Cryptominers allegedly made $100,000 from mining at an Airbnb for three weeks — guests ran up a $1,500 electricity bill

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A popular Airbnb host has been forced to implement a bizarre new rule when renting her house to guests: no crypto-mining. The change came after guests amassed a $1,500 electric bill during their stay. The guests were seen hauling out at least ten computers and also set up an improvised electric vehicle charging station.

After the experience, the property owner, Ashley, took to her TikTok channel to explain “the weirdest Airbnb rule I had to implement as a host.” She said the guests left home perfectly clean and a “five-star” review after their three-week stay. The problem came later when she received the electric bill for the property.

The guests’ electric bill amounted to $1,500 during their stay. Ashley checked the external security cameras for the property and watched the visitors haul out at least ten computers when they departed. They’d also set up a charging station for their electric vehicle.

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Ashley filed on Airbnb to make the tenants pay the electricity bill, which was a bit of a struggle. She provided documentation to Airbnb, and the guests admitted what they’d done during their stay. In a follow-up comment to her TikTok video, Ashley said the miners told her they had made more than $100,000 mining cryptocurrency, so don’t feel bad for them being forced to pay the $1,500 bill. 

We can't verify the $100K profit number -- people have made more with less electricity in the past -- but we've reached out to Ashley to see if she can put us in touch with the miners to ask them about it (we'll update this article if we hear back).  But even if they made a smaller profit, the issue of miners using Airbnb to get low-cost electricity remains a challenge for hosts.

Ashley remarked, “It was cheaper for them to rent a house to pay for that electricity.” She’s since added “no crypto-mining” and “no electric vehicle charging” to her list of house rules for the property. Others who commented on the video reported similar happenings. One person in the comments said someone else told him about mining crypto in Airbnb properties and that he was “astonished he gets away with it.”

Mining cryptocurrency is an energy-intensive undertaking, with recent reports divulging that just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of the total electricity produced in the U.S. Aspiring miners will often take whatever steps they can to minimize the expense. That sometimes means renting a property on Airbnb and mining from that vacation home or apartment.

Jeff Butts
Contributing Writer

Jeff Butts has been covering tech news for more than a decade, and his IT experience predates the internet. Yes, he remembers when 9600 baud was “fast.” He especially enjoys covering DIY and Maker topics, along with anything on the bleeding edge of technology.

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  • BillyBuerger
    Instead of no-mining crypto, I would think they could just check the electric meter as part of their setup/cleanup process between guests and check for any unusually high usage. An agreement that any extremely high electric usage would be charged. There's lots of things people could do to waste electricity from a rental. The EV charging she mentioned makes sense as well as something people could do that could be overused if someone wanted to.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    I agree with the no crypto thing.

    You are renting a residential home. Not a commercial server farm premises.

    Instead of someones AirBNB, why can't these cryptonerds do this from their own house?
    Reply
  • Wolfshadw
    Just wondering how many times they did this BEFORE they got caught.

    -Wolf sends
    Reply
  • Jay29992
    If it only cost $1500 in electricity to make $100,000 people wouldn't steal the electric. The numbers in this story are so drastically off.
    Reply
  • scottsoapbox
    Jay29992 said:
    If it only cost $1500 in electricity to make $100,000 people wouldn't steal the electric. The numbers in this story are so drastically off.
    Exactly. They probably made $1400 minus airbnb fees.

    Heck, if they were making good money mining they wouldn’t mess with EV charging. What is that making - a few hundred bucks at most? $1400 in revenue is probably too high.

    Edit: Thinking about it more, at $100K every 3 weeks, the cost of not mining due to moving between airbnbs would be more than the electricity.
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    scottsoapbox said:
    Exactly. They probably made $1400 minus airbnb fees.

    Heck, if they were making good money mining they wouldn’t mess with EV charging. What is that making - a few hundred bucks at most? $1400 in revenue is probably too high.

    Edit: Thinking about it more, at $100K every 3 weeks, the cost of not mining due to moving between airbnbs would be more than the electricity.
    Assuming they loss one day out of that 3 weeks to move, set up and pack up at the end they would loss 5K in mining. To cover the electricity bill only around 7.5 hours of mining.

    Something is very off with the numbers!
    Reply
  • markleaf
    USAFRet said:
    I agree with the no crypto thing.

    You are renting a residential home. Not a commercial server farm premises.

    Instead of someones AirBNB, why can't these cryptonerds do this from their own house?
    They probably do, they only allot so much power per house. Pull more power would need a more powerful transformer on the power lines and maybe other improvements.

    An Airbnb is a commercial business, it is literally taking away residential housing and is partially responsible for the housing crisis. Perfectly good residential houses being repurposed for a commercial business.
    Reply
  • mattcintosh
    The numbers line up. 8,000 kwh @18 cents each is $1,500. Thats 16 kW that is easily doable on a 100 amp service. 10 computers pulling 1.4kw each would easily hit that number.
    The EV charging is a red herring though. Lets say they drove 2,000 miles the time they were there. The average ev gets 3.5 miles per kwh. 571 kwh, add another 10% for charging losses. Comes to about $115. Or about $5.50 a day. Thats almost splitting hairs
    Reply
  • _Taco_
    mattcintosh said:
    The numbers line up. 8,000 kwh @18 cents each is $1,500. Thats 16 kW that is easily doable on a 100 amp service. 10 computers pulling 1.4kw each would easily hit that number.
    The numbers about the amount made over 3 weeks using that little electricity over a standard residental electrial service don't line up.

    Let's assume 10 rigs with 6 cards using 2kw/hr per rig... you'd be mining in total close to $300/wk +- the volatility in the coin. Let's round up and say they made $1k... that is 1% of what the article claimed.

    I think the person may have made 100k lifetime, not 100k during the stay.
    Reply
  • RayThePlay
    I have free electricity, lots of space, and no noise requirements/problems. I need these guys to call me.
    Reply