Birmingham group’s Airbnb holiday turns out to be scam

“We decided we cannot afford to go on a luxury holiday, but we wanted to take the children somewhere to have some fun,” Mrs Jafarpour Shalmani, from Oscott in Birmingham, said.

Although the house had no reviews and the host “Danijel” did not respond when she messaged the day before travelling, it did not occur to her anything was amiss.

After an eight-hour journey, the group reached their destination about 13:30 GMT and the door was answered by a woman who spoke little English.

Despite that, she managed to explain that she was the long-term tenant and the property should not have featured on Airbnb at all.

“While we were waiting, confused, another family came… they said that they are local and they [had] rented the property for their family members,” Mrs Jafarpour Shalmani said.

She called Airbnb, but “had no luck for hours”.

Meanwhile, another woman arrived and at first said she had also rented the property, then later explained she was a relative of the occupant and would contact the landlord.