafficking, following two recent arrests in the Greater Toronto Area.”
In 2020, AirBnB stepped up its efforts to combat this by partnering with nonprofit traffic organization Polaris. The rental company was criticized for not doing enough to combat the problem. In response, AirBnB rolled out a detailed plan for the protection of hosts and guests.
This included in-person host training. According to USA todaythis would “help the hospitality community identify signals or triggers in the nature and style of booking, and provide action steps to flag potential traffic”.
If you are considering renting an AirBnB anywhere in the world, be aware and stay alert.
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