Not AirBNB’s fault

The Herald reports:

A family paid $17,000 for an Airbnb rental only to arrive at the doorstep with their suitcases to discover the listing was fake.

Police are investigating but say their hands are tied because the family paid by an international bank transfer to a third party.

The family is one of several who’ve lost substantial amounts of money through the scam which lures victims through the popular booking website but then asks guests to veer from the usual payment system.

Amaia Ros, 19, and her family are echoing calls for Airbnb to improve host vetting after their family lost years of savings while on a sabbatical from their native Barcelona, in Auckland.

It’s awful for the family, but blaming AirBNB is unfair. It is impossible for AirBNB to verify every listing, just as it is impossible for EBay to verify everything listed with them.

The trick is to follow the rules. If you only pay through AirBNB, then you can’t get ripped off as they hold your money for you. And when you pay a purported host directly you are in fact ripping off AirBNB because direct payments mean they don’t get their commission.

When Ros’ parents Gabriel and Anabel tried to book the Takapuna home they were told their credit card details were invalid and asked to transfer funds to a Spanish bank account instead. When they arrived at the house they discovered the listing was fake.

Again never pay direct and especially don’t pay to an overseas account. Also look for the history of any person listing.

Quickly an army of parents and community members rallied to donate a house full of furniture and a discounted rental home organised by Harcourts agent Rachael Bridger.

Parents took turns cooking and dropping off dinners for the grateful family, who have recently returned to Spain.

Great Kiwi hospitality.

The HoS editorial blames AirBNB for people not following its rules:

The company cannot afford too many of these incidents. It clearly needs better systems to ensure everyone offering accommodation on its site has the property they claim to own.

And it needs to develop a way to automatically jettison any offering that involves payment to or through any agency except itself.

 

That is how the family from Barcelona were scammed. When they booked the Takapuna house they were told to pay through a Spanish bank account.

That is already against Airbnb’s rules but how many users know it?

If they pay through a third party rather than Airbnb they violate its terms and are not eligible for refunds.

They’re not eligible for refunds as Airbnb doesn’t have the money to refund it.

If you pay a host directly you are actually ripping off AirBNB, so expecting them to refund you for ripping them off is rather unrealistic.