So is this a scam?

1

I had a 5 star guest with 4 reviews cancel then rebook late one night. They said it was “something to do with the App” which I said I had never heard of before. Though by “App” they might have meant “website” ie “Airbnb”. As Millenials use “App” interchangeably the way us old GenXers use “website” to mean the company who owns it.

Then they replied “I had credits in my account that they didn’t use for the payment and instead charged the card. So they asked me to cancel and pay in full with the credits and rebook.” The booking is between Xmas and NYE so a very busy time for me.

I wasn’t asked to pay anything or change the booking. It doesnt look particularly suspicious but scams are so devious these days I get paranoid any time there is a glitch in the Matrix. Anybody heard of this before or think it looks scammy?

2

On face value, it sounds like the guest thought the credits would automatically be applied to the booking, when the guest has to enter the credit code, I think. As far as some known scam, I’ve never heard of it.

What do you mean about a 2 week window for moderate? Guests can cancel for full refund up to 5 days before check-in.

2 Likes
3

I had to do the same exact thing last time I booked so I could use my credit. So I don’t think it’s a scam.

4

Oops you are right. And as the booking is for 26-30Dec they might indeed yet cancel without penalty. Last January (our peak Summer month) I had two week long bookings cancel just before the (then) 2 week penalty window commenced, like an hour before in one case. I got several shorter replacement bookings that made up for it but it is stressful. I’ve had one cancellation so far this Summer but it was 4 weeks before. I guess that’s the price of running an Airbnb!

5

thanks for letting me know.

1 Like
6

I removed that reference as it obviously doesn’t effect the refund policy which is based on the check in date not the booking date.

7

I just had someone cancel & rebook… coming from mainland China… exchange rate had changed considerably in her favour over a period of months. Arriving in January next month

1 Like
8

This sounds very much like a guest error. When you are making a payment for a booking you have the option to apply credits ie vouchers in this case against the payment.

It sounds like guest didn’t do this. Thus them being charged on the card. To be honest it would have clearly shown when they went to pay that their card was being charged, so they sound clueless rather than it being a scam.

1 Like
9

Let Airbnb deal with it

1 Like
10

hm… genXer here also software engineer. The app on the phone is legit, I have an Airbnb app on my phone from which I conduct business.

A website is not a company, but a software construct, a web application more precisely, so also an app but for the web, residing on a server somewhere that get loaded by a browser.

It is very possible that the guest in question might have had trouble using his credits when booking on the mobile app. The mobile app and the website (web app) are two different things, developed, possibly by two different sets of people. The design is not always intuitive and I had problems once with applying my credits for booking just like your guest. What I did I called CS and I booked through them.

You shouldn’t cancel, you shouldn’t do anything. It’s not your problem. You should tell them to call CS to help them with the booking. CS can cancel and rebook all they want.

1 Like