Refund for overseas transaction, might class as fraud

[Lord Percy]

Really not sure where I stand with this. I fear I'll be the losing party but it really doesn't seem right.

So a fair few of you know I'm Peter Panning and decided to live at my parents house this year to save money. With the massive extra funds and studenty free time I figured I'd take myself back to China for the month long winter break over December.

Found this place on AirBnB. Note the location on the map. Screenshot below:

https://i65.tinypic.com/vh9bmw.png

So I booked it.

I then looked into how to get to the place.

Turns out it's here:

https://i68.tinypic.com/2505chj.png

The listing only had one review and it was positive, but after looking at other reviews for similar properties owned by the same woman, it seems tons of people are saying they were shocked to discover the location was so much further out than expected, thanks mainly to the misleading map in the listings they saw.

As a defence, the listing does say which tube station it's near, but it doesn't at all tally up with the location on the map, and in fact the place isn't even near a tube station. Just look at the map!

I messaged the host and asked to cancel because of this. She said that's fine. The problem however is that I booked 30 days which made it a "Long Term" cancellation policy, meaning that any booking has to forfeit the first month's payment. For me, this means the whole and only month I'm staying.

It's possible to manually request a cash transfer between hosts and guests, so I've done this to request my money back. She said this was fine also. I'm currently twiddling my thumbs and waiting for a response regarding my money. The problem is that she could bail and that be the end of it.

What riles me is that I made this booking then less than ten minutes later I want to cancel and find I potentially could lose all of it.

Does anyone know where the law stands here? Most things seem to have a 'cooling off' period, and even then it seems absurd that the process can't be cancelled just 5 minutes after me committing to it.

It might still right itself - I'm just assuming the worst - but, given the information so far, I'm wondering what grounds I have to call my bank and have the transaction cancelled from my credit card as the advert was essentially fraudulent. It just seems a bit of a quagmire because the person receiving the money is Chinese, the company is American, and I'm here in the UK. As far as I'm aware, AirBnb are the ones with my cash right now as they don't release funds to the landlord until 7 days after I've arrived, or something like that. (Even if the refund goes smoothly, AirBnB still keep the £40 booking fee they took, which seems almost criminal to me since I cancelled just moments after paying).

Arguably I should have read the small print, but then arguably the advert showed central Beijing which is false advertising. It's like me advertising a place in London then saying, "Located in Inverness, just a short walk from Westminster." Surely this isn't right.

Also I have messages from her saying she's fine with the cancellation and fine with the refund request. Problem is there's an eerie silence now, even though she was instantly replying before (been about 14 hours since, all of which were daytime hours in China). Do our messages class as some sort of verbal agreement too which can be used as evidence in some way?

Advice much appreciated, cheers

EDIT: AirBnB offices are based in Ireland.

[Wonko The Sane]

credit card or debit card?

the advert was misleading and lead you to think it was much more centrally located (perhaps not deliberately fraudulent)

Have you contacted Air BnB? what have they said?

If no joy with them then I'd be looking at chargeback from the bank / card provider
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[Lord Percy]

Update: Got a response from the host. Says she's gonna called the AirBnB help service tomorrow (evening in China now). Fair enough I suppose. Any response is more promising than silence.

AirBnB make it notoriously hard to contact them. I need to wait 72 hours since opening the refund case with the host, after which I can bring AirBnB into it. If the host accepts the refund situation I'll get the ~£300 back but still AirBnB will walk away with their £40 cut, happily assuming the situation was resolved amicably (which means I can't take it further and contact them directly), meanwhile they've still robbed me of £40 due to a false advert...

I've had trouble with them before and kicked up a stink which was eventually sorted, with a £20 goodwill voucher chucked in too. But that time the host really was an outright crook. This time it's a little bit more touch and go, a possible case of "buyer beware".

Re: the advice I gave in this thread - I take it all back!

I paid on credit card. Is there a time limit, or rules of some sort, on this 'charge back' route?

[iooi]

[Lord Percy]

Very helpful, cheers.

I'll have to wait a while until it's office hours in China so she's had her chance to make the phone call. When I get in touch I'll be sure to word it as best I can so as to get her commitment to the refund in writing.

One problem with saying "£XXX to card number -XXXX" is that I doubt she sees any of my card number anyway so it'll be useless info to her. It'll be automated at the back end via AirBnB so officially worded requests needed to be sent to them I expect.

To be honest I'm leaning more towards trusting her at the moment as she could have just gone silent from the start. More annoying is that I'm very likely going to lose the service charge from AirBnB.

Also, statement shows AirBnB :

https://i67.tinypic.com/2wmdxlc.png

[Rogerborg]

[Lord Percy]

[iooi]

[Ste]

[Monkeywrenche...]

[Polarbear]

I have to sme extent agree with above. Surely you check where the place is, how to get there before booking.

That said, she has misled you.
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[Lord Percy]

[Monkeywrenche...]

[Polarbear]

[Chinaboy]

Percy, I know that you probably want to be staying towards the inner of Beijing, but on the grand scale of things, it's not so far away and for the price not so bad. If you go by bus or train it is cheap enough to travel around, the most difficult thing is finding someone who speaks good enough english to actually give you the right bus location.

Having lived in China for a few years, you could find this area far more interesting than all the tourist spots. Local food, sights and people are much better away from the main centre.

But if you want somewhere closer, and your refund, I understand. Whatever you do, you will have a great time. I am hoping to be back next year for work.

[wr6133]

Did you honestly think you'd be staying almost in the forbidden city for £18 a night?

The location isn't as bad as it seems though, public transport in Beijing is 1000000 million times easier than it used to be.

[iooi]

[Lord Percy]

[iooi]

[Lord Percy]

[Ste]

[Tarmacsurfer]

[Lord Percy]

[Rogerborg]

Cultural imperialist!
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[iooi]