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Seven Airbnb rental properties in Copenhagen used as brothels
Shifa Rahaman
February 18th, 2016
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This article is more than 8 years old.
Police urge renters to be more vigilant and to ask their neighbours to keep an eye out
Several apartments in Copenhagen have been used as brothels after being listed for rent on the website Airbnb, Jyllands-Posten reports.
Seven cases in two weeks
Copenhagen Police recently revealed that they have looked into seven cases in the last two weeks alone. The properties were all reportedly rented to house prostitutes.
“We have received reports from several people that made us aware that there have been suspicious people coming in and out of the apartment,” said Kjeld Farcinsen, a police commissioner who is the head of the immigration control group at Copenhagen Police.
“We are surprised there have been so many cases in such a short time,” he added. Most of the prostitutes are believed to be from Romania, Moldova and Brazil.
Working with police
Airbnb maintains it has a “good relationship” with Copenhagen Police and that it is working “together with them to support and provide assistance to their investigations”.
“We have a zero tolerance policy for issues like these,” AirBnB said in a statement.
“Over 70 million guests have stayed on Airbnb and issues for hosts and guests are incredibly rare. When we are made aware of issues, we work fast to help take care of hosts and guests and permanently remove bad actors from our community.”
Owners unaware
According to Farcinsen, the owners of the properties were unaware of what was happening.
“The owners have not had any idea what is going on in their properties. It was the people who rented the apartment through Airbnb,” said Farcinsen.
He has advised all people renting their properties on Airbnb to ask their neighbours to keep an eye out for suspicious activity.
Meanwhile, Airbnb has advised its customers to get in contact “if they think their listing has been misused, so we can investigate fully”.
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