Read this BEFORE you pay on Airbnb!

I was looking for accommodation via Airbnb so I completed all the verification steps as requested including email verification as well as mobile phone verification, I then got the ”pay now” message, and I paid.  I then was allowed to book a place and I have done so. Then AFTER I booked the place and AFTER I paid for the place, surprisingly I got a ”just one more” verification process is required, a Drivers Licence – message. I followed instructions, tried to upload a pic of my Drivers Licence but couldn’t, I tried (as per instructions on the screen) to place in front of the Web cam and again could not do so – for four (4) hours. So basically I lost my money.

I googled the review section of Airbnb and looks like losing money and time and being ”transferred” to another agent/department and other horror stories from Airbnb is common. With me it is only money gone to the garbage bin, oh and half a day attempting to upload a picture of the Driver’s Licence.  I am not against the DL verification, I am against asking for it AFTER the payment is done – this is where I lost my money, if the verification request had been BEFORE the payment, I would never have paid – oh and there is nobody to talk to, nobody to contact.  Smart Airbnb, tricked me into this sh@#t/  So after posting this, they suddenly got back to me with ”regarding your offline ID, our system was unable to accept it because the image you uploaded was a mirror image of the ID” Well, first of all you are missing my point, why the payment was made BEFORE completion of the verification process, payment should be the very LAST thing to do. Hasn’t your Web Master heard the term ”process flow”??  Deliberately and intentionally placing additional processes and verifications especially those that not possible to fulfill AFTER payment is done clearly indicates to me that those verification steps are there to avoid providing the services – just grab the money and run. So I was robed inside my own house in broad day light!

In regard to the process itself, well the web message was to ”place the ID in FRONT of the web cam” – and you DELIBERATELY asked me to create a mirror image – which your web ”can’t read” – in one word it’s called a ”scam”! There was NO mention or error displayed at the time stating that the problem was ”MIRROR” imaging, the only message coming up was to place the Drivers Licence in front of the Web Cam and take a shot – which I did for 4 hours continuously. SCAM SCAM SCAM!

I don’t think the Australian Government should permit this sort of Internet Scam to operate and a draft letter to key parliament members is now finished and is about to be sent – I will be requesting to outlaw Airbnb – DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH AIRBNB – THEY COULD BE FORCED TO CLOSE ANY TIME NOW!!!!!!

The Psycho Airbnb Host of Cyprus

My girlfriend and I saw a beautiful wooden bungalow on Airbnb in the mountains of Paphos Cyrpus, and it was called the Zen bungalow, so we thought, it must be very silent there and clean and nice and if its zen the owner must be a cool guy, he advertised as a nice surfer and etc. We wanted to rent for 3 months the entire house as we needed to stay in Cyprus to do a course. We rented, he made us a price and my partner and son went first, they arrived late and he was waiting, they got into the house and it was covered in sand, he apologized saying that they had a sand storm 3 days ago and he hoped she didn’t mind then he left. The beds had no bedsheets, so she looked into the drawers and they were smelling very bad, so she texted him and he said it had new one somewhere else. Anyways he left all his toiletries in the toilet and all his dirty laundry too which we thought he will come back to pick it up. The beautiful hot tube he advertised and showed in the picture was the drain for the dirty water of the washing machine, when he took a picture he cut that part, so we couldn’t use it because it was disgusting, plus all his 12 pair of shoes were sitting in the area in our faces. Next morning the garden was a dump for construction stuff. The view was beautiful, we had two chicken barns in the garden and the smells would blow inside the house, he came to visit and was demanding that we feed the chickens and water the garden, and we had asked him before hand if there were animals around, he said no. He kept coming to the house unannounced and entering my girlfriend’s bedroom, the veranda was made of glass so one can see inside from the garden and she kept hearing people in the garden while she was still asleep, he even mention that he wanted to build a swimming pool so he would be working in the garden. We told him we rented the house to have privacy. Once the electricity was gone, we didn’t know what to do or where the electric box was located, and he replied in the text that he is not the electrical authority of Cyprus. He came over again and told us to keep the windows shut otherwise the wind can destroy them, he also advertised air conditioning and it only had a very weak one in the bedroom and boy Cyprus can be very hot and we asked him about it he just answered: open the window. Right so we had hot wind coming in. We didn’t know what to do as we had booked for all this time, by then we were feeding chickens and taking care of his garden, we felt sorry for the chickens, we even bought them food because he kept ignoring our messages. Then one day up he is again and we always turn of all lights in the night, that last night my girlfriend heard a noise so she asked me to leave one light out on, so I did, and because we were not used to we forgot it on, it was a saving bulb the ones that are very light and one can’t see in the day if its kitten or not, he saw it and started to be very rude, so this time we answered, he said he wanted to come inside the house because he wanted to see if we were keeping his house clean, I say of course we are and no, please we want privacy, so he grabbed me violently and I had a broken arm at the time, to come in and I told him I would call the police because he keeps trying to get in a house he rented for us and its illegal, plus he is only doing it because we are two girls. So he left, we were afraid of him as he hurt my arm. We called airbnb, they took us away from there and found us another place for 3 days, they said they would help to rehouse us, but they left the whole thing in our hands, to deal with people or find another place, they gave us a coupon only and we cancelled the whole thing. We found very nice house on booking.com where they are credit and checked, we had wonderful next 2 months in amazing house, clean and nice with a normal host, a very polite, nice man that was always asking if we needed anything, left us alone and happy, so we left there with inherit broken as we felt in love with the place, the house was spotless, and had all we needed also the silence and tidiness. AirBnB doesn’t check their hosts and doesn’t know what goes on. But at least they took us away from the Zen psycho of Paphos.