It was a nightmare-bnb experience.
A UK family needed to cancel their dream Spanish vacation just hours before departure after losing greater than $5,000 in an elaborate Airbnb “clone” scam.
“I felt devastated for my children and my husband,” Emma Last, 48, told PA Real Lifetime of the vacation hornswoggling. “One [of her children] didn’t speak for a day.”
The Lancashire resident had planned an eight-night trip to Majorca — certainly one of Spain’s idyllic Balearic Islands — in August 2023 together with her husband Zak, 51, Last’s parents and their three children: Scarlette and Henri, each 17, and Xander, 14.
The family had reportedly traveled there last yr and enjoyed the trip a lot that Last had been “saving up” all yr so that they could embark on yet one more Mediterranean getaway.
Last, who works as a mental health and well-being strategist, began perusing Airbnb in July for villas that will be large enough to accommodate the entire family.
The Brit eventually narrowed their search to 3 listings, which they diligently vetted on Google Earth to ensure that they indeed existed.
Things took a turn after they clicked on the listings and saw a note informing them that they needed to envision WhatsApp to see if their chosen dates were available.
When Last messaged the number provided, she received a reply from one “Lyda from Travel Villas. Included was a link confirming the property was available for the chosen dates at a reduced rental cost of $655 per night.
“Please send us your email so we are able to send you the PDF Brochure of the villa with all the small print regarding the photos, services, location and terms of the booking,” the message read.
After further correspondence, she was eventually “preapproved to book” with the guarantee that her reservation could be confirmed immediately after they’d received payment.
The message even pledged to reimburse them in full should they cancel the booking inside 24 hours. If that wasn’t elaborate enough, a link then redirected Last to an apparent Booking.com “portal,” where she was offered a ten% discount as a consequence of a Genius loyalty program she was a member of.
Believing every thing was copasetic, the fam decided to tug the trigger on the payment. Emma’s mother Julia shelled out $5,218 for the homes, while Emma covered the flights with Ryanair, which cost around $2,200 in total for the seven guests.
She subsequently received a booking confirmation email and a WhatsApp message declaring that every thing was “so as.”
Nonetheless, they became concerned after “Travel Villas” didn’t reply to her follow-up messages concerning the check-in process.
After several days of radio silence, Last began to panic.
Nonetheless, with the departure date fast approaching, Last decided that she’d take a likelihood and board the flight anyway. She felt that they might book a hotel upon arrival in the event that they couldn’t access the villa.
Then, just hours before departure, her mother called and let her know that they’d been epically duped.
Because it turned out, scammers had copied and pasted info and pics from Oliver’s Travels — a legit, London-based travel agency — onto a fake website called “Travel Villas,” after which masqueraded as travel agents to idiot them.
“I felt silly,” lamented Last. “We began telling the youngsters that we weren’t going, which was awful because they’d their suitcases packed and so they were all excited.”
She added, “It just disappoints you that there are people like that on this planet.”
Thankfully, after some finagling with Barclays — whose card she used to book the trip — Last managed to recoup the $5,218 for the villas.
Nonetheless, she still hasn’t been reimbursed for greater than $2,000 for the RyanAir flights.
Meanwhile, Airbnb has since removed the listing and is offering support to the swindled guests.
“We encourage and remind users to remain on Airbnb to speak, book and pay to assist ensure they’re protected by our policies, processes and 24/7 support, including AirCover,” a spokesperson claimed.
The Post reached out to Airbnb for further comment.
Last is now using her fleecing as a cautionary tale concerning the prevalence and class of web scams.
“In the event that they ask you to go off the location and into WhatsApp, don’t do it, in the event that they ask you to pay on a distinct site, don’t do it,” said Last. “I actually have booked my very own travel for years and never had an issue – you do your due diligence – but I suppose it’s just understanding that we’re human, and maybe we’d like to make use of more technology to guard us.”
She added, “You are feeling really silly since you’ve been caught out. It’s not something that you would like to discuss – but it could actually occur to anyone.”
It was a nightmare-bnb experience.
A UK family needed to cancel their dream Spanish vacation just hours before departure after losing greater than $5,000 in an elaborate Airbnb “clone” scam.
“I felt devastated for my children and my husband,” Emma Last, 48, told PA Real Lifetime of the vacation hornswoggling. “One [of her children] didn’t speak for a day.”
The Lancashire resident had planned an eight-night trip to Majorca — certainly one of Spain’s idyllic Balearic Islands — in August 2023 together with her husband Zak, 51, Last’s parents and their three children: Scarlette and Henri, each 17, and Xander, 14.
The family had reportedly traveled there last yr and enjoyed the trip a lot that Last had been “saving up” all yr so that they could embark on yet one more Mediterranean getaway.
Last, who works as a mental health and well-being strategist, began perusing Airbnb in July for villas that will be large enough to accommodate the entire family.
The Brit eventually narrowed their search to 3 listings, which they diligently vetted on Google Earth to ensure that they indeed existed.
Things took a turn after they clicked on the listings and saw a note informing them that they needed to envision WhatsApp to see if their chosen dates were available.
When Last messaged the number provided, she received a reply from one “Lyda from Travel Villas. Included was a link confirming the property was available for the chosen dates at a reduced rental cost of $655 per night.
“Please send us your email so we are able to send you the PDF Brochure of the villa with all the small print regarding the photos, services, location and terms of the booking,” the message read.
After further correspondence, she was eventually “preapproved to book” with the guarantee that her reservation could be confirmed immediately after they’d received payment.
The message even pledged to reimburse them in full should they cancel the booking inside 24 hours. If that wasn’t elaborate enough, a link then redirected Last to an apparent Booking.com “portal,” where she was offered a ten% discount as a consequence of a Genius loyalty program she was a member of.
Believing every thing was copasetic, the fam decided to tug the trigger on the payment. Emma’s mother Julia shelled out $5,218 for the homes, while Emma covered the flights with Ryanair, which cost around $2,200 in total for the seven guests.
She subsequently received a booking confirmation email and a WhatsApp message declaring that every thing was “so as.”
Nonetheless, they became concerned after “Travel Villas” didn’t reply to her follow-up messages concerning the check-in process.
After several days of radio silence, Last began to panic.
Nonetheless, with the departure date fast approaching, Last decided that she’d take a likelihood and board the flight anyway. She felt that they might book a hotel upon arrival in the event that they couldn’t access the villa.
Then, just hours before departure, her mother called and let her know that they’d been epically duped.
Because it turned out, scammers had copied and pasted info and pics from Oliver’s Travels — a legit, London-based travel agency — onto a fake website called “Travel Villas,” after which masqueraded as travel agents to idiot them.
“I felt silly,” lamented Last. “We began telling the youngsters that we weren’t going, which was awful because they’d their suitcases packed and so they were all excited.”
She added, “It just disappoints you that there are people like that on this planet.”
Thankfully, after some finagling with Barclays — whose card she used to book the trip — Last managed to recoup the $5,218 for the villas.
Nonetheless, she still hasn’t been reimbursed for greater than $2,000 for the RyanAir flights.
Meanwhile, Airbnb has since removed the listing and is offering support to the swindled guests.
“We encourage and remind users to remain on Airbnb to speak, book and pay to assist ensure they’re protected by our policies, processes and 24/7 support, including AirCover,” a spokesperson claimed.
The Post reached out to Airbnb for further comment.
Last is now using her fleecing as a cautionary tale concerning the prevalence and class of web scams.
“In the event that they ask you to go off the location and into WhatsApp, don’t do it, in the event that they ask you to pay on a distinct site, don’t do it,” said Last. “I actually have booked my very own travel for years and never had an issue – you do your due diligence – but I suppose it’s just understanding that we’re human, and maybe we’d like to make use of more technology to guard us.”
She added, “You are feeling really silly since you’ve been caught out. It’s not something that you would like to discuss – but it could actually occur to anyone.”
