CLEVELAND — With summer just around the corner and people beginning to book their summer vacation, there is a concern over short term rental scammers. Paul Smetona has been booking short term rentals on Airbnb and other sites for years.

What You Need To Know

  • Summer travel could mean an increase in Air BNB scams 

  • It's important to check reviews and ask detailed questions

  • Keep all transactions made for a short term rental on the official sites 

“I personally really enjoyed using short term rentals when I traveled," he said. "I always preferred them to hotels."

He then became an Airbnb host himself and explained that there are people who try to scam hosts.

“If somebody starts asking questions like, 'hey, I’m not able to pay with a card. I need to send you a check or pay cash' or something like that, that’s the first immediate red flag,” he said.

Judy Dollison with the Better Business Bureau said that this is something that they see often.

“The BBB every year receives reports of scams that specifically target vacation rentals,” she said.

Dollison explained that there are also hosts that try to scam users.

“Scammers pretend that they have a vacation property. They frequently make up a fake listing using addresses and photos of real vacation homes that they steal off the internet,” she said.

Smetona said it’s important to ask hosts detailed questions as well as check reviews as a user and as a host.

“A lot of people, if they’ve been on Airbnb or Vrbo for 10 years, they’ve got 50 reviews, like you don’t have much to worry about,” he said.

Dollison reinforced this and reminded people to try and protect themselves from scams.

“Do your research, because that’s the best defense, right? To not be in that situation in the first place,” she said.