I tried to book a private villa in Jamaica this past week using airbnb. At the last minute I cancelled as I had a bad feeling because the price was so low and there were no reviews. I did a google image search and the images from the airbnb listing were stolen from another villa in Jamaica. I contacted airbnb and have heard nothing back yet. I am worried that my credit card has been compromised but am happy that I cancelled. Lesson learned: must have reviews and do your research!
Which villa was it in jamaica? I am also looking to rent a villa in JA
This was their response:
Thank you for reaching out in regards to this issue! I am a specialist with the Trust and Safety Team at Airbnb. Please rest assured that we will be reviewing this matter and taking the appropriate action. In the interim, I’d like to take this opportunity to provide more information on this topic, and help ensure you avoid similar issues in the future!
Safety Messaging:
We strive to provide our users with the tools and information they need to have a safe and positive travel experience, even prior to booking. As part of this effort, to the right of every message thread, we display a large banner reminder (http://cl.ly/image/0I1s2S1N2o3C) which notes that contact information, including email addresses, is *only* to be exchanged after an accepted booking. We also provide links to our Trust center, and our help articles were also created to keep our users educated as to best practices with regard to online security, about which you can read more here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/question/501.
Offline Communication:
For the protection of your account and any bookings, we prohibit offline communication as well as any payments facilitated away from our secure payment system. All legitimate payments on Airbnb will take place on our website. If you receive a personal email from anyone, including anautomated@airbnb.com or any other username@airbnb.com email address, asking you to pay off-site through Western Union, MoneyGram etc., immediately end all communication with the user.
Online Scams:
When you contact a host directly, they are able to send you “spoofed” or fraudulent emails. While modeled to appear similar in style and format to official Airbnb communications, these will not originate from, nor be authorized by, Airbnb. Should you direct funds offsite in response to such a faked email, we urge you to contact your banking institution to halt this transfer, if at all possible. We also recommend that you report this matter to local authorities. Please understand that, as per our Terms of Service, we are not liable for such losses, and are consequently unable to provide any compensation to you in this instance.
Account Security:
We’d also like to take this opportunity to provide some tips on how you can best preserve your account’s security, and operate safely online. For a complete list, please see our Help Article here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/question/501. We also invite you to review our help article on how to protect yourself as a guest on Airbnb: http://www.airbnb.com/support/question/241.
Best Regards,
CP
http://www.airbnb.com/help