One man’s vacation took a turn for the confusing when he showed up at his Airbnb and found out the house he had rented was in a completely different country.
Jim Belmonte was just as confused when the man turned up on the doorstep of his home on Georgia Avenue in Crystal, Minnesota and said he had paid $25 for a room.
It was only later they would both find out that while the man had rented an Airbnb at Belmonte’s address, the room he actually paid for was in Georgia – the country.
Jim Belmonte was confused when a man turned up on the doorstep of his home on Georgia Avenue in Crystal, Minnesota (pictured) and said he had rented a room on Airbnb
The man (pictured) said he had paid $25 for a room at Belmonte’s home. But it turned out that the room he paid for was actually in Georgia the country
Belmonte knew something was immediately wrong when the man rang his doorbell looking for someone named ‘Tom’.
‘We kind of looked at each other for a little bit and I thought, ‘Okay, are you looking for someone specific? Are you selling something?’ and he said, ‘No, I’m here for Airbnb”, Belmonte told KTSP.
The man told Belmonte he had already paid $25 for the room on the Airbnb website. Belmonte apologized and advised him to call the company.
But Belmonte was even more shocked when he put his address into the Airbnb website and realized the man had been telling the truth.
His home and address were listed, but none of the pictures matched. On the site his home came with a tower, snow-capped mountains, and traditional wooden furniture.
Belmonte (pictured) knew something was immediately wrong when the man rang his doorbell looking for a man named ‘Tom’
But Belmonte was even more shocked when he put his address into the Airbnb website and realized the man had been telling the truth – his address really was listed
‘The property they’re showing has a lot of mountains,’ Belmonte said. ‘And one thing you can say about Crystal – not a lot of mountains.’
The listing was also made under a verified Airbnb host named ‘Tato’ from Mestia, Georgia, who Belmonte had never met before.
Airbnb revealed a computer glitch that mixed up Belmonte’s street (pictured) with the host’s country of Georgia
‘How is this person able to put our address into the system and rent out our place?’ Belmonte said.
‘How many people has this been rented out to? Are there more people who are going to be showing up at our door?’
Belmonte said that he immediately called Airbnb and, although the listing was removed, it took two days for the company to reach out to him.
Airbnb revealed that the listing hadn’t been a scam but was instead the fault of a computer glitch that mixed up Belmonte’s street with the host’s country of Georgia.
While Belmonte’s address was listed, all the pictures of the home came from the property in Mestia, Georgia (pictured)
The company also reimbursed the man’s $25 and called the mistake a ‘genuine error’, according to KARE 11.
‘We apologize to Mr. Belmonte, his family and our guests for this incident and the delay in our response,’ Airbnb said in a statement.
‘This was a mistake, an incredibly rare error, but even so, we have launched an internal review.’
Belmonte, who filed a police report over the incident, said Airbnb users should use the experience as a lesson to do their research and search addresses on Google.