After a TikTok star with millions of followers was purportedly scammed out of a seaside villa in Positano, Italy, Airbnb came rushing to the rescue. If I was writing this script, it could not have worked out better….for Airbnb’s marketing team.
Airbnb Saves Positano Trip For Alix Earle And Friends…Or Did We Just Get Played?
TikTok star Alix Earle has a very large following on various social media platforms, including nearly six million on TikTok. She just graduated from college and is on a girls’ trip to Europe. The first stop was Ibiza and now they are in Positano, Italy.
In Ibiza, they stayed at an Airbnb. They then flew EasyJet to Italy and that’s when things went sideways, at least according Earle.
“We’re stranded in Italy. The house we were supposed to stay at doesn’t exist. Our car service canceled. It’s midnight.
“We literally don’t know where to go. 11 girls stranded in Positano. The girls’ trip took a turn.”
@alixearle What do we do now!?!!!! #girlstrip #positano
Seems a bit dramatic, doesn’t it? No car service? A house that doesn’t exist? I mean, I can understand the driver not showing up, but a fake house? I’m having a hard time buying that or at least that both things happened at once. Earle never reveals the source of the “scam” Positano booking, but if she was staying at an AirBnB house in Ibiza, wouldn’t you think she would also rent an Airbnb house in Positano too?
In any case, in a follow-up video Earle and her friends heap praise upon Airbnb for saving the day while giving a tour of their palatial villa. The implication is that Airbnb saw her predicament and reached out to offer her a villa. But her language remains very vague: did she book originally through Airbnb? Did Airbnb mess up or simply rush in to help the damsels in distress?
https://www.tiktok.com/@alixearle/video/7236783525163257134
Because if she did book the scam villa through Airbnb, then I’m not sure Airbnb did her any favor causing the hassle in the first place. Unless that “hassle” was part of the plan…
I don’t believe anything I see on TikTok, so my theory (and it is just a theory) is that this entire thing was a set-up engineered by Earle and the marketing team at Airbnb. First, you make it look like they are scammed and without a place to stay. Then Airbnb rushes in for the rescue and is heaped with great praise. That’s a decent exchange considering her videos garner millions of views and the UK Daily Mail reports she earns $70,000 per post (not a bad day’s work…).
CONCLUSION
I may be too cynical, but I’ve covered so many travel-related stories on TikTok that turned out to be fake. Here, the lack of driver and lack of villa and Airbnb immediately coming to the rescue all seems too coincidental and too convenient for me. But it makes for good clickbait in more than one way…
(H/T: View From The Wing)
Is describing her with ‘foxy’ really necessary, seems a bit diminutive.
It’s purely for the clicks. I’m greatly impressed by her social media empire (though admittedly I never heard of her until Gary published her tale).
Influencer = useless brat
$70,000/post. She must be doing something right!
Is it really possible to earn 70k per post? (I obviously dont do any social media) if so…i def wouldnt fly easy jet on a once in a lifetime amazing graduation trip
I’m with you this is fake.
And even if it’s even remotely it’s a great example of how the 1% live. We’ve all seen horror story after horror story of people renting Airbnbs and finding out that it’s not remotely what was promised or there is some other serious problem
And being left high and dry by Airbnbs customer service. We can absolutely guarantee that if this happened to someone without her social media presence they would have utterly ignored the issue while mouthing vague platitudes.
But again I’m with you on this. She faked being stranded and abandoned (“we don’t know what to do!! We are soooo helpless”) and then AirBnb jumped in so they could pretend to rescue her and put her in the Villa they had already booked.
This is the new age of advertising. Of course it was set up
Influencers = Scammers
Yes sir, when there is a wrong to right
Mighty Mouse will join the fight.
On the sea or on the land,
He gets the situation well in hand
So though we are in danger, we never despair
Cause we know that where there’s danger he is there!
(He is there, on the land, on the sea, in the air!)
Originally,this was the soundtrack for her video.
I get a kick out of people who purportedly live in the lap of luxury, then fly on LCCs. There’s of course nothing wrong with an EasyJet flight, and maybe it was convenient, but it just seems off “brand” for someone like her.
$30,000 millionaires have to cut costs somewhere. One rarely makes $70k a post from their studio apartment in Nebraska. I guaranteed you that $60k of expenses goes into earning every post.
Through the tiktok link you have here … I saw that she posted a follow up. She booked her original Positano stay through booking.com. Unsure why she mentioned Airbnb but Airbnb social media probably tracks her account or was forward something about her being stranded and decided it was a great way to get some marketing. Don’t think this was a shady campaign on anyone’s part, it’s just how influencer marketing is nowadays, the big influencers are on the radars of every company.
The video of the “villa” That Airbnb set them up with is Le Sirenuse which doesn’t have any Airbnb facilities. FAKE…
Genius marketing if that’s what it was, to convince so many followers that air BNB is a useful thing and helpful. Just really a shame that you and Gary would repost it, you’re feeding into the influence frenzy
I appreciate that she didn’t wear a bra under the white shirt/ tank top. If we’re going to be paying someone $70,000 a post, we’d better get something out of it! Now what was this whole thing about again? I got distracted by a couple of things.
The only scam was on the people who follow her.
Remember the gentlemen who recorded his small plane having engine failure over a national forest and bailed out, all covered with MULTIPLE cameras.
Some folks will do anything for clicks!!