A R4 600 stay at a Sandton Airbnb landed up costing Twitter user @Katso_Pholo and her group a small fortune.
In a thread, @Katso_Pholo shared her experience with her followers, in the hope that by creating awareness, it would help other Airbnb travellers be more cautious.
She said that despite the cost being R4 600, including all fees, the host asked for an additional R3 000 because "he (the host) got the dates mixed up". She said there was no cancellation fee.
Her group paid the R3 000 as they "didn’t have a choice".
Excited about their much-needed holiday, they checked in to the four-bedroom, three-bathroom property.
However, things did not go as planned.
"When we got there, he locked one of the rooms, then he came with security guards to count how many of us are in house. Banna, hape that man was going in EVERY room to check if there’s no extra people( since there was 8 of us)," she said. (sic)
She said they had to pay another R5 000 for the host to open one of the rooms he had allegedly locked "or else he was gonna call the cops”. (sic)
"That’s 13K for something that was meant to be R4 600," she tweeted. (sic)
She alleged the host regularly came into the house to monitor the number of people.
"Akho privacy ya nix bc 2 minutes 2 minutes he’s in the house to count how many people are there. (sic)
"There’s was one extra person and he was ready to kick her out at 1 AM, Bathong??? Curfew ??? And he kept saying he’s gonna call the cops, monna??? For eng???" (sic)
The guest said the host wanted R1 000 for a glass that broke.
@AirbnbHelp responded to her tweet: "Hi there, we're here to help. If you need any assistance with a reservation, please do send us a DM with more details, and we'll look into it for you. Thank you. Send us a private message." (sic)
Many users questioned why the guests had to pay extra.
One user who retweeted the post said: "honestly this is on y’all. why would you keep paying this man anything?? I would have immediately reported him to Airbnb." (sic)
Another posted: "5k to open the room? & you paid? Inani?" (sic)
IOL Travel has reached out to Airbnb South Africa for comment.