Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hey everyone, sorry for flooding the square with so many travel questions, this will be my last for a while!

I've just wondering from those who have used airbnb whether you have a similar experience to mine. It's my first time using it so not sure if the host is being dodgy or what.

We contacted a host and asked if the place was available he said it was, and asked if we wanted to book it. So I clicked the book button and then got a response from airbnb saying that the request has been cancelled because he didn't respond in enough time- 24 hours. The host then send me a message asking me to get in contact with him on facebook. I'm guessing that he wants to arrange it privately to avoid being charged a fee or something. I noticed on facebook that a host has link to his work website.

Is this normal or do you think it some sort of scam?

it *could* be legit, but I'd avoid it. just as I wouldn't buy from eBay people not from eBay, y'know? if you got forked over (in any sense - money taken, or things taken when you were visiting, etc) you'd have very little in terms of grounds for recourse. but if you do it legitimately, you have (at least a guise of) a leg to stand on if shiitake hit the fan.

keep it by the books, stay out of trouble. subsequent visits might be okay off the books if the first turns out fine though..

I'm sure that he's just doing it to save on the fees. I recently used airbnb and the site does get a certain percentage.
I'm pretty sure that airbnb offers you extra services so it'd be better to just go through them.