Money sent to host. no reply

[Janet138]

Can anyone help PLEASE.  I am new to Airbnb. I have not yet booked any holidays.

My son, partner and friends were looking for holiday accomodation in Amsterdam. I encouraged him to join Airbnb. BIG mistake. He did not understand the rules and made a payment directly to a host. WHO has kept his £1,000 and now wont answer his emails and no longer can be found. We are getting no help as yet from Airbnb. This is FRAUD.  Can anyone on here please tell us what we can do to get our money back. and to stop this HOST from doing it again. 

many thanks   J **

[Scott80]

If the listing can no longer be found, it seems like AirBnB became aware of the fraud and deleted the listing/banned the user. There are numerous warnings not to pay outside of AirBnB platform but some people think they are getting a better deal by cutting out AirBnB but get ripped off instead. At this point about all your son could do is contact the police or hire a private detective and chalk it up as a learning experience. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/199/what-should-i-do-if-someone-asks-me-to-pay-outside-of-the-ai...

This topic has come up MANY times on this board, and the consensus is that attempting to locate the fraudster is a waste of time.  

[David126]

The only real clue would be the bank account that the money was sent to, they could be physically anywhere.

No doubt the money does not stay in that account very long so  the practicalities for such a sum is probably not there.

[Claudia2]

Hi @Janet138,

NEVER pay anything outside of the airbnb platform directly to a host. Airbnb is not responsible for the consequences and explicit on this in the T&Cs. The only possibility you have is continuing to contact the host throught the contact details you hopefully may have gathered. But for me it sounds like the money is lost.

Good luck and I hope you are succesful!

[Helen3]

If your son paid on his credit card then he can contact his bank and ask them to do a charge back on the card.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

^^ Agreed