Is it possible to host scam me?

[Esmir0]

Hi.
i´m new to the site airbnb so I´m a bit worried about how everything works. 

I´m looking for a rental in spain and several of the houses that is for rent is a bit "to good to be true", they look very nice. 

I don´t know if this is a scam.
1: when I write to the hosts on the airbnb site, they wont answer.
2: they have a seperate email that they want the guest to contact them on, some did answer but some did not.
3: There is no info abouth them or any reviews and they just joined like this month.
4: One of the host that I contacted did not ask me to pay in a different way, she actually wanted me to pay through airbnb but what if there is no house when we arrive? Can that happen that it´s just an adress for something else or that there is nothing there?
5: I also did an image search and I found out that there is a exact same house that is for rent in cape town as the one I´m looking at to rent in Ibiza. I´m so confused?

I appreciate all the info I can get or hear abouth any other experiences.

[Andrea9]

@Esmir0

You got it right - total scam alert, or at least trying to use Airbnb but not wanting to pay their host fee.

Unfortunately scammers and criminals have discovered Airbnb and are using it in a big way.

And those listings luring you away from the site to communicate via email usually sound extremely professional and very friendly, and then once you have made your bank transfer - poof, gone with the wind. And because you didn't follow the site's rule of only paying through Airbnb, you are not covered in such cases.

Always, and I can't repeat this enough!, always only go for hosts who have a reaction time of within an hour and a response rate of 100%, because they take their business and their guests seriously.

If the accommodation is paid through Airbnb, then you can call Airbnb if something goes wrong, but it's still not something you want during your trip  😕

Those too good to be true twin listings  in Ibiza and Cape town are just that. Possible that both are scams, or that only one of the two is real and the other a copy and scam.

Check both of them.

Does the host have reviews reflecting their hosting? - seems like it's legit.

Is booking through the site?  also seems legit

Or is there an email address mentioned in a sneaky image hidden after the first or second listing photo with maybe a lame excuse hat host can't update the calendar (which is complete nonsense - which business can't update their calendar??!!)? That listing is NOT legit.

If it's a new host, they may simply not have had guests yet and thus no reviews.

You might want to use the contact function and ask them some questions about the accommodation to get a better idea. See how they answer and what your feeling is.

Hope this helps you.

It's really a serious problem and is hurting legitimate hosts. Here in Amsterdam some of us report these kind of listings to get them removed, yet they pop right up again an hour or day later...