Everything I do is in good faith. Given that, I try not to cross over platforms or anything like that and I do not take platform bookings and try to convert them to private bookings to save a few bucks. That's just now how I work. But I am on 2 platforms because for the first month, I didn't get any bookings.
What that has gotten me is one scam on ABB to 5 scams on VRBO.
My 1st and only booking from VRBO is this weekend. They seem like lovely people. They are also family and the biggest booking I've ever had. We'll see what the condition of my place is when they leave. But I love the family vibe.
Anyway, out of the blue VRBO sent me a prepaid, IB for end of June through all of July from a guy who said it's him and his daughter working on a project where I work and she's interning before going back to college.
I look him up, he's the CEO of a what appears to be a solid company that won a contract from a federal agency with which I'm very familiar.
Here's the sketch:
He's only acknowledging a couple of my questions and his answers are really brief (fine, engineers and scientists - especially ones who are mucky mucks can be very arrogant). BTW he didn't tell me who he was, I found it from his email address. His profile is simply new in 2022 and VRBO doesn't allow hosts to see guests' reviews (I don't get that at all).
Anyway, so he half (if that) responds to my ?s (and there are like 3 questions seriously) on the IB chain. Then on an inquiry chain he starts asking about bedroom windows, which I assure him I just put in brand new windows to bring it up to code and for emergency exits. Then, on the same inquiry he asks for pictures inside and out. By now I'm starting to catch on to the difference between the threads.
I return to the IB thread and tell him everything he wants to know he can find on my ABB profile (because VRBO simply limits info & esp pics way more than ABB). I also told him I was extremely uncomfortable with the difference in threads and therefore, please scan and send me his ID.
Lastly, I told him I require this because I am concerned the CEO of this company or me or both could be getting scammed.
I mean his questions make no sense. I get asking about the windows, as someone whose grown up in real estate and managed properties it's a big deal legally for what you can all a bedroom. But for a scientist/engineer, owner of a growing company, what? Beyond safety, wth? Plus he asked for pics of the inside AND outside of the windows. That just doesn't even make sense. Why would anyone care about both sides of my windows.
I'm so upset that this is a much bigger scam then the 'my company pays for my vacation'. This one actually says he's prepaid for 34 days (and I have a 28 day limit or so I thought). In the meantime, the hottest dates of the year are blocked.
Help please? Who does that?