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A family fled the Airbnb they were renting in rural Kentucky after making several startling observations about the house. The family, which consisted of the renter, Laura Schilling, her mother, and four teenage girls, were visiting Lexington the weekend of April 13 for one of the girls' equine competition. They were from outside the state, so they booked an Airbnb for the duration of their stay. They landed in Kentucky late on Thursday night, and were alarmed to find the front door wide open. In a Facebook post that chronicled her harrowing stay, Schilling wrote: 'I went in knowing that...

It was a nightmare-bnb experience. A UK family had to cancel their dream Spanish vacation just hours before departure after losing more than $5,000 in an elaborate Airbnb “clone” scam. “I felt devastated for my children and my husband,” Emma Last, 48, told PA Real Life of the holiday hornswoggling. “One [of her children] didn’t speak for a day.” The Lancashire resident had planned an eight-night trip to Majorca — one of Spain’s idyllic Balearic Islands — in August 2023 with her husband Zak, 51, Last’s parents and their three children: Scarlette and Henri, both 17, and Xander, 14. The...

As the housing crisis deepens, the corrosive impact of Airbnb on communities becomes increasingly evident. With over 1,000 San Diegans falling into homelessness each month, the question arises: How many Airbnb properties sit empty, exacerbating the crisis? Complicating matters further is a colossal loophole in the ordinance meant to regulate short-term rentals (STRs). While cracking down on Airbnb alone may not be a catchall solution, it’s undeniable that taking thousands of residential units offline hampers efforts to meet housing goals.

Fulton Count Georgia DA Fani Willis used a legal filing where she defended her 'personal' relationship with a special prosecutor on her team to hit directly at the lawyer for a Trump codefendant who exposed her affair. Willis admitted to the stunning affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade in her 176-page filing Friday, saying it posed no conflict with her role overseeing the case against Trump and associates on racketeering charges. But in between passages making dry legal arguments, she included a color picture of the lawyer who blew the whistle on her affair. She also dug up the lawyer's...

“she was not required to pay rent because the city had never approved the unit for occupancy and that its shower was constructed without a permit.” Because of those code violations, the city determined that Jovanovic couldn’t evict Hirschhorn

Jason Roth lives in a van with his dog Wally. He’s both homeless and a homeowner, all at the same time. “It’s frustrating, extremely frustrating. It’s something I can’t fully wrap my head around,” he said. Jason is making mortgage payments for his Rainer Valley home and paying for pilot school. He is owed five months’ rent - a total of some $29k in back rent, plus utilities. “I do come here often just to look at my house, and miss it …and wish I could be in it,” he said. Jason’s deadbeat renter is listing the downstairs living space...

Should this be surprising to anyone?I think not, but the city and residents sure seem to act as if it came out of left field.Cathryn Blum has lived in her San Francisco home in Potrero Hill for nearly three decades. For the last 13 years, she has rented out her spare room on Airbnb to help with the cost of her mortgage, maintenance and property taxes.But when looking at her calendar for the typically busy summer months this year, Blum is seeing a whole lot of “nerve-wracking blank space.” Last year, she had 21 days booked in July and August....

Company reversed its decision to ban Lauren Southern's parents after she publicly criticized it on social media Popular short-term housing and vacation stay rental service Airbnb admitted it made a "mistake" in banning conservative provocateur Lauren Southern’s parents from using its service this week. According to Southern, a far-right content creator who used to work for conservative Canadian outlet Rebel News, Airbnb alerted her parents that they were barred from renting a property for a "romantic getaway" because of their daughter’s political activity. Airbnb had banned Southern previously and claimed it extended that ban to her parents. Southern revealed the...

When the Wing first opened its doors in Flatiron in 2016 as a pioneering, women-only coworking space, it became a phenomenon. Founders Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan raised more than $100 million from investors like WeWork and Airbnb. At its peak, it had 11 locations... But things took a sudden turn the following year. In June 2020, Gelman stepped down after employees protested her leadership and alleged mistreatment of black and brown staffers. It was the beginning of the end. Earlier this week, Wing members received an email announcing that the club’s six remaining locations would be closing due to...

Major corporations that made a show out of cutting checks to the national Black Lives Matter group in the aftermath of George Floyd's police killing in May 2020 now have nothing to say about the charity's alleged self-dealing. Seventeen corporations that publicly committed at least $100,000 to Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in the days following Floyd's killing either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries from the Washington Examiner asking if they approved of the charity's use of their donations to purchase a $6 million mansion in Los Angeles secretly and award lucrative contracts to the...

An Airbnb renter is facing charges after allegedly running around mostly nude and assaulting a disabled man over 65 years of age. Stephanie Joanne Lewis, 47, was charged with felony lewd or lascivious exhibition in the presence of an elderly and disabled person, assault on a person 65 years of age or older, and resisting an officer without violence. Lewis overstayed her Airbnb rental in the upstairs area of the victim’s home, according to an arrest report which states she is a narcotics user with a history of violent, erratic behavior and keeps “a collection of butcher knives” in her...

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — At least 11 people were shot and two juveniles were killed in a mass shooting early Easter Sunday in the East Allegheny neighborhood of the North Side. Pittsburgh Police say they received multiple ShotSpotter alerts just after 12:30 a.m. in the 800 block of Suismon Street. When police arrived in the area, more shots were being fired and several young people were running on foot and leaving in cars from an Airbnb property at Suismon Street and Madison Avenue. Police say a large party was happening at the Airbnb with as many as 200 people in attendance....

In the best of times, the Internal Revenue Service is tough to deal with, and tax season is never fun. But the past few years have seen the IRS lurch from one crisis to another. And things are about to get much worse for millions of taxpayers. In 2021 Congress expanded the reporting requirements of the obscure Form 1099-K. This information-reporting form tracks business transactions done with a credit or debit card or such peer-to-peer services as Venmo and Paypal. Prior to the change, taxpayers received a 1099-K only if they processed more than 200 business transactions, amounting to more...

So here is the grim reality of life in Woke America 2022. In November, I spoke at a peaceful conference held by an organization that is deemed a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League. The title of my talk was "Race, Immigration, and Con. Inc: How I Came to See the Light." It was a wide-ranging discussion of my three decades of reporting on the nation's demographic and cultural deterioration — which I've chronicled firsthand on college campuses, at our borders, and in every crime-ridden, riot-prone, and mass migration-transformed metropolis, from Los Angeles to Seattle...

A young woman visiting New York City recently discovered that her hotel room — which she booked through Airbnb — literally shared a window with a Japanese restaurant, allowing her to sneak a peek at the patrons as they were chowing down. The woman, who identified herself as Desiree Baker, first shared the odd experience on TikTok earlier this week, remarking on discrepancy between the actual room and the online listing, which allegedly indicated a bedroom overlooking the city. As seen in the clip, Baker lifts the shade and nervously peeks at a couple enjoying their dinner on the opposite...

Seven vans were impounded in Manhattan this week after investigators discovered they were being used as illegal Airbnb rentals, according to the NYC Sheriff’s Office. ***** Part of the investigation includes a YouTube video reviewing an overnight stay in one of the vans. An Airbnb spokesperson told PIX11 in an emailed statement the vans are no longer active listings on the platform.

John Cleese is an international treasure and needs to be treated as such. Got that, Airbnb The actor/writer/comedian took to Twitter on Monday to let the world know a couple things. 1. He will be in and around Huntsville for the next little. 2. There’s a project with John Cleese filming in the Huntsville area soon. 3. Airbnb screwed up his reservation, gave his house to someone else and kept the actor’s money. John Cleese @JohnCleese Does anyone in Huntsville, Ontario have a nice place I can rent to live in while I make a film Airbnb took our money...

Big Tech companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Reddit, Verizon, Airbnb, and Mailchimp will expand a project of collusion on “counterterrorism” efforts that target domestic right-wing organizations. The organization, which initially focused on building a database on content shared by Islamic extremists linked to Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Taliban, will now shift focus to right-wing groups including the Proud Boys. Via Reuters: A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest U.S. tech companies including Facebook (FB.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down...

A major internet outage has affected the websites of major retail, financial, logistics and travel websites, and appears to be affecting 911 services in several areas. Down Detector, a service that detects whether websites are working properly or not, began reporting a series of at least 50 major website outages shortly before 12pm EST on Thursday. Among the potentially affected websites were Costco, Airbnb, US Bank, UPS, Fox News, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, AT&T, Groupon, Expedia, HBO Max and TikTok, according to Down Detector.

The difference between the communist system and the capitalist one is that both kick you in the ass, but in the communist one they kick you and you have to applaud, while in the capitalist one they kick you and you can scream. I came here to scream.— Reinaldo Arenas, Antes Que AnochezcaIt’s hard to convey to those who live in the free world what life is like under a totalitarian dictatorship. I’d never experienced anything remotely like it before I traveled to Cuba in 2017 to report a story for WIRED magazine, and it was one of the most...