What should I do if the host posted a FAKE house

[Caroline1750]

I booked a house in Montreal, Canada the beginning of November for 2021 New Year. I got a phone call from the host telling me that this house is still under construction and won't be ready for my travel date only three weeks before my trip, the host even asked to cancel it from my end! It's a really really last-minute notification as Christmas and New Year is around the corner. As a one-week and 9 people trip, I have already booked everything else in Montreal. Who is going to be responsible for our loss if we can't find another place to stay?  I don’t understand why Airbnb allows an under construction place to be listed and booked. A FAKE place technically speaking. You can not list a place that is not actually available. And then suddenly tell your customer that the place is still under construction and is not available right before their trip. As a guest, if I canceled my trip after 48 hours, I will be penalized by 50% of my total trip cost. However, a host can cancel a booked trip for a nonsense reason after one month. When the host asked me to cancel it from my end, if I didn't think about it twice and reject the request, I would for sure be charged. Is this a fraud??? 

In order to address my dissatisfaction with this whole experience, I tried to call customer services 3 times already. The first time, the agent promised that someone else would call me later, but I waited for more than 24hrs, no one ever reached out to me, so I called again. Another agent helped me transfer to someone else, and that guy on the phone was EXTREMELY RUDE!!!!!! He said: IT’S IN JANUARY, YOU CAN FIND ANOTHER PLACE! Then, he just hung up the phone. This is so ridiculous, I have never ever in my life encountered a customer service like this. I felt really really offended. Thus, I called customer service again, the third agent promised again that a specialist will call me, and she will send me a private message to confirm, but I didn’t get any message or the phone call. I’m just so speechless for the overall service I received.

Hi, Airbnb, you are such a big company that just went public a few days ago, is this how you treat your customer?????

[Emiel1]

@Caroline1750 

Offcourse the host needs to cancel, as the host is failing in providing the service as agreed in the reservation. Then you will receive a full refund.  Airbnb CS is a disaster, as you experienced.

Maybe try Twitter (account AirbnbHelp).

[Anonymous]

@Caroline1750  You can follow the steps outlined here to formally request that the host cancel: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1250/what-should-i-do-if-my-host-needs-to-cancel

Airbnb does not vet or verify its listings before they go live - anyone with an internet connection can easily post a fake listing in a matter of minutes, and it could be up for weeks until enough people report getting conned that the listing gets shut down. If you do a reverse image search on the listing's photos, you might find that they're actually taken from a real-estate website in another location altogether. If a listing has consistent and recent reviews, it's far likelier to be genuine.

[Cathie19]

 @Lizzie , @Catherine-Powell.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Caroline1750,

Lovely to meet you. My name is Lizzie and I am a Community Manager here in the Community Center. I'm sorry to hear about your booking being cancelled and your experience with our support team. I can imagine you were looking forward to the break away. 

I've highlighted this to a colleague of mine in the Support Team and she would like to try and help you with this. She has contacted you via message, so hopefully you can see that and then you can speak to her directly. 

I have my fingers and toes crossed that together you can find an equally nice place for you and your fellow guests to stay. 

Do keep me posted how this goes. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

(Thanks @Cathie19 for highlighting)