Ever fallen for a scam while away on a trip? Like when the taxi driver lies that his meter is broken and takes the longest route, to vendors claiming that you paid them with counterfeit money in a bid to get more cash from you. Could be frustrating, to say the least, more so if you get stranded as a result.
A traveler has fallen for an unusual scam after discovering that the Airbnb she had rented for her Bali trip wasn’t remotely close to what was displayed on the listing. She posted a TikTok video to describe her experience while warning unsuspecting travelers about the scam.
“Gentle reminder: Always triple-check your Airbnbs when staying in Bali just in case you end up in the same prison cell as we did that night,” wrote the TikTok user, Hatty Morton (@hattymorton). Morton is a travel content creator and influencer who loves to carry her online audience along with her travel experiences. No way she was going to leave out the Bali experience.
Looking at the picture of the room on the Airbnb listing, it looked like an airy and well-lit room that was worth its £50 per night fee. Well, it turned out to be worth less than a fifth of that amount. Morton described it as “Hell.”
The video, which has amassed over 1.5 million views, showed a poorly lit room with unpainted walls, far from what the listing pictures showed. The luxury furnishings and the deluxe king-sized bed were nowhere to be found. What passed off as a bed was literally a block of wood.
The floor and walls of the partially enclosed washroom were mold-infested, with some cracks on the wall. Also, there were no towels or racks anywhere in sight. In Morton’s words, the room also came “with free bed bugs.”
Aside from the deceptive listing, the reviews also turned out to be a hoax. The room enjoyed a 4.71/5 rating, with most of the 156 reviews positive and full of praise.
Morton did get a partial refund from Airbnb after lodging her complaint and ended up paying £20 for the first night. “They told us we needed to provide photos, and then the host also needed to comment on the situation,” Morton revealed. “However, after about 20 seconds of sending those photos, Airbnb immediately said we could get a refund,” she added.
Morton’s video drew some interesting comments. One from a viewer who claimed to be a former employee of Airbnb offered some advice. “ALWAYS always contact airbnb or Host within 72 hours of YOUR DISCOVERY. my advise as their previous employee,” it read.
One was from someone who said they had a matching experience “Similar happened to me like once when I traveled Bali but holy smokes not this bad.”
“Bro how did they even think they were going to get away with this lmao,” read a comment which marveled at the audacity. Most of the comments were empathetic to Morton and expressed displeasure at the poor quality of the room. But hopefully, the viewers would have learned a thing or two from Morton’s ordeal.
