In Croatia and a few other places, there are a lot of fake Airbnb listings. You can instant book them but they are not available and the host never answers. I once was stranded in a really dark and empty area of town because of this. The host provided a fake number even...
These fake hosts are still active, I can see the green dot indicating they are online if I look into the chat logs.
Airbnb did not pay for the hotel I had to book instead. I also couldn't use the meagre reimbursement I got on top of the full refund (at least...) because it was only valid for a month and I wasn't travelling at that time.
I still like the privacy and cooking my own food, but sometimes it's really terrible.
One day I was just getting drunk with a pal in Istanbul and we decided to see if we could get an Airbnb ... in Mogadishu. Sure enough there was one, a real nice looking place listed dirt-cheap by a new account that seemed to be based in Seychelles. Totally above board, I'm sure.
Croatia is not Somalia, but it doesn't exactly scream "rule of law", either. Airbnb is not inherently safe so should only be used in countries where nobody would even think of breaking a law, like Switzerland or something. I have reservations about using it in America even.
I spent a week in an Airbnb near Dubrovnik, Croatia and it seemed like a normal, if slightly touristy European city in pretty much every way. And the Airbnb was really nice, too.
Not sure where you're getting this stuff about "doesn't exactly scream 'rule of law'".
These fake hosts are still active, I can see the green dot indicating they are online if I look into the chat logs.
Airbnb did not pay for the hotel I had to book instead. I also couldn't use the meagre reimbursement I got on top of the full refund (at least...) because it was only valid for a month and I wasn't travelling at that time.
I still like the privacy and cooking my own food, but sometimes it's really terrible.