Notorious Airbnb Host Charged with Allegedly Running $8.5M Nationwide Scam
A notorious Airbnb host at the center of a 2019 Vice investigation has been indicted in California for allegedly masterminding a nationwide scam that systematically double-booked guests to rake in profits.
Shray Goel—who describes himself as a “visionary in real estate,” among other things—was indicted on December 28 for wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and criminal forfeiture by a grand jury in the central district of California. He’s accused in the indictment of running a scam since 2018 in which he double-booked guests at some of the over 100 properties he operates across the country, then fabricating excuses to either cancel at the last minute or move one of the parties to a less appealing property. Goel raked in $8.5 million through these schemes through various rental websites in 2018 and 2019 alone.
Goel would set up separate listings for the same property at different prices, according to the indictment, then cancel the lower-priced rental with excuses about bad plumbing, offering guests a lesser-quality rental with deteriorating furniture and cobwebs instead. Airnnb’s policies don’t allow guests to be fully refunded if they stay the entire night at their accommodation. If the guest chose not to stay, Goel would lie to Airbnb or other companies and say they had stayed. Goel and his associates would also berate and threaten customer service reps in order to deny guests refunds to which they were entitled, according to the indictment.
