John Bishop and HosTogether email?

[GRL]

I received this email last night along with at least 14 other owners I know and we are all wondering if anyone else has been contacted by John Bishop promoting Hostogether. We also want to know how he got our email addresses. Does anyone know anything about this Portuguese company? http://www.hostogether.com/

Hey,
If you’re anything like me and the other hosts out there, you’ve probably been struggling for the past months (I’ve been struggling for over one and half years now, but whatever…).

My main issue is that my property isn’t generating the level of income I need. Given the time that I spend dealing with guests, calendars, check-ins, blah blah… (you know the drill), I expected a lot more money in my pocket.

All this time and effort for so little money?! Enough is enough!

I am joining a community of hosts that is determined to revolutionize the way we get bookings and improve our business. We all believe that together we can get direct bookings on our own website through social media and through recommending each other to our guests.

However, for this to really make a big impact in our life, we need to get the word out there and make the community known to every host.
Help us grow this community where we can all benefit. Here.
John Bishop
Unsubscribe

[SandyBeaches]

I received the email. Like you I'm waiting with baited breath to see if they answer where they got my email address from.

[zebedee]

Well, I can't see any sign of his stressed scouse accent 😀😀😀!

[GRL]

Bumping this to find out if members on here are being spammed by Hostogether as a lot of owner I know through Facebook groups are getting regular emails from this company.

[mmg]

I've received nine emails so far from them (John Bishop x2, Sam Boulevard x2, Charlie Adams x2, Robin Delevigne x2 and Samuel Jackson x1). They have two of my email addresses, one of which is my private email so no links to business.

[GRL]

Thanks mmg and that is appalling. There are some new names in your list and this company is fast proving itself to be no better than the Indian based so called holiday websites that phone owners on a regular basis promising to fill our off peak weeks with Scandinavian travellers.

You could try reporting the emails as spam. The name of owner has been hidden but the ISP is enom.com and you can report to abuse@enom.com.

Or you could be like me and keep asking annoying questions on FB I will quote your message if that is OK ....

[GRL]

An email fro them has now been posted on a scam alert site - https://www.signal-arnaques.com/en/scam/view/67661

[mmg]

Thanks, I will report the emails this morning, and you can quote me on their FB page.

[GRL]

Thanks mmg.

[Nemo]

I am also one of the owners who've been added to this list without my consent. The daily spam emails continue.

Edit duplicating what Rosie said here: The ISP is enom.com so if anyone wishes to report these emails as spam then you can forward an email from hostogether to abuse@enom.com along with a sentence of what the issue is - ie you are being spammed by a list that you didn't sign up to.

I personally wouldn't unsubscribe from their emails as that can often mean your email gets on to a list that is sold on to scammers/spammers and you find yourself with even more junk mail than you had before!

With some detective work amongst those of us who are being spammed, it is a Portugese company and the two founders are Rui Pedro Escaleira and Joana Feijó. Do have a look at their facebook page where they and members of their staff give their own company fake five star reviews.

They have a management software package called VRPro and it appears that they are rebranding and packaging this into what they are now calling Hostogether.

They are crowdfunding soon, but no-one seems to be able to ascertain what for. They suggest that members will be able to save loads of money by becoming part of this "community", but I'm guessing that's simply because they can negotiate a lower commission rate with the big listing sites. However you do apparently need to have a Hostogether website to avail yourselves of all these wonderful benefits they are harking on about, so hopefully we've done our bit here to warn any LMH members about their highly unethical way of starting a business.

From a blog of theirs

By inviting your friends, you can get up to EUR 220 / USD 250 to use in our crowdfunding, for discounted memberships, guaranteed Hostogether bookings or discount vouchers for bookings with Hostogether hosts.

As another owner said

So they're branching into some sort of pyramid selling/Ponzi scheme as well. How enterprising.

One of the most annoying and unethical businesses I've come across in a long while.

[FelicityA]

I have reported the three I have got from different names to their provider. I hope they do something. Fortunately, my computer recognises them as spam and my ipad doesn't even let them get as far as junk mail.

[Nemo]

The first tranche of mine went into spam, but sadly now they are arriving into my inbox. At some point I'll need to block them but I want to see if they are going to continue the spamming on a daily basis. I have asked directly on their facebook page to be removed from their list. They replied to a previous post of mine and identified my website so they know exactly which email address is mine.

[GRL]

I signed up for their ebook "Why every host should join the Hostgogether community" with an email address I use for such spam replies etc and so far I have received 3 emails (all straight into spam) waffling on about the supposed benefits of their company and no sign of an ebook!

I also started a "conversation" on the box that pops up on their website and all that does is try to get you to give them your email address. It did ask what, as a host, I needed help with and I said "Getting less spam from you" and the automated reply was "Thanks. Your need is shared by many other hosts." Too flippin' right

[Nemo]

Having reported the emails for spamming, I received a reply this morning. It turns out the email we had was only for the domain name and not the host.

The correct email to report their spam emails to is: abuse@amazonaws.com

This is from the domain tools page I was pointed to:

Comment: All abuse reports MUST include:
Comment: * src IP
Comment: * dest IP (your IP)
Comment: * dest port
Comment: * Accurate date/timestamp and timezone of activity
Comment: * Intensity/frequency (short log extracts)
Comment: * Your contact details (phone and email) Without these we will be unable to
identify the correct owner of the IP address at that point in time.
Ref: https://whois.arin.net/rest/org/AT-88-Z

OrgAbuseHandle: AEA8-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Amazon EC2 Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-206-266-4064
OrgAbuseEmail:
OrgAbuseRef: https://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/AEA8-ARIN

Several people have tried unsuccessfully to unsubscribe, using the unsubscribe button, but this has not worked. General advice I've been given in the past is never to use the unsubscribe button to a list you never signed up to. It can mean your email address being sold on as active and can result in an increase in spam rather than a decrease. Blocking and reporting the email for spam is more effective in the long run for all concerned.

edit - typo

[GRL]

Email sent - thanks Nemo.

Hostogether is now adding lots of very dodgy 5* reviews on their FB page with at least 50% definitely being friends of the people who founded this company. Feel free to add your own legitimate review if you have been spammed.