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A woman based in London booked an apartment with a bedroom in Manhattan for two and a half months this year via Airbnb.Photo: Andre M Chang/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Airbnb has apologized to a woman after an apartment host incorrectly claimed that she had caused thousands of pound damage to damage and used images that she says was digitally manipulated to underpin his accusations.
The academic based in London was refunded almost 4,300 GBP, and an internal review of the treatment of the case was introduced during the short -term rental ceremony of the accommodation.
The incident shows how cheap and easily available artificial intelligence software are now used to manipulate images in order to provide incorrect evidence of what happened in consumer complaints, according to a security expert.
The woman based in London had booked the apartment with a bedroom in New York Manhattan for two and a half months this year to stay during her studies, but she decided to go early after she felt uncertain in the area.
Shortly after she left, the host Airbnb said that it caused damage worth more than £ 12,000 and submitted pictures of an apparently cracked coffee table as part of his case. His allegations included that she had stained a mattress with urine and damaged a robot vacuum cleaner, a sofa, a microwave, a television and air conditioning.
The woman denied that the apartment had been damaged. She said she left it in good condition and had only two visitors in the seven weeks in which she stayed. A precise examination of two images of the coffee table seems to show differences in the damage and the woman believe that they were digitally manipulated or created by AI. She says the host has been rewarded because she ended her tenancy early.
Airbnb first told her “after careful review of the photos” she would have to reimburse the host a total of 5,314 GBP. She made an appeal against the decision.
“I have informed you that I can give a certificate from an eyewitness that was with me during the cash register and can testify under oath of the condition in which the property was left: clean, undamaged and in good condition,” she says. “I also showed the visual discrepancies in images of the same object (wooden table), which are provided by the host, which have clear signs of production.”
She adds: “These inconsistencies are simply not possible in real, unprocessed photographs of the same object. This should have raised red flags immediately and the claims of the host were said to have discredited if the evidence had been checked with a fundamental exam, but Airbnb could not only fail to ignore this obvious manipulation, they ignored my explanations and the clear evidence that they ignored it that they were clear that they the material was recorded. “
Five days after Guardian Money had raised questions about the case with Airbnb, the woman was informed that she accepted her appointment and credited her account with £ 500. When she then said she would not change with Airbnb again, the company offered a reimbursement of £ 854 – a fifth of the costs for her booking. She refused to accept this and was reimbursed the full costs (£ 4,269) of her booking, and a negative assessment that the host had included in her profile was reflected.
