Is this type of Hosts a scam?

1

Hello,
I want to find an Apartment on Airbnb for Amsterdam and I don’t know, but some Hosts looks like scam to me.
First one was a beautiful Aparment in City Center for 6 Person and only costs 250€ per Night, there was a picture which said “I can’t update my calender on Airbnb please contact me on mail: mary@wutbnb.nl” and the hosts changes in one week three times. He answerd my mail with

Hi,

The property is available on your booking request. The price per night is €250,
a security deposit of €500 is also required which is fully refundable the day
you leave the property. In order to start the booking and all the arrangements
I will need the following information from you.

Arrival
Date:

Departure Date:

Adults:

First name:

Last name:

Country:

A Link to your Airbnb profile:

Special Requests on arrival:

The payment will be handled by Airbnb so they
will release it to me only after you check in. As soon as I will have the
requested info’s from you I will start the process through Airbnb and you will
get the booking confirmation.

Thank
you

So yesterday I requestet a other Aparment, again underpriced and she respond to my Airbnb massage with:

I m traveling and the app is not displaying your message there is an address written on the last picture of the property send your requests there I will replay ASAP
Thanks

And later on mail:

Hi
Tobs,

The property is still available for the specified dates.

The price is 300 Usd / night for the entire property plus 400 Usd security
deposit which you will receive back in the same day you will check out of the
property the booking and the payment will be made thru Airbnb. How does the
Airbnb payment system work?

Airbnb’s payment system is designed to make transferring money between guests
and hosts as simple and reliable as possible. Here’s how it works:

Guests pay Airbnb when they book a place

Airbnb releases the money to hosts 24 hours after the guest checks in

Using Airbnb’s payment system is required to make a reservation, and it helps
ensure that both parties are protected under our Terms of Service, cancellation
policies, Guest Refund Policy, and other safeguards. Paying outside the Airbnb
system is not secure, and we cannot provide access to these benefits when
reservations aren’t booked directly through Airbnb.

I need the following details to pre-approve your booking with Airbnb and after
I will pre-pprove you then you can proceed with the payment on Airbnb

Arrival:

Departure:

Adults:

Children:

First name:

Last name:

Address:

City:

Post Code:

Country:

Contact Number:

Copy of a pictured ID

Thanks

She wants the same information than the Host on the other one.
Is this normal or a scam?

I found it out by myself, its a scam. The aparment ist in France https://www.airbnb.de/rooms/11235466

2

If this listing is still active, my guess is it won’t be for long. It is 100% against Air’s policy to allow guests to contact you before a confirmed booking. So having phone numbers and/or email address’s in photos is not allowed. I would NEVER book this way as you are now not covered by any of Air’s policies which protect you and the host.

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3

You should see if this advertisement has comments from other guests or not. If yes, how long, how often is that. It is normal that the hosts ask your information to check if you are safe for his house or if you have enough money or if your culture is not tolerable for him/ her.

What really a scam is that, some people make a link such as payment-airbnb.com and ask you to transfer money…it is not airbnb but a fake. So you will never get your room and lose your money too. Something very cheap you must be careful about it. Your booking can be canceled at last minute too because human are greedy. You want cheap room, the host will more money, so host like to do overbooking…which means they accept your booking, but accept the people who offer more money too and finanlly cancel your booking…People do a lot in hotels and privateappartments in big cites. And do be care of the apartments which are not illegelly for leasing or renting like in Paris, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich. It is possible that the booking will be canceled at last minute.

4

airbnb has always scrubbed out email addresses, links, and phone numbers in all communication before booking, and even after the stay is complete. How are they getting the information through? I would call airbnb.

5

They slipped it into one of the photos.

6

And now it is gone. Au revoir!

1 Like
7

this is terible did you report it to Airbnb?

8

@AirbnbNumeroUno Are you going to revive every single thread from the last year?

4 Likes