Tricked a scammer into canceling and he got no refund

I learned a lot on this forum about how to deal with refunds and potential scammers. Here is a positive story.

I had a booking from someone who didn’t show up. The next day he messaged saying he needs to postpone the trip due to an “emergency”. I told him to “please cancel so that I can get another booking and ask Airbnb for the refund”. He canceled and then contacted Airbnb support for a refund. Airbnb support asked me if I would like to refund and I told them to evaluate if his case qualifies for EC and refund as per the cancellation policy. It did not qualify for EC, so he got no refund. I thought if I have to take a loss and give him a refund, I might as well make him go through the process of submitting documentation for EC.

I got a written commitment from Airbnb that if he leaves a review it will be removed. The guest did not leave me a review.

Somehow guests have figured out a way to throw the word emergency to extract a refund from a host. I feel happy that I did not fall for this lie and got the payout.

Earlier I had offered a refund to some guests using the “issue refund” method. But that was a mistake. I’m not sure how easy Airbnb is to deal with as a guest, but given their reputation for lack of CS, I can’t imagine it would be fun for scammers to deal with them.

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“…another one bites the dust”. Way to go!

I am taking notes :slight_smile:

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As a recent guest who had issues with the place I stayed, Airbnb made me jump through hoops. I provided documentation and contacted the host less than 24 hours after check in. I think it took about 15 emails to get it resolved and in the end they ended up refunding me more than I requested. Go figure.

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Tricked a scammer into canceling and he got no refund

TBH, your topic title comes over almost as clickbait.

A guest didn’t show, tried to get a refund (human nature really), you were disingenuous in your response and Airbnb didn’t give him one.

Seriously, where is the “scammer” element?

JF

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Trying to trick me into giving him a refund using the “emergency” card. Airbnb found out that his “emergency” didn’t quality for extenuating circumstances. He was trying to scam me out of the payout that was due to me.