Worried about a listing being fake.

[Miguel1742]

I have used Airbnb in various occasions, and it has been nothing but pleasant. however this last time I booked an apartment for 6 nights to Honolulu, HI USA. for about $1,800 usd. Everything seemed to be perfect at first. my reservation is not up until October 2022. one day after booking it the host requested a $5000.00 security deposit in 48hrs or else my booking will be cancelled and I will be refunded only 50% of what I paid for. I got shocked and contacted host and Airbnb support,  and told them that I was not aware of this $5,000USD deposit. but since this was on his listing the only thing they could do is talk to the Host and make them understand that $5,000 for a deposit in a 7 months away reservation was just insane. I booked this on Feb 12.  and up until now I still havent gotten an answer from Airbnb yet. today  I decided to find out where exactly this listing was, and after googling the address I cant find this address anywhere, I dont know if this address even exist. can you guys give me an advise on what to do here. here is the link for the listing, which up to today is now listed for over 1,000 a night. to me this feels like a scam I am really freaked out.

thanks in advance.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/554081257708357410?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=70f57c98-d76c...

[Sarah977]

@Miguel1742  Glad to hear you got your money back. And that the so-called "host" has been made aware that he has been busted by users.

A word of advice- when looking for something to book, try to stay away from these property-manager listings that have dozens or hundreds of listings. They seem to be able to get away with all sorts of scaammy behavior that regular hosts can't. Airrbnb seems to turn a blind eye to their nefarious behavior.

Look for listings with hands-on hosts, with good reviews, who only have one or less than a handful of listings, who don't pull this sort of nonsense. 

I know that in resort areas, it's hard to sort through these, as most listings in these areas seem to be the corporate type. But there are still homes and condos and apartments that belong to private hosts who use them as their own vacation home and rent them out the rest of the time.

That's what Airbnb used to consist of, but they have been taking on more and more of these big players, who are crowding out real hosts.