A few years back my wife and I went to Dubrovnik, this is before it went nuts due to GoT, I should add.
We went there with a couple of friends planning to have their wedding there, traveling from our homes in London.
We booked two air BnB rooms, both were very nice looking double rooms in central locations next to the old town.
We arrived at the address we'd been given and a local guy "owner", greeted us and took us for a short walk to where we'd be staying.
We arrived at an older looking home, high walls and a large metal gate. He opened it and welcomed us to his home. His grandma's home he told us.
He walked us inside and showed us to a box room with two wooden bunk-beds, the type you put children in. The floor was flooded and the small ensuite was too, flooded.
The look on our faces might have said enough if we hadn't, but we certainly were not staying there.
He suggested he'd try find some "alternative" accomodation. We waited nearby, and a short time later he arrived to show us each to locations he'd found.
First our friends, a nice newish apartment, they were quite happy with, although it was smaller than what they had booked, but still pleasant enough.
He took my wife and I around the corner and into a small home that had painted cement walls, flaking like you see in war films, after the war has been through.
An old man showed us to a small double room where he'd laid a bowl of fruit on the bed for us, he didn't speak English, but although we didn't speak his language either, we felt welcome, albeit slightly uncomfortable.
The place wasn't particularly clean or nice looking, and certainly not what we paid for, but after a bit of a dead end with the original guy we booked with, we figured he's guy is farming off rooms that don't exist and then subletting rooms in others' homes when guests arrived.
We decided we'd take it, but we needed to see the bathroom first.
Again, not clean, not pleasant, but worst of all, a small window, just above the shower opened into the old man's room, and it was open, is wasn't frosted and there was no way to cover it.
That was it for my wife, that was one bridge too far. She can't comfortably bath in there with a window opening into this stranger's room in a strange place.
We told the owner guy it wasn't going to work for us, and this is where the rest of this story breaks my heart.
The owner guy let the old man know we wouldn't stay, and the old guy broke down, he was begging us to stay, he was gesturing at the fruit he'd laid out, questioning what was wrong, but we just couldn't stay there.
The rest of what happened to us is irrelevant here, but the guy we'd booked with was clearly taking bookings he was farming out to elderly locals with any space to spare hoping renters works take whatever he offered.
Both sides of this deal were being scammed, and it broke my heart to know that although we might end up forking out to stay elsewhere was the worst we might suffer through this, this old man clearly needed whatever small part of the rent we paid was going to be given to him.
The rooms we saw online clearly didn't exist, this guy was just conning people because AirBnb allowed it to happen.