- Report: #1105170
Complaint Review: AirBnb - Internet
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Author Not Confirmed
Why?
AirBnb
Internet, USA
Web:
www.airbnb.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
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AirBnb A Platform for Scam Rentals?
Take a minute to visit the AirBnb website. Try renting a chalet in a ski resort. Try Crans Montana, Verbier, Klosters or Zermatt in Switzerland or even Megeve in France for example.
Your first reaction will be of great surprise. You will find great chalets available for as low as 500 € / night. You initially think that there must be a mistake somewhere. However you look at the other chalets available and you realize that there are at least five or six available for the dates you have chosen in each of the resorts and all of them at the same price, give or take 200 €.
So what would a normal, intelligent person think? If I found one chalet with a suspiciously low price, I would be very cautious and assume there is something strange about that offer. However, if I am seeing that I have the option of at least 5 or 6 chalets for that price in each of the ski resorts that I search, I then logically assume that it must be real. I am of course assuming that AirBnb is a serious, reliable website and consequently assume that all of those listings illustrate the actual market price for a weekly rental in a ski resort.
You decide to give it some thought and consult with your partner or family which chalet to rent. A couple of hours later you receive an email from AirBnb. They have noticed that you were particularly interested in one of the chalets and ask you if you are interested in renting it. The email comes from an email ending in @airbnb.com. Nothing particularly strange about this. Typical e-marketing. Similar to when you look at, for example, Trip Advisor and it gives you promotions for the destinations you consulted during a previous visit to the website. Again, you think nothing of it.
You finally decide to rent a chalet. You log onto AirBnb and choose "contact the owner" as you wish to confirm the availability and the number of rooms with kingsize or twin beds. They send you an email confirming the availability and price plus the Airbnb fee and tell you that the payment must be done via Airbnb.
Shortly thereafter you receive an email from the same email ending in @airbnb.com that sent you the emarketing earlier on. The email confirms that you have reserved the chalet and indicates the bank details for the wire transfer, clearly stating that the bank account is in the name of AirBnb. You trust Airbnb (why wouldn't you? you have read about them in the papers and in travel magazines), you assume they are a serious company and you make the wire transfer. And suddenly the owner is no longer answering your emails and your booking is not listed anywhere on AirBnb. Guess what? You have just lost 4.000 € !
What does AirBnb answer to this?
1. That you should not contact the owner directly but simply click on "Book" on their webpage. Then why do they have a button on the listing of each property that says "Conctact the Owner" ???
2. Airbnb tells you that you shouldn't trust any email received from addresses ending in @airbnb.com. That is the equivalent of booking a ticket on Air France and the airline telling you to disregard any email coming from @airfrance.com !!! Totally absurd. Had the email come from an email ending in @hotmail.com or something similar indeed it would be logical to assume that there is something strange. But the emails are coming from @airbnb.com ! How can Airbnb tell you not to trust emails that carry their own address?
Furthermore, you had previously received other e-marketing emails from that same email address asking whether you wanted to book that particular chalet that you had been viewing earlier on.
Conclusion. This is a scandal worthy of making the headlines. Dozens of fake chalets listed on Airbnb (I have only consulted Switzerland so I can assume that it is the same case elsewhere in which case we would be talking of hundreds, maybe thousands of fake listings).
One must assume therefore that a significant part of Airbnb's revenues come from fake listings. In other words, Airbnb facilitates scams.
One can also assume that Airbnb lacks any control whatsoever over their emails given that, according to Airbnb, you should beware of an email coming from @airbnb.com.
