Weird booking experience....

[Isabelle623]

Hello All,

  Strange experience and would like your advice.

We are planning to ski in Austria with some friends and I found a very nice place on ABB this morning and made the booking. I then sent the link to my friends and they replied back saying that they can't find the listing! And true, I could not find it.....and it is still not live. 

But the booking was confirmed and so I went on my phone's app at the confirmed booking and then clicked on the host. And then it seems the host has multiple properties in different ski regions in France, Switzerland, etc and all with the same photos of the apartment I just booked!! This just freaked me out and I contacted ABB support and they said they are investigating. That was 4-5 hours ago and no word yet. 

Can't make head or tail of this. Anyone else seen this before?

Regards,

Isabelle & Alex

[Emiel1]

@Isabelle623,

It is possible a hosts snoozes (temporary deactivate) a listing. The bookings made are still are valid, but the host does not want new bookings, so the listing is temporary not visible to anyone.

The photo issue is rather strange...

If you do not feel comfortable: most listings have the option to cancel within 48 hours after booking with full refund (*check help for full details).  But as listing is not visible, you can not read if this option is available, but maybe it is on your reservation (itinerary) . Also please note your money is at Airbnb, not at the host. Airbnb will pay the host AFTER you checked in.

But Airbnb can cancel also with full refund, if their investigaton shows something is not right.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Isabelle623]

Hi Emiel,

Thanx for your message. Agree with you, but it just seems so bizarre that I was wondering what is the scam here? But I was uncomfortable as we intended to be there for a late check-in and if it wasn't a real place then finding a hotel would be almost impossible then.

Meanwhile Airbnb cancelled the reservation stating that the place did not meet their trust guidelines and issued a full refund.  So, thats over....but the search continues 😞

Regards,

Isabelle

[Nikolai12]

Glad thiS had a good ending. Hope you find another place.

[Emilia42]

@Isabelle623 can you post a link?

[Isabelle623]

Here goes -> 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/32580329?s=51

[Marit-Anne0]

@Isabelle623 

It looks like the listing has been taken down.  Probably a fake listing or something, at least something suspicious that you are lucky to have escaped.  

Look for listings with reviews - preferably from a Superhost.  

[Isabelle623]

I was so excited to find that listing that I booked without checking for reviews 😞 My fault....and I'm glad that I came out of it unscathed!

[Elena87]

@Isabelle623 

There was a spate of fake listings two years ago on airbnb - and other sites - specifically targetting the ski chalet market/ winter business.

The m.o. was to advertise copied glossy chalet photographs - at less than market value prices as a honey pot then to try to get potential bookers to pay offline.  It's big money for these chalets so lucrative for fraudsters. It seemed to have passed but like all frauds, they can pop up from time to time like whack-a-mole

Can't say what happened in your case, but doesn't seem to pass a sniff test.

It's a good point to remind people to be cautious. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5421545/The-FAKE-ski-chalet-websites-scamming...

[Isabelle623]

Thanx Elena,

This one was different. They emphasized that the payment would be done via Airbnb which is the weird thing. 

To explain properly, I booked and then re-read the description and realized that it mentions that we must send a mail to ensure that we have a confirmation....although Instant book was enabled and I got a confirmation already. So, I sent a mail and I got a reply which I paste below:

"Hi,
The property is available on your booking request.The price per night is €200, a security deposit of €500 is also required which is fully refundable the day you leave the property. In order to start the booking and all the arrangements I will need the following information from you.
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Adults:
First name:
Last name:
Full Address:
Special Requests on arrival:
The payment will be handled by Airbnb so they will release it to me only after you check in. As soon as I will have the requested info's from you I will start the process through Airbnb and you will get the booking confirmation.
Thank you"

Also, the security deposit was never mentioned on Airbnb. Still don't understand this scam!!

[Marit-Anne0]

@Isabelle623 scammers are clever.  I have seen reports that they send payment requests from a pretend-airbnb payment account.  As you never got as far as payment, you will never know.  Non-scammers would most likely have had Instant Book on with automatic payment through the site.

Mentioning payment at all is suspicious as the only thing needed would be for the host to accept your request, the payment is realeased to airbnb automatically and host and guest get a booking confirmation.  

[Susan17]

@Isabelle623 

You wrote "To explain properly, I booked and then re-read the description and realized that it mentions that we must send a mail to ensure that we have a confirmation"

Was the email address of this "host" visible in the listing description? If yes, then this is usual version of a scam that's been doing the rounds for years... guest emails host, as requested. "Host'/scammer now has guest email address, sends a response containing a link to an identical - but fake - Airbnb payment page, guest sends payment via dodgy Airbnb page. Game over. Guest loses. Scammer wins. 

If the "host" email address wasn't visible anywhere on the host profile, then that's a rather more tricky and cumbersome proposition for the scammer, as it depends on the guest not realising that Airbnb has already deducted the funds from their account at time of booking. A risky strategy, but given how little attention many guests pay to details, still totally doable. 

In response to a series of negative media reports a couple of years ago, about guests regularly being scammed on the platform, Airbnb claimed to be putting into place a myriad of new features to ensure that scammers could no longer exploit the platform’s lax security measures to use fake listings with the intention of robbing people of sensitive financial information. In April of 2017, the company announced that it had begun using artificial intelligence technology to help detect fake listings, and would delete them even before they could go live on the site.

Using a number of methods such as “host reputation, template messaging, duplicate photos and other discrepancies”, its machine learning algorithm supposedly flags listings that are likely to be fake and screens them for review before they can go live. However, despite this, fake listings and/or phishing scams are still commonplace on the platform. While Airbnb is now posting clear warnings on the site for guests not to communicate with hosts or make payments offsite, little appears to have been done to verify actual listing addresses. Booking dc, for example, sends out a verification code by regular  mail to each property, in order to confirm the listing address. Airbnb does not. (The exception to this of course, is the Airbnb Plus collection, whose listings are all visited in person by a photographer/checklist inspector) 

When booking as guest on Airbnb, always safest to do a reverse image search of a listing's pics first, to check if they pop up elsewhere. 

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/airbnb-fake-hosts-and-listings-2018-6

[Isabelle623]

Hi Susan,

You seem to have hit the nail on the head! The email was clearly visible....and I feel glad that I felt uncomfortable enough to raise it to ABB support. Whew....glad its over.