VACATION RENTAL PROBLEMS AND SCAMS

These are the real-life stories of travelers who have encountered dramatic and expensive vacation rental problems or scams and asked our consumer advocacy team for help. From bad hosts to outright scammers and everything in between, we tell the real-life experiences of vacation rental guests and Consumer Rescue’s efforts to fix their problems.

Palm Springs is the location of an Airbnb host who seems to have tried a bait and switch vacation rental scheme.

My Airbnb host pulled a $13,314 bait and switch on me. Help!

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Isaac Chambers says an Airbnb host just hit him with an expensive bait and switch scam of sorts. After you hear his troubling story, you’ll likely agree.

Many months after Chambers booked the perfect vacation rental for his wedding party, his Airbnb host abruptly canceled the reservation. Citing “synchronization” issues as the cancellation reason, the management company suggested several undesirable replacement properties in Palm Springs. 

Now just two months before his wedding, Chambers’ group has nowhere to stay. That is unless they want to rent the exact same Airbnb vacation rental with this host – for an additional $13,341. 

So what are those “synchronization” issues that allowed the host to cancel this Airbnb and relist it at a much higher rate? That’s what Chambers is asking Consumer Rescue to find out.

An Airbnb nightmare: NYC vacation rental problems.

An Airbnb nightmare: Am I looking at blood stains in the bed?

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Koji Kawana and his family were looking forward to an exciting five days in New York City. The group had a tight schedule with plenty of activities planned. What they hadn’t planned for is the Airbnb nightmare that was about to confront them.

Now Kawana wants to know: Shouldn’t Airbnb refund him for this nightmare of a vacation rental?

Filthy garbage outside a vacation rental

A filthy vacation rental is not my thing! How do I get a refund?

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When an Airbnb host directs Andrea Walker to use the service elevator in the building where she is renting an apartment, she’s slightly suspicious. However, when she opens the door to the unit, she knows she definitely won’t be staying. The Airbnb host apologizes for the state of the filthy vacation rental and quickly agrees to a refund. 

So why does the host later tell Airbnb that Walker spent the whole weekend at the property?

An advertisement for a long term rental on TripAdvisor turns out to be a scam.

I lost $1,721 in the “TripAdvisor” long term rental scam!

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TripAdvisor is not in the business of long term rentals, so if you come across one on the site, it’s surely a scam. But first-time apartment hunter, Haley Cline was unaware of this fact.

When a friendly “TripAdvisor-approved owner” emailed her about a spectacularly discounted year-long rental, no alarm bells went off. The scam only came into focus after Cline sent her initial $1,721 deposit via Bitcoin to the online predator.

A row of vacation rental homes on a beach illustrating an article about a missing security deposit refund.

My vacation rental host won’t refund my security deposit. Is this a scam?

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Can a vacation rental host refuse to refund your security deposit — no questions asked? I discovered the answer from one unreasonable VRBO host is, “Yes, I can.”

I have news for her: No, she can’t.

This story is another in our file of outrageous tales of travelers being fleeced by vacation rental hosts and franchise hotels alike. These owners are helping themselves to hundreds and even thousands of dollars of their guests’ money with little to no justification. And unfortunately, the cases are piling up at an alarming rate.

Airbnb host account hit by hackers. How did a hacker steal $34,250 from an Airbnb host ?

Hackers stole $34,250 from this Airbnb host. How did this happen?

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Airbnb host Nancy Isa recently got a terrible shock when she discovered hackers had broken into her payout account. Unfortunately, by the time she noticed something was wrong, Airbnb had been making regular payments to the scammers – for five months.

In total, the hackers stole $34,250 from Nancy’s Airbnb host account. 

Then things went from bad to worse. With all that money on the line, Nancy contacted the listing giant in a panic. She was hoping for some calming reassurance that all was not lost. Instead, Airbnb immediately locked the host out of her own account and then went radio silent. 

That’s when Nancy reached out to the Consumer Rescue team. She’s hoping we can convince Airbnb to give back her access to her host account – and her $34,250.

But after six months, is that possible?