Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) the hiring of expensive lodgings with the intention of stealing the furniture etc. that one finds there.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 251: lodging-slum the practice of hiring ready-furnished lodgings, and stripping them of the plate, linen, and other valuables.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1812].