Changes in reservation

[Camila100]

Hi, I was wandering if anyone could help me with the following issue. 

I booked an apartment on mid July, to stay for 12 days during October. Yesterday, almost two months after booking was confirmed and one month away from my stay there, the host tells me she is moving to other apartment, and offers me a new place to save me the hassle from looking for other apartment with such a short notice. The new apartment is similar and supposedly better located. But of course, it is more expensive (about 1300 USD), so she says that because it was her problem with the rent of the apartment that I originally booked, she will leave it for me at the same price.

But how can I guarantee that this is not a scam? If I request a booking alteration, Airbnb makes me pay the 1300 USD difference (which I can't pay), but if I leave it this way and arrange with host outside Airbnb, I have no one to claim if the new apartment is not booked for me when I get there (or it doesn't even exist). Does anyone have a suggestion for these cases? The main problem is that if I cancel the booking now, I won't be able to book a new apartment near the one that I had already booked (at least not without paying twice the price I already payed).

Thanks!

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Camila100 - There is a couple of ways to resolve this: 

1. Do the change request and have the host refund you the difference. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/250/what-if-a-host-informs-me-that-the-listing-i-already-paid-fo...   You can request the money directly from her via the Resolution Center. 
2. Cancel your current reservation (hopefully this is penalty-free but I don't know the cancellation policy - make sure you review this so you make sure you'll get refunded in full from the host).  Then send an inquiry to the host about the new property and have her send you a special offer at the agreed price.  

In both cases you will have to trust that the host will refund you or send you the corrected price.  If you haven't been having your conversations with her via the Airbnb platform, start doing so immediately so there is a record of the agreements you've reached together about this reservation.  That way if she doesn't pay you back, then you have a record within the system of what she agreed to with you.  

Good luck. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Camila100 just to let you know that finding alternative accomodation is very common in situations of accidental overbooking or any other situation when a host is not able to accomodate his guest.  I know few hosts from the same neighbourhood and we help each other that way.