{"id":950383,"date":"2026-11-02T23:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T23:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950383\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T23:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T23:12:14","slug":"airbnb-host-accused-of-using-ai-doctored-photo-of-blocked-toilet-to-claim-1500-in-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950383\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb host accused of using AI-doctored photo of blocked toilet to claim $1,500 in damages"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Airbnb host is accused of using an AI-doctored photo of an overflowing toilet to claim hundreds of dollars from a guest to unclog it.<\/p>\n

French tourist Alban stayed at two Hobart properties with host The A Family for two weeks in August and September.<\/p>\n

Two days after he left \u2014 giving The A Family a one-star review over a dispute about his check-out \u2014 the host lodged a request for $1,755.<\/p>\n

To back up its claim, The A Family lodged a $1,500 invoice for “foreign object extraction” with Airbnb’s resolution centre, as well as a picture that appeared to show the toilet clogged, with water overflowing onto the floor.<\/p>\n

Another invoice showed $255 being paid to a third party for cleaning “extraordinary soilage”.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The A Family manages 12 listings on Airbnb across Tasmania and Victoria. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n

The A Family accused Alban of hosting “unapproved guests” and shared screenshots of messages from another person in the house saying he had left the toilet in a mess. Alban denies both claims.<\/p>\n

The request to pay for repairs to the backed-up toilet was just one in a string of claims and counterclaims between Alban and The A Family, totalling thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

Airbnb said it had investigated Alban’s complaint and rejected the host’s damage claim.<\/p>\n

“We take reports like this seriously \u2026 the guest has been fully refunded and will not be charged,” a spokesman for Airbnb Australia and New Zealand said.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

The view from the Battery Point property, which is no longer listed on Airbnb. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Neither company named in the invoices supplied by The A Family matched existing businesses. The ABNs listed were invalid, emails bounced, and there was no business of the kind at either address.<\/p>\n

The A Family has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Alban asked that the ABC only use his first name to protect his privacy.<\/p>\n

AI suspicions<\/p>\n

Alban suspected the image was fake and posted it to social media to confirm his hunch.<\/p>\n

Encouraged by the response online he used an AI detector, which he said confirmed it.<\/p>\n

The ABC ran the image through Google’s SynthID Detector, which found it had been made or edited with Google AI.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Alban posted the photo to social media to see if others agreed with his suspicion that the image was edited with AI. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n

Still, afraid he would have to fork out hundreds of dollars and be stranded in Tasmania, Alban moved his return flights to France 10 days forward.<\/p>\n

“They started making multiple hundred dollar demands. I got very concerned that I eventually wouldn’t have enough money to go home,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If I had to pay those fees, I’d rather be in a place where I had some support.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Airbnb has refunded Alban almost $2,000 for both stays with The A Family, as well as tours he missed because he was on the phone to Airbnb challenging those claims, he said.<\/p>\n

Do you know more? Contact Jessica Black<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In its review of Alban, The A Family said he had “repeatedly disregarded” house rules, “left the home in an excessively messy state” and was “hostile and demanding” in his communication. The review did not mention a blocked toilet.<\/p>\n

In a message to Alban, the host said it would not have made a claim but for his “crazy retaliatory review”, and had “let many charges go \u2026 for guests who are straight with us”.<\/p>\n

The ABC has seen images, invoices, and communication between The A Family and Alban that support his timeline.<\/p>\n

The A Family has 12 listings in Tasmania and Victoria, with 278 reviews and an average 4.55 out of 5-star rating.<\/p>\n

The Battery Point property where Alban stayed is no longer active on the platform.<\/p>\n

Airbnb scraps check-out chores<\/a><\/p>\n

Airbnb will ban hosts from requiring guests to complete check-out chores such as stripping beds, washing dishes or taking out rubbish, under new rules.<\/p>\n

Most reviews praise the location, price and hosts \u2014 but several former guests say claims were made against them for damage they deny being responsible for.<\/p>\n

One said the host requested compensation for a stain on the espresso machine that they said they never used, weeks after checking out. Another claimed they were asked to pay for damages after a rod came down on their head when they tried to pull open the curtain.<\/p>\n

An Airbnb host found to have provided false or misleading information to Airbnb or other users can have their account suspended or banned, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Airbnb did not confirm whether action would be taken against The A Family after its damage claim was denied.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

French tourist Alban stayed at two Hobart properties hosted by The A Family for two weeks in August and September. (ABC News: Maren Preuss)<\/p>\n

The ABC made attempts to contact The A Family but did not get a response before publishing.<\/p>\n

Alban said being tech-savvy and keeping records of the exchanges helped him challenge the claims.<\/p>\n

He advised other short-stay guests to do the same, as AI became more sophisticated.<\/p>\n

“There is a chance that the pictures become so convincing that no kind of algorithm will ever be able to discern whether it’s AI or not,” he said.<\/p>\n

Alban said he was unlikely to use Airbnb again.<\/p>\n

“I’ll heavily lean towards a hotel,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Airbnb host is accused of using an AI-doctored photo of an overflowing toilet to claim hundreds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,132377,40680,254,255,64,63,7688,94,701,105],"class_list":["post-950383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-ai-generated","tag-airbnb","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-housing","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}