Deposit Scam: Cancelled Within Four Minutes

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I was looking to book a place close to home for my wife and I while we had renovations done on our house. This is when I came across this host’s place. I went through the request process and paid. Just as I did, I noticed that it did not suit my needs, as it was only a room in a shared house.

I quickly cancelled (within four minutes) my request to stay. Then I received an email for the cancellation and another one for the credit. This is when I saw I was only getting back 50% of my money. I tried contacting the host to explain what I had done in error. He said: “No problem, just cancel.”

I told him that I did. He then stated that it was the cancellation policy to keep half. I called Airbnb and they said it was up to the host. This host has no morals at all. I did speak to a nice girl from Airbnb and she is trying to help me. If she is unable to help me I am out $2300 dollars. All because this host has no soul. Please avoid dealing with him.

Posted in Airbnb Guest Stories and tagged , , , , , .

8 Comments

  1. How long ago was that and was in outside of the US? All Airbnb over here you can cancel within 48 hours for 100% refund.

  2. I have sympathy for your plight but it seems almost impossible to confuse a house or apartment with a single room. Did you read through the description and review the photos?

  3. Absolutely, this is to avoid flaky ‘guests’ getting away with whimsical behaviour. Join a basic reading skills course:)

  4. Not necessarily. All major airlines allow you to cancel without penalty within 72 hours of booking. If, as this poster claims, he was only booked for 4 minutes before he contacted the host then I think a 50% penalty is ridiculous, especially if the host is able to rebook. It’s my understanding that through the resolution center you can contact the host for a full refund (don’t call the host a “scammer” 🙂 ). Hopefully he will accept. Obviously it pays to fully read a listing and be more careful going forward. You have some responsibility in this loss as well, but not to the tune of $2,300.

  5. Are you stupid Dalma? Four minutes and the host gets 23p0 hundred dollars? That’s disgusting, this isnt an airline. I hope the guest takes this host to court and brands his name across every platform

  6. Hi, I’m afraid you’re in the wrong here. It is not the host or Airbnb fault if a costumer goes through every validation step and pay without checking anything. Many processes do not allow cancellation, just try to book a flight the same way and you’re in for a bad surprise.

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