London Scam

[Allison745]

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Booked a home months ago in London (Chelsea area) and host cancelled last night (One week prior to our arrival from the US). We received no communication just a cancellation email. After inquiring several times the host claimed the home suffered severe damage. Something didn’t sound right and in our search for a new house we found he relisted the same home with an increased price.  Luckily I was able to take snapshots and contact Airbnb. This “super host” should suffer consequences. These people give Airbnb a bad name!  Thank you host Tom for screwing up our well planned lodging and making this family scramble to find last-minute accommodations. 

**[Identifiable listing image removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines- Please note that is not allowed to post a listing unless posted by a listing owner due to privacy concerns]

[Jennifer311]

sorry that happened to you. That’s reprehensible.

good sleuthing on your part, finding out what he really did.

he should lose his super host status for doing a cancellation like that. Since it’s clear he was lying.

please update and let us know if it appears the host suffers any consequences, or what the response in the end is.

you may need to ask them to “escalate” it

also, I think there is somewhere where you can click on a link to “report this listing” or something like that, in addition to speaking directly to higher-up people than the scripted ones 

[Allison745]

We did report the The listing via a link and spoke to Airbnb on the phone and they sent us a message requesting both property links which we sent them to prove that it was the same property. I think at this point we’ve done everything & I feel like he should not even be on the platform. Completely ridiculous ..I guess he thought we were stupid. 😏

[Allison745]

Is there a better group or message thread that I can post on to let people know what this host put us through? My goal is to warn other people and have him removed but most of all to warn other people.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Allison745 sadly I fear you have done all you can to warn people. There is another strange thing about this host. He is a superhost which suggests he has been listing for a while and yet the property has no reviews. This suggests he has had a bad review on the property or has had the property blocked (because he cancelled) and has relisted it to hide/get around the issue.

At least exposing these practices will allow guests to ask the right questions in future. so keep up the good work.

[Shelley159]

The way I understand it @Mike-And-Jane0 , the host canceled @Allison745 's booking in hope of being able to get a higher price. I think the host wasn't aware of the severity of the penalties, especially that the calendar would remain blocked. So the host then deleted the listing and made a new one to be able to open the calendar.

Now the listing links have been sent to Airbnb - the new listing will be flagged as a duplicate. The host will likely lose Superhost in the next assessment period due to the cancelation.

@Allison745 you can just sit back ans watch this one play out ... this behaviour by a host is absolutely not tolerated.

[Tamara1052]

We are dealing with the same situation but with a different host.  We booked a place 6 months ago for our upcoming trip this coming Tuesday. We reached out to the host Ana, to see if we could drop our bags off before check in and quite shocked when she replied that she was glad we reached out to her because the place wasn’t going to  be available but that she had another property just 10 minutes away we could book. Keep in mind we’re traveling in two days soIn a moment of panic, we took her up on her offer and rebooked  her other property.  After having an hour or so to think things over and time for the initial shock to wear  off, we realized  the new place wasn’t going to  be big enough and it wasn’t going be near all the things we needed to be near. When We asked if we could cancel since we had only rebooked a few hours earlier and because of her situation,  she advised that since it was us that chose to cancel this time she would not be refunding us and has now stopped  communicating with
Airbnb has been less than helpful and clearly cares more about the almighty dollar than making sure their guests don’t get scammed.  

I guess host Anna was able to quickly remedy whatever issue she was having because the property is showing as available.  
We had a friend reach out about booking the place and Anna quickly responded that it is indeed available.  When the friend  inquired a little more and asked for a few more details, she confessed that she couldn’t offer this property but had another she could offer.  So the bait and switch  appears to be her routine/MO,.    After looking at her reviews , Prudence from Clearwater FL complained about having the same issue with Ana. 

Unfortunately, for both us and Prudence , we fell prey to Ana’s scam and Air Bnb has no intention of correcting the  situation. 
If we were just talking $1000  we would probably just call it a learning lesson and move on but we have now invested $6000 in an Airbnb due to bait and switch tactics…. Buyer beware of Ana in SOHO London

it seems there will be zero consequences for this host and I have no doubt they are aware of what she’s been doing, but don’t care because no one complains and just deals with it and as long as they’re making their money at the end of the day, that’s all they care about .  

[Shelley159]

@Tamara1052 as you now know, you should've told the host to cancel the original booking if it wasn't available. The host then gets fined, the calendar remains blocked, they have a substantial chance of not qualifying for Superhost in the next quarter, and (worst of all) the listing takes a hit in search results.

Keep an open case on this with Support, and be sure to hit "Report this listing".