In the United States, the tenant who rented an apartment in New York through the Airbnb service was able to return all the money after the owner accused this woman of property damage and sued 12 thousand pounds (British The Guardian writes about this), about 1.26 million rubles, but was convicted of lies. The owner of the apartment used photos taken using artificial intelligence.
This case occurred in early 2025. The woman rented a one -room apartment for two and a half months to study. But she left before due to the fact that she was scared: according to her, a sense of danger grew. With this, she prematurely terminated the lease.
After her departure, the owner, who has a high status on Airbnb (superhost status), said that she broke many things: a glass table and other furniture, mattress, and household appliances. The woman denied everything and said that the owner was cunning due to the fact that she had left ahead of time.
As evidence, the lessor presented the court with a photo with supposedly damage to things in the apartment, but the defense noticed that the photo of supposedly damaged things is clearly different. After that, the woman accused the owner of the housing of lies and the use of neural networks, and filed a counterclaim for slander.
At first, Airbnb decided that the woman should pay 5314 pounds, about 561.5 thousand rubles, but after she went to the media and appealed, the company changed its decision. A part of the money was returned to her. As a result, Airbnb apologized, returned her all the amount that she paid for the rent, removed a bad review of her and warned the owner that if he would deceive again, he would be blocked on the platform.
Airbnb said that he could not prove that the photos were real, and began a new check.
