My mom and I saw the The Galvan Estate on Airbnb and wanted to book it for my bachelorette party but it had a restriction that you could only book a minimum of 3 nights, since we only needed 2 nights, my mom messaged Arnold Galvan, and he said ...it was no problem to book 2 nights and that he would send her a request to book, we booked and paid right away, and everything seemed great. I let all my girlfriends know and we have all been so excited waiting for this trip because the pictures of the house looked beautiful.
I have heard about some people on Airbnb who list their properties on other sites for more money to see if someone will book it for a higher price and then cancel on you at the last second. So a week later, I Googled the property and found that he had left my reserved dates as still available on VRBO(.com) and on his website TheGalvanEstate(.com), this worried me but I was just hoping for the best and that it was some type of mistake. Today, my mom gets a call from Arnold and he claims that he got confused and gave us the wrong price but that IF WE PAY HIM AN EXTRA $500 CASH THAT HE WILL LET US KEEP THE RESERVATION and that we have until the next morning to decide because he has someone else interested.
Unfortunately, my gut feeling was right and now with my bachelorette weekend only 3 weeks away, I am left scrambling trying to find another place to stay. He also claimed that he would get in big trouble for his mistake if he let us rent the property for our price because he is “only the manager” even though the property is named after him and his LinkedIn page and the Better Business Bureau website say that he is the owner. He also offered us to transfer our stay to another one of his properties, yet the total for that property is $400 less on Airbnb and he did not offer to refund any money, so he is just trying to scam us in every way. This was supposed to be a relaxing getaway before my wedding but he has caused so much stress for me now that I just wanted to warn others to be careful renting from this guy because he will cancel on you or force you to pay more later to keep your reservation.