Lord Alan Sugar caught up in ‘Airbnb scam’

Lord Alan Sugar has issued a warning to Airbnb users after a family was  cheated out of around £465 because fraudsters told them they could stay at one of his homes in London.

The businessman and star of The Apprentice posted a message on Twitter claiming that the family of six, who were from the US, turned up at his property under the false belief that they had paid to rent the property for three days. 

Lord Sugar wrote: "WARNING AIRBNB SCAM: Yesterday a American family of 6 turned up at one of my proprieties [sic] in London. They had been scammed to think they could rent it for 3 days. The scammers took a photo from an estate agents web site and stole over $600 from these poor people. BASTARDS.”

Responding to the story, an Airbnb spokesperson told the press: “We were disappointed to hear about this experience and are looking into the matter. 

“More than two million people check-in to Airbnb listings each night and while bad experiences are incredibly rare, we work hard to make things right when they do occur."

The property sharing company claims that it has attempted to contact Sugar for further details, but he has yet to respond.

Want to comment on this story? Our focus is on providing a platform for you to share your insights and views and we welcome contributions.
If any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.
Please help us by reporting comments you consider to be unduly offensive so we can review and take action if necessary. Thank you.