California doctor reveals a stranger listed her home for RENT on Airbnb

A California doctor has revealed a stranger listed her home for rent on Airbnb — and then offered to let her book her own property when she asked to have the fraudulent post taken down. 

Shireen Heidari, a palliative care and family medicine physician at the Stanford Department of Medicine, shared her story on Twitter this week in a bid to get the listing removed. 

‘Hi @Airbnb – I would really appreciate you contacting me. Someone has listed my home as their rental, and when I messaged them asking them to take it down, they offered [the] option to book my own home,’ Heidari, 46, tweeted on Monday.

When she reached out to the stranger about having the listing removed, she was offered an option to rent her own home (stock image)

‘We reported it, but the listing is still active. This is not ok,’ she added. 

Heidari explained in a subsequent tweet that she had found out about the listing after the city mailed letters to the previous owners at her address ‘about needing to report rental taxes.’

When she called to inquire about the letters, a city employee shared the Airbnb listing links with her.   

‘Grateful they caught it,’ she wrote. ‘Otherwise we might have found out by people showing up at our home (!!)’

 Heidari said the listing was finally removed after ‘provided proof of ownership’ of her home

A few hours after her initial tweet, she returned to Twitter with an update, saying ‘the listing is down after being reported as fraudulent.’   

‘We provided proof of ownership. Still not clear what next steps are,’ she added. ‘There were many messages and calls throughout today. With gratitude to the customer service rep who stayed on line at 11pm to help sort it.’

In another update, Heidari confirmed that the issue was finally resolved.   

‘Appreciate the support all. After this tweet, another call to customer service, and a DM from @Airbnb – the listing has been removed,’ she wrote. 

‘Want to recognize the customer service rep on the phone who stuck with me at 11pm to sort this and called back to let me know it was removed.’

Other Twitter users claimed that similar things have happened to them while responding to Heidari’s tweets about her home being listed without her knowledge  

Heidari’s experience inspired others to share their own Airbnb horror stories, and a number of people claimed similar things have happened to them.    

‘This happened to me once but on a different side,’ one Twitter user commented. ‘I booked an Airbnb, paid, showed up, knocked on the door, & the owner had no idea who I was or why I was there. Someone was scamming them like they’re scamming you.’

‘Happened to my niece – they booked @Airbnb overseas and the house had been posted fraudulently. I guess we should all check our houses since they don’t!’ someone else wrote.  

‘A couple SF Bay Area lost their house as a renter rented their house on Airbnb and apparently there is some law that after a month of stay people can’t be forced out. They rented their newly bought house for few months to finish their existing lease and ended up in foreclosure,’ another claimed. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to Heidari and Airbnb for comment.