I have booked an accommodation via airbnb with the thought of using their payment booking procedure. An email, which looked like it was generated by airbnb was send to my personal email (linked to airbnb) within 15 minutes of when I requested the booking.
The email from '[email protected]' was send to my personal email address, which only airbnb must have got, and this email looked all legit with banking details provided and a airbnb guarantee included. Bank details:
ACCOUNT: Air Incorp London
BANK: Barclays Bank Plc (All U. K Offices)
ADDRESS: 127 Abbots Drive, Wembley, HA0 3SH, London
IBAN: GB61 BARC 2091 7963 8993 81
SWIFT CODE/BIC (Bank Identifier Code): BARCGB22
Once the money was transferred to this UK bank account from our Dutch bank account I received another email 24 hours later from '[email protected]' that they money was received and the booking was confirmed.
I had already contact with the host regarding specific property details, birthday arrangements for my father, via SMS, email and via the message system of airbnb. A few days later, after many excuses from the host why she didn’t manage to call me I thought it became very suspicious. Contact airbnb to ask for the opinion, and I was informed by an airbnb telephone staff; "sorry this is a hoax, we have removed the property from our website, we are sorry". And that’s it, the property listing on airbnb was removed and the phone no. Of the host does not anymore reply.
We are now in the process of getting the money back from the Barclay bank in London, however, chances are small we will ever see our 10.070 euro family holiday savings back!
THE WORST of the story – Airbnb DOES NOT feel any responsibility, and does not do anything to help you!
SO I SUGGEST – NEVER BOOK VIA AIRBNB, their website is way to fraud sensitive, as they don’t do any background checks on host’s that display properties on their website. They don’t even check the address of the building location! I did a new search today, found 4 frauds within minutes!
I even start to doubt if there is a dark side within Airbnb, because how do I know if they don’t just use their website platform to hide their true money making business? You never know people… this I can’t prove but still makes me wonder..
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