Group of friends lost £2.2k in Airbnb scam when they turned up to chalet in Austria that DIDN’T EXIST
Mirjam Klijnsma and her group arrived at the Airbnb property on New Year's Eve to find that it didn't exist
A GROUP of friends who booked a skiing trip in Austria were left out in the cold when they arrived at the address of their Airbnb to find an ordinary residential home, rather than the luxury chalet they were expecting.
It quickly became obvious that they had been the victims of a scam, after the homeowner told them that her property was not listed on the peer-to-peer accommodation site and she had no idea what was going on.
A couple of months' prior, Mirjam Klijnsma and her friend Muriel Ramakers, both from The Netherlands, had planned a skiing trip to Lech, Austria, for a group of their friends, which included six adults and five children.
The flights were booked, and when looking for accommodation on Airbnb, they found a beautiful, modern chalet, which had a gym and an indoor swimming pool.
Muriel and the chalet's "owner" began discussing the group's stay through the Airbnb messaging system, but the host then claimed that there was a messaging system failure, and that they should conduct the rest of their conversation via email.
After emailing back and forth, payment of USD 2,800 (£2,250) for a week's stay was agreed.
But, the host said the official Airbnb payment system wasn't working, so asked that the money be transferred via bank transfer.
Muriel agreed to pay the money this way, but as soon as it was received they heard nothing more from the property's owner.
Nonetheless, the group made the trip to Austria, excited for a week of skiing in the exclusive resort of Lech am Arlberg.
Mirjam told The Sun Online: "Looking back on it, we were probably being naive for not suspecting the Airbnb host when they asked for payment outside of the official platform, but at the time they were sending us images of the property and even sent booking confirmation so it seemed legitimate to us.
"Airbnb should make their warnings about paying outside of its official platform clearer, as I had no idea we could be scammed in this way."
When the group arrived at their chalet's address on the afternoon of December 31, and realised that the listing had been fake, they went to the tourist office to desperately try and find a hotel for the week.
As it was New Year's Eve, most hotels were booked up and those that weren't were charging a premium for booking at such short notice.
Mirjam said they finally found a place to stay and had a "wonderful" holiday, but ended up thousands of pounds out of pocket after paying for a fake Airbnb property and having to fork out extra for last-minute accommodation.
"The whole situation was obviously very upsetting, being with five children and finding out that the chalet we had booked didn't exist.
"At the time we had no idea if we would be able to find anywhere else to stay at such short notice.
"We had a wonderful holiday anyway, but Airbnb should take responsibility for these scams. Instead, it hasn't helped at all and hasn't reimbursed us the cost of the accommodation," Mirjam said.
Airbnb claims to conduct identity checks on all of its members, but Mirjam says she questions what these checks are - as the host of her fake chalet re-listed the same property a few weeks later, using the same pictures but under different host names.
It was only after Mirjam flagged the listing that Airbnb took it down, she says.
A spokesman for Airbnb said: "We are saddened by this incident and are making contact with the guest to provide our support. We have also removed this host from our community.
"Over 150 million people have travelled on Airbnb and negative incidents are extremely rare."
The scam is almost identical to one The Sun Online reported about earlier this week, when a businessman booked a villa in Ibiza and paid the “owner” £3,371 for a nine-night stay for his family, sending the money by bank transfer because the owner had told him Airbnb’s payment system was broken.
The whole thing turned out to be a scam but Airbnb refused to cough up the cash.
How to spot a fake Airbnb listing
IT can be very difficult to spot a fake listing, as they're designed to be as realistic as possible, with genuine photos - that have been stolen from elsewhere - and extensive descriptions. As with anything, if the price is too good to be true, it probably is.
Although Airbnb accomodation can be cheap, fake listings will usually be below other prices for similar accomodation in the area.
- If a host is too keen, too pushy, or offering big discounts, be wary.
- Check the photos to see how professional they look. Most hosts won't use a professional photographer and will take the images themselves, but if the picture has an “Airbnb.com verified photo” watermark in the top right corner of the photographs it means that one of the firm's professional photographers has been to the listing and taken the pics themselves
- Always read the reviews on a listing - if they're at all negative or suspiscious, avoid
- If a host asks you to discuss payment over personal email or pay outside of the Airbnb website, report the host to Airbnb immediately.
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