Did We Almost Get Scammed in Vietnam?
Sooooo... Let me start by saying that this may have been more of a misunderstanding than someone deliberately trying to scam us, buuuuuuut, we've been around, been burned, and normally when our guts say something is wrong, we are right.
Story time:
Cole and I rely on Airbnb for about 99% of our accommodations, so we are very accustomed to working with hosts and navigating the platform. Well, we booked our latest stay for one month in Vietnam a couple days ago, as we just received our Visa approval letters from the Vietnamese government. I messaged the host before hand, letting her know that we would be landing early in the morning, and were wondering if early check-in was an option, or if we should book the day before as well to guarantee that we can get into the space. She said the only way to guarantee we could get in right away would be to book the day before. This was completely reasonable, so we did. One day after our booking was approved by the host, and our credit card was charged, she sent me a message saying that the apartment we booked was no longer available, and that she had another apartment available for us. I took a look at the listing (which I had to search for a bit), and realized the price was about double the apartment we originally booked. As explained in my Tokyo post, we have a budget that we are determined to not exceed said budget. Thus, I politely explained that the apartment was out of our budget, and told her to go ahead and cancel the reservation.
This is when things got a bit strange...
The host sent me the following message, asking me to cancel, and telling me that I wouldn't be penalized:
Now, I normally only think the best of people until I am proven wrong... But I'm no dummy! Instead of taking her word for it, I looked up the cancellation policy (below), and it said that if "WE" cancelled, the host would receive the first month's rent in full, and that it would not be refunded to us.
I contact Airbnb to see if there was a way to amicably resolve this, and to see if somehow I was incorrect in my understanding. Only a couple minutes after submitting my question to their support team, I received the following message:
My suspicions were confirmed, and I sent a message back to the host explaining that she would need to cancel, as I would lose the entire month's rent ($656.62) if I cancelled, and that money would be wrongfully sent to her (although I knew I would get it back from Airbnb if that were to happen). I wanted to also say that this whole thing was her fault, not mine, as she shouldn't be approving reservations if she doesn't have the apartment available, but I decided against that for the sake for being polite. I also suspected that she had possibly done this before to other tourists, and they "took the bait" and paid for the more expensive property. Again, best to keep in cordial. At this point, I received the following two messages from the host, in what seemed a bit like a desperate attempt to get me to cancel:
A few hours later, I received the following message from Airbnb:
Needless to say, my love affair with Airbnb lives on! I've noted which properties are under this host's name, and will avoid them as we search for a new place to stay in Da Nang. We've stayed at a total of 15 Airbnbs over the past 6 years, and this was the first really negative experience we've had (other than a small issue in Austin--which was not the fault of the host). I ordinarily assume the best of people until they prove me wrong, but this did leave a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. We, of course, will not hold this against hosts in the future, or against the Vietnamese people, but we will be a bit more cautious moving forward, and we will be quick to move on if we sense any issues toward the beginning of the booking process. It is, however, good to know that we have such an amazing company with incredible customer service behind us as we continue our journey.
Sending our love from the road!
-Cole and Michelle
Story time:
Cole and I rely on Airbnb for about 99% of our accommodations, so we are very accustomed to working with hosts and navigating the platform. Well, we booked our latest stay for one month in Vietnam a couple days ago, as we just received our Visa approval letters from the Vietnamese government. I messaged the host before hand, letting her know that we would be landing early in the morning, and were wondering if early check-in was an option, or if we should book the day before as well to guarantee that we can get into the space. She said the only way to guarantee we could get in right away would be to book the day before. This was completely reasonable, so we did. One day after our booking was approved by the host, and our credit card was charged, she sent me a message saying that the apartment we booked was no longer available, and that she had another apartment available for us. I took a look at the listing (which I had to search for a bit), and realized the price was about double the apartment we originally booked. As explained in my Tokyo post, we have a budget that we are determined to not exceed said budget. Thus, I politely explained that the apartment was out of our budget, and told her to go ahead and cancel the reservation.
This is when things got a bit strange...
The host sent me the following message, asking me to cancel, and telling me that I wouldn't be penalized:
Now, I normally only think the best of people until I am proven wrong... But I'm no dummy! Instead of taking her word for it, I looked up the cancellation policy (below), and it said that if "WE" cancelled, the host would receive the first month's rent in full, and that it would not be refunded to us.
I contact Airbnb to see if there was a way to amicably resolve this, and to see if somehow I was incorrect in my understanding. Only a couple minutes after submitting my question to their support team, I received the following message:
My suspicions were confirmed, and I sent a message back to the host explaining that she would need to cancel, as I would lose the entire month's rent ($656.62) if I cancelled, and that money would be wrongfully sent to her (although I knew I would get it back from Airbnb if that were to happen). I wanted to also say that this whole thing was her fault, not mine, as she shouldn't be approving reservations if she doesn't have the apartment available, but I decided against that for the sake for being polite. I also suspected that she had possibly done this before to other tourists, and they "took the bait" and paid for the more expensive property. Again, best to keep in cordial. At this point, I received the following two messages from the host, in what seemed a bit like a desperate attempt to get me to cancel:
A few hours later, I received the following message from Airbnb:
Needless to say, my love affair with Airbnb lives on! I've noted which properties are under this host's name, and will avoid them as we search for a new place to stay in Da Nang. We've stayed at a total of 15 Airbnbs over the past 6 years, and this was the first really negative experience we've had (other than a small issue in Austin--which was not the fault of the host). I ordinarily assume the best of people until they prove me wrong, but this did leave a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. We, of course, will not hold this against hosts in the future, or against the Vietnamese people, but we will be a bit more cautious moving forward, and we will be quick to move on if we sense any issues toward the beginning of the booking process. It is, however, good to know that we have such an amazing company with incredible customer service behind us as we continue our journey.
Sending our love from the road!
-Cole and Michelle
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