Update and recommendation to Airbnb (will include a recent review by a guest if allowed) which related to my case.
Just came across Airbnb and read my old post.
https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Negotiating-problem/m-p/401988
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link the host's page here.
(If anyone wants to see the related review I can paste the link in reply.)
Turned out a guest went through what I could have experienced if I didn't cancel the reservation.
It ended up with a horrible experience (from my understanding after reading the guest's review), and I'm sorry for that guest to have experienced that without any help or due to the flaw and lack of support from Airbnb.
It seems the host took out his listing so it doesn't show up on Airbnb anymore. Or maybe he makes a new account and hosts the same listing with a different description?
I found Airbnb doesn't seem to care about the safety of the guest because there's no inspection of host's property but only based on guest's reviews. I also found some reviews seemingly suspicious (possible dummy account created just to write positive reviews for the particular host) which makes the rating/review system inaccurate/biased.
Most of the time you will find the rating from after the visit, and of course, the rating should be reflected on an experience after a visit. However, maybe a function of adding a "support review" for other Airbnb users to ask questions about the guest's experience, instead of just leaving a review without any chance to provide a follow-up? Yelp has a pretty positive review system, you are also allowed to send a direct message to the user so you can get more information from the user and the owner. Amazon has the "verified customer" indication which supposed to reflect a legitimate experience.
You are trying your best to provide protection to the host, but guest needs rather more protection because most of the time they are traveling to an unknown area/property. Why would you let an opportunity of a guest being in a dangerous situation?
Any area in any country can be found its infamous sketchy or shady host/rental properties, only if you do tons of research, and the address in Airbnb listing will never show up until you booked it.
The guest, in this case, was fortunately suffered a money scam this time. What if there were chances that the guest gets raped or murdered?
I, also "fortunately" lost money only from this host because Airbnb was not able to identify or to sort out the problem (Penalty all goes to the guest based on the "Strict policy").
I wasn't allowed to make any review because I canceled the reservation even though I have had a huge hassle during the reservation.
If you read my post above, the community voice a lot from host's opinions, claiming it's all about "business".
It became a flaw that Airbnb only protect the host to make money, but never consider guest's lost or safety.
I hope anyone like me will find justice here someday while Airbnb and its community is still developing a "fair" environment for both host and guest.
