Urgent - help needed

[Julian1199]

My brother and I were trying to book an Air bnb in Manhattan and we found this great place. I then proceeded to book the place because I saw some weeks in early December and February get booked at this location. I had messaged him about the place before and he had not responded for a couple hours and I was worried that this location would get taken. I ended up booking the place and after 10 minutes he responded saying he was sorry and that this place was not available. I thought he was just mistaken because I was the one who had just booked the place and I sent him my confirmation. He continued to reply saying that the place was not available.

So now my deposit stuck with him/air bnb and that was all the money I had to ensure my brother had a place to stay for his internship. I can't get it back without him canceling, but I feel like he is trying to play a game of chicken and have me cancel the place. But if I cancel that means I hardly get any of my deposit back. I have a receipt and everything. It's now been an hour and he has stopped responding to my messages and a text I sent him asking about the reservation. 

If anyone could give me some guidance about the situation that would be extremely helpful, and it's just very stressful that there is no clear way to get a third party representative from air bnb to help with the current situation. I called the call center and couldn't get anyone on the phone. I feel like there should be a way from someone at air bnb to go through our messages and transactions with the allotted time stamps and be able to call foul play. Thank you for anyone who replies to this!

[Anonymous]

@Julian1199  Attempt this procedure first:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1250/what-should-i-do-if-my-host-needs-to-cancel

Pay careful attention to these details - 

1. Under Please select a reason, choose My host needs to cancel
2. Next to Did they say they can’t host you anymore? choose Yes 

If the host declines but still maintains that the home is unavailable, you can be certain that this is a scam operator - unfortunately, your only remaining option then would be to contact Airbnb. 

[Julian1199]

@Anonymous Thank you for the help, I appreciate it. I went through this procedure and now the host wants to the change the date so that I arrive earlier with no additional cost; however, I am unable to make this earlier check in date, so I feel uncomfortable accepting. If I accept a check in change knowing the I cannot make the date of checkin, does a host of grounds to cancel my stay altogether?

[Helen3]

Just confirm to the host you can't make the alternative dates and ask him to process your refund. @Julian1199 

I would call Airbnb to explain the situation the host told you after booking that the listing wasn't available.

All the ways of contacting Airbnb are outlined in the Contact Airbnb post towards the top of the forum you are posting in.

Airbnb will be able transfer your money to another listing and Airbnb should also give you a small credit as the host is cancelling the booking.

Find alternative hosts who are long established superhosts with great reviews who use Instant Book.

[Ann72]

@Julian1199  If you need to contact Airbnb, send them a direct message on Twitter to @Airbnbhelp.  They'll ask for the telephone number and email address associated with your account, as well as the reservation number.

[Mark116]

@Julian1199  This sounds like a scam to me, I would contact Airbnb directly and see if they can do a free cancellation for you.  I would go through the steps of what  happened, how the host has been difficult and you are no longer comfortable w/the reservation.  You might still lose your Airbnb fee part of the reservation but that would only be about 14% or so of the total and you might get them to refund that as well. 

PS..you can try the chat function if you can't get anyone via telephone.  I have had pretty good  luck with that in terms of the waiting being only a few minutes.  And this way also, there is a record of the entire exchange. 

[Anonymous]

@Julian1199  The host's behavior here is baffling to me. The property is unavailable for your booked dates, but it's magically more available for those same dates if you turn up earlier? I don't know if this is a scam or just an extremely incompetent host, but I don't think you should accept this offer. When a booking is confirmed, no changes to the dates can occur without the agreement of both parties - otherwise, the entire thing has to be cancelled.

And the ideal scenario for you here is that this dodgy host outright cancels the booking. But knowing that Airbnb penalizes hosts for cancelling, it seems that he's trying to find a way to slither out of that and leave you with the expenses. 

If you're able to get in contact with Airbnb and refer them to the host's correspondence, they should recognize the claim that the room is "unavailable" as tantamount to a cancellation. If you get any pushback on that, emphasize that you are uncomfortable with the booking because the host is not providing the means for you to check in on your confirmed arrival date.

[Julian1199]

@Anonymous Thank you for all the help! He tried to get me to cancel on my end for two hours and saying that he was going to contact air bnb and he was trying to convince me that I was going to lose all my money. Eventually, he canceled the reservation after I called him on his bluff. But do you have any recommendations on who I should report this clear scam artist?

[Anonymous]

@Julian1199  I'm relieved to hear that the host cancelled the booking. What usually happens in this scenario is that Airbnb offers an additional travel credit that you can apply if you choose to re-book with a different Airbnb property. But if Manhattan is where you want to stay, and your visit coincides with the expected pandemic restrictions, I think you'll find better deals elsewhere.

I wish I had a suggestion on how to report the scammer, but honestly in a market like NYC it's a game of whac-a-mole with all these fakers with dozens of phony listings and identities - it may well turn out that the whole listing was just made up out of some photos stolen from real-estate listings and operated out of some small town in Kansas or Kenya. Airbnb has the resources to vet their users more thoroughly if they choose to, and there's no reason you should feel obliged to do their work for them - as long as you get 100% of your money back, I suggest that you move on and hopefully find a more trustworthy listing next time.

[Lawrene0]

There are a couple of places you can flag this, @Julian1199 . 

Go to the message thread with that host and click the flag icon on the most problematic of the messages -- the one that shows just what the host is trying to get you to do. 

Then go to the host's profile page and at the bottom you should see "Report this profile". Click that and follow the prompts. 

[Sarah977]

Glad you were able to get this cancelled. But: 

"and that was all the money I had to ensure my brother had a place to stay for his internship."

The first line of your post made it sound like this was a booking for you and your brother. But then it sounds like you are booking for your brother. If that's the case, you can't do that- the person who books has to be one of the people who is staying. Third party bookings are against Airbnb's terms of service. If it's just your brother this is for, he needs to open his own account and book through that.

@Julian1199