How do I protect myself from Airbnb scams?

Most host-side scams are variations on a few moves, and once you know the shape of them they're easy to sidestep. The golden thread through all of it: keep money and messages on the booking platform, because the moment you step off it you lose the dispute protection, the insurance, and the paper trail that actually save you.

The classic is a guest asking to pay outside Airbnb, whether that's a wire, Venmo, or crypto, usually sold to you as saving both sides the fees. Never do it. That request is the scam, full stop; there's no version of it that ends well for you. Its cousin is the chargeback, where a guest stays, enjoys the place, then disputes the card charge, which Airbnb only handles for you if the booking and the conversation stayed on-platform.

Then there's the fake damage angle, where a guest breaks something and calls it pre-existing. Timestamped photos before every check-in and a cleaner who photographs each room on turnover quietly end most of these arguments. Party bookings are their own version of this, someone booking under a plausible name to throw an event, which is why a same-city, one-night, new-account weekend booking deserves a second look and a plainly stated no-events rule.

The one aimed at you rather than your property is phishing: an email dressed up as "Airbnb support" wanting your login. Airbnb doesn't ask for your password by email. Don't click the link; type airbnb.com yourself and check from there. Underneath everything, the durable habits are the same: communication on-platform, guest verification before you share anything, ID checks where you can require them, and a bit more scrutiny on the bookings that pattern-match to trouble.