Legitimate Listing?

[Cassie236]

First time using Airbnb, so naturally am weary of scammers. I would also be driving a long distance for this trip, so cannot afford any type of scamming nonsense. Can anyone help me out with determining if this booking is legit? I apologize if posting the link isn't allowed, but I cannot afford to waste my families and I's time, energy, and money. 

Odd things that have came up:

The reservation confirmation itself came from a legit email domain from Airbnb, but a sketchy email address was cc'd: **** 

I got a text message (to my personal phone) asking to send a photo of myself holding up my drivers license. I called and asked about this and they said this was sent accidentally, and that typically, they only ask for ID verification if the trip was booked in less than 7 days (and that part is true, my trip is booked in less than 7 days).  they told me to disregard. 

The place only has one review (and it's a good one). The host has had a profile for 8 years, and has reviews on their other properties, but only one review on this listing. Anything odd about that? 

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*[Link removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Elisa]

Hi @Cassie236 😊, 

Thank you so much for sharing this here!

Were you able to find out if it was a legitimate listing?

I'm tagging a few experienced hosts who might have helpful advice on this: @Joan2709, @Shelley159, @Dave-and-Deb0 and @Helen3.

Thank you in advance, everyone!

Warm regards 🌻,

[Cassie239]

@Elisa, thank you for taking the time to respond! My family and I ended up going and things turned out great. The house was clean and exactly as described 🙂 to avoid paranoia in the future, I will stick to listings that have tons of reviews and are hosted by super hosts. 

[Elisa]

Hi @Cassie236 😊,  

Thank you so much for letting me know!

I’m happy to hear the experience was great for you 😍

Reviews are definitely a good way to tell if a listing is legit, and feel free to double-check anything with other hosts here anytime.

Warm regards 🌻,

[Shelley159]

Hi @Cassie236 - as you suspected the link to the listing was not allowed and has now been deleted.

I clicked the link earlier today before it was deleted and noticed that the host (I think it looked like a property management company?) had a 4.59 rating from over 3000 reviews. That's really not at all a good score by Airbnb standards ...

[Cassie239]

Hi Shelley. Thank you so much for taking the time to review the link and respond. This is the last time I will book at the last minute if I can avoid it 🙂 my family and I ended up going and things actually turned out pretty great. I was skeptical if the listing was fake or a scam, because of the text message thing I mentioned in my original post, and other really odd things that they did. I could go on and on about some of the strange things that they did, that led me to even questioning the legitimacy of the listing. I think that the property management company has really strange or outdated systems. Example - they asked for a rental agreement which I figured was normal. I filled it out but there was no way to submit the agreement or even download it. I called and asked them “how can I send you all the signed agreement” and to my surprise, they claimed they already received it (?) I was like… how could you have received something I never sent to you? Then they clarified that once you fill it out, it automatically sends to their system which I just found to be odd. So with that said, I asked them to send me a copy of the allegedly signed agreement and they did not send it to me. I called and asked MULTIPLE times, and no one sent it to me. I found it very skeptical that they wouldn’t send me a copy of the agreement. Like, I need proof of the signed agreement to cover myself you know? They eventually sent it to me but it was just a very odd situation. Their customer service is shaky (which probably is the reason for the subpar reviews) but the home itself thankfully was clean and exactly as described. 

[Shelley159]

Thank you for updating us @Cassie239 - very often we don't know how things turn out in the end! 

Sounds like the host has a great property and the management company is good at managing cleaning, despite some weird admin. Glad you had a good time.