Airbnb Booking Beachside Reports & Reviews

Airbnb Booking Beachside Reports & Reviews (3)

Scammer's phone +1 (580) 308-3503
Scammer's website bookingbeachside.com/st_rental/private-pool-siesta-key-beach-walk-to-beach
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Type of a scam Rental
Initial means of contact Website

Beware! BookingBeachside.com is Fake & Scam!

The experience I’m going to detail is some thing that I was able to completely avoid, but wanted to share the details so that it doesn’t happen to someone else.

I currently reside in Florida and was looking to rent a beach home in siesta key for a staff trip at the end of August 2022. I have been using Airbnb for many years for all of my rentals and have never had an issue. I proceeded to find a home on siesta key that was a newer listing and did not have any reviews, had a great rate and so I reserved it in mid April.

I received a notification today from the host detailing that they were going to remove the listing due to slow pay of Airbnb and excessive charges and they wanted to retain my reservation and was trying to give me to book through bookingbeachside.com.

I immediately felt that something was wrong and I proceeded to communicate with this person that was emailing and trying to text me various information. I had the address from the Airbnb reservation so I googled it and saw that this was an actual rental from a local property management company. Of course I used common sense and I gave them a ring and let them know that I had made a reservation through Airbnb which they immediately said no please cancel it, it’s a scam. We are the only people that manage this property and there are no other booking agencies that manage this home. I gave them all of the information I had from Airbnb and they confirm that I did not have a reservation for that home and so I reported it to Airbnb and canceled my reservation. I was not out any funds as my reservation was for four months from now, but I read another report that somebody did lose $1500 for this exact same scam. It was because of their report that I knew as well as the phone calls I made to the local property management of the property that I saw that I was able to avoid a fiasco.

When in doubt, look up the address of the property look on the local tax collector website to see the name of the property owner and if you are really unsure give the property owner a call and relay everything that’s happening to you as well. All it takes is a really good search and a lot of the information that you may find is available in front of you. I hope this serves as a warning for someone else. It does make me distrust Airbnb which I have used for many years for all my rentals, but at least I was able to know this in advance.

Useful

Victim Location 46220
Total money lost $1,500
Type of a scam Rental

My first piece of advice is to trust your gut! I had odd feelings this process became shady but ignored all the signs, rather deciding to rationalize them with what was going on in the world, the fact that I have had friends go though similar instances of booking off a main travel site, etc. Don't ignore the red flags!!!! While searching for a rental property in Florida for spring break, I came upon a listing on Airbnb. The place looked great but had only about 5 photos. I reached out to ask for more, which were uploaded by a mann named George Starks. After a few more questions, I booked the place and paid the deposit through the platform. I was asked for my email address so they could send more photos and contact closer to the time (1st red flag, don't ever provide that info outside the platform!). I was contacted via email saying they had decided to take the property off airbnb due to the fees and I could go ahead and book directly through Booking Beachside. He provided a link to the property and provided a discounted rate for not using Airbnb (2nd red flag). I went back and forth on text, sent an email confirming we would like the place and then ultimately used the website to officially "book" the place. After that I was sent a contract which included the address and payment information (which was poorly written but I also was aware of the language barrier of the person I was working with...also assuming it was the owner's assistant..red flag! Contracts are legal documents so in essence, they should be more proper in nature). Payment was to be made to a Booking Secretary through venmo (Red flag! I should have also never performed this type of transaction, rather always using a reputable credit card company or through a platform like Airbnb, vrbo, etc). Ultimately, a friend happened to be in the area so I asked her to drive by. She sent a number of photos and out front was a sign for a rental property vendor that was not who I booked through. I contacted them and they confirmed there was no reservation under my name. I did provide them with all of the information related to the incident as someone is using their rental property photos and addresses to scam others.

Names used during this process are George Starks, Cindy Ransbottom, Elsie Caribardi. Also communicated with [email protected]

Useful

Thank you for writing this. I was almost scammed tonight the same exact way that you were. Your report and me looking up the property that I thought I had rented on public record led to me contacting the local property management company and the owner of the property saved me from having a complete fiasco. I didn’t venture past Airbnb. I know that I’m able to get my l funds back on my credit card. I’m sorry that it went further with you.

Useful

Airbnb Booking Beachside Contacts

If you know any contact information for Airbnb Booking Beachside, help other victims by adding it!

Airbnb Booking Beachside