Dummies: Airbnb and would-be holiday makers were duped into booking a fake listing. Photo / Camilo Jimenez, Unsplash
Dummies: Airbnb and would-be holiday makers were duped into booking a fake listing. Photo / Camilo Jimenez, Unsplash
Bookings came in fast for the lavish London townhouse when it was first listed on lettings platform Airbnb, however would-be holidaymakers had to the scale back plans when it was revealed to be only an antique dolls house.
Gullible travellers discovered too late they were at the centre of a game between a pair of YouTube comedians.
The UK-based duo Josh Pieters and Archie Manners managed to fool not only holidaymakers but Airbnb too, tricking the website to listing the 1700s toy as a property available for rent.
The YouTubers duped Airbnb and hundreds of punters with their dolls house listing. Photo / Screenshot
The prank raked in almost half a million views on YouTube and more than a few booking requests on Airbnb.
With the United Kingdom easing restrictions on self-service accommodation this week, the duo wanted to see "just how carefully does Airbnb check their listings".
"Archie and I thought we'd advertise one of the world's smallest properties on one of the world's biggest websites," Pieters told the channel.
With only a modest budget to find a believable town house to dupe the listings, they got the help of dolls house designer Emma Waddle.
Josh Pieters & Archie Manners staged the scam using an elaborate dolls house. Photo / Screenshot, Youtube Josh Pieters & Archie Manners
Settling on a 25-room model, complete with working lights and readable, postage-stamp-sized books, Waddle lent the comics a doll house to suit their "very grand" ambitions.
They thought they would "give Airbnb a chance" to expose their scam by planting life-size objects, such as a bottle of water in the property photos.
Yet the rental was accepted.
Listing the "tiny house" with one of the YouTubers' mums as a host and using their real address in Clapham, the property was verified in under 24 hours.
The YouTubers said they have transferred guests their money back, including the commission taken by the website. But, they claim the value of the fake bookings quickly ran into the "thousands of pounds".
The video won praise with viewers for entertainment value as well as being a useful PSA to the dangers of booking a property on face value.
'The amount of people who just didn't notice the water bottle is astounding'. Photo / Screenshot
"The amount of people who just didn't notice the water bottle is astounding," wrote one viewer.
Airbnb did not respond to a request for comment however they did direct viewers to their Scam Prevention plan.
The website urges those booking through the website to keep "all payments and communication" within the platform, so it has a record of all transactions and can quickly resolve any potential scam.
