A woman says that her ex-husband rented out her home on Airbnb without her consent and that she struggled to remove renters from her home.
In a TikTok posted on March 30, CeCe (@teenybeekeeper) says that her house in Utah is currently inhabited by Airbnb renters and that they have thrown her packages “out into the road.” CeCe also shows a note from the renters telling her that they won’t be leaving her house until May 1.
“Even though they don’t have a contract to be here. At all,” CeCe says in the video, which has over 1.5 million views. “This is my house and these renters are just as complicit as my ex-husband.”
In another TikTok, CeCe says that her ex-husband was abusive to her. In a phone interview with the Daily Dot, CeCe said that had she not been able to finally move into her home, she and her children would have been homeless.
In a follow-up TikTok, CeCe explains that she was granted “legal access” to the house in divorce court in the beginning of March while her ex-husband was renting out the house. She says he then extended the contract with renters living in the house “illegally,” and when CeCe offered to help them get a refund from Airbnb, the renters didn’t didn’t move out of the house.
In a phone call with the Daily Dot, CeCe explained that the contract was illegal because her ex-husband no longer had ownership of the house, meaning he could no longer rent it out on Airbnb.
“Basically I was super nice to the renters until I found out that they had no intention of leaving,” CeCe says. She also said that the renters asked her for money in exchange for them leaving. “I’m supposed to be living in my house, which was awarded to me a month ago,” she said.
CeCe told the Daily Dot that she told police that she was unable to move back into her home, but they did not get involved because her situation is a “civil matter.”
In other TikToks, CeCe says that Airbnb told her that it wouldn’t be able to help her without the cooperation of her ex-husband. She also says she moved back into her home after paying the renters $3,300 to leave, and after getting in contact with her for her “perspective,” Airbnb decided that she violated “community standards” by entering her home without consent and removed her account from the platform.
“Airbnb facilitated my ex-husband stealing my house,” CeCe says in a TikTok. “And then their solution for me taking my house back legally and paying those renters $3,300 is they decided to kick me off Airbnb so I can never use Airbnb again.”
CeCe says in a TikTok that her ex-husband’s Airbnb account was not affected by what happened. She told the Daily Dot that she paid the renters because doing so would get her into the house faster than formally evicting them—though she did give them three days notice that they would have to leave—and that she crowdfunded the money to do so from TikTok.
In a statement to the Daily Dot, a spokesperson for Airbnb maintained that “someone entered the property without guests’ consent.”
“This listing has been removed from the platform and there are no future Airbnb bookings at this property,” they told the Daily Dot. “We take reports of safety concerns very seriously.”
CeCe told the Daily Dot that every time she got in contact with Airbnb, “They were not helpful.”
“They called me and they were like, ‘Well, in order for us to do anything on this, we’re going to need the current property lister to contact us,'” CeCe told the Daily Dot. “And I was like, ‘You really just told me that you’re going to need my ex-husband, who is the person who violated the court order and put me in this situation, and you really think he’s going to call you and just make this right?'”
Many commenters tagged Airbnb’s TikTok account following CeCe’s video about the response she received from the company.
“@airbnb wanna explain?” @ftessv commented.
“@airbnb how is this ok,” @mellowjan wrote.
“@airbnb what the heck?” @restiejxnelxi commented. “I am worried to use you now.”
CeCe says she blames Airbnb for the situation.
“I didn’t do any of this. And Airbnb can solve the whole problem,” she told the Daily Dot.
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