CHARLOTTE, NC (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Natalie Siburt is happy to own her first home. She unpacks and makes it a special place for her and her dog, Winnie.
“It’s something I set myself three years ago,” said Siburt, who also works for a mortgage company. “Over the next five years, I was going to buy a house and I was determined to do it.”
However, five days after I got the keys to her house, something unusual happened.
“I saw [a man] park in my assigned parking spot and then he came and dropped off a bag at my door,” Siburt said.
That’s when things took an unexpected turn.
“I opened the door, and he came in, and that’s when he was like, ‘how can I check in on Airbnb.'”
However, Siburt had never listed the condo on the site.
“That’s when I looked at the phone, saw the registration instructions and it was definitely my address,” she said.
Siburt told the man there had been a mistake and the condo was not an Airbnb. Then she took to social media and had several conversations with the company to try to figure out what happened.
“On the one hand, as a landlord, I feel a little violated that someone has the list and takes advantage of the property that I own,” Siburt said. “The other side is the fact that I’m an Airbnb consumer.”
Siburt and the previous owner eventually discovered that someone who had previously rented the unit had listed the property on Airbnb.
“Issues like the reported experience are rare, and following an investigation, we removed the listing from the platform,” Airbnb said in a statement. “All hosts on Airbnb must certify that they have permission to list their listing, and if an issue is reported to us, we investigate and take appropriate action.”
The company didn’t say how often these kinds of situations have happened recently, and Siburt said she’s still worried.
“It worries me a bit that at some point, months from now, Airbnb may reinstate the account and it will start again.”
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