Hannah Akbarian arranged a much-needed holiday for her young family at Nelson Bay last weekend.
The Sydney mother-of-three had hoped to celebrate her husband's birthday with their three children, aged 1, 3 and 5, in the coastal holiday town.
She booked a three-bedroom house on Stayz.com for $700 along with a dinner at Bannisters restaurant, a round of golf and a cafe breakfast.
But the Akbarians arrived at their Lawson Street rental to find the home not only did not look like the one advertised on Stayz but was, and never had been, listed on the platform.
By that point their "host" had blocked Ms Akbarian's phone number. The photos on the website had been pulled from a project home catalogue.
At 6pm, after hours of fruitless attempts to find alternative accommodation, the family abandoned the trip and drove back to Sydney.
"It's not like we go away every weekend," Ms Akbarian said.
"We were so excited for it. You should have heard my daughter howling in the back of the car when we'd built it up the whole week and she'd seen the photos and picked out which bed she wanted to sleep in.
"I think we got to about 6 o'clock and we tried one hotel to see if they had availability and they only had availability for one night.
"Basically, my husband got over it and said we're just going to drive home."
Ms Akbarian said the scam was all the more frustrating because she had become suspicious immediately after booking the house.
"Straight away I got a text message from someone saying they were the host," she said.
"They said I hadn't received the discount I was meant to on Stayz and I could transfer the lesser amount into a new account and they would refund the other money.
"I straight away thought it was a scam.
"I contacted Stayz and went through their customer care line to the suspicious reporting section.
"When I spoke to the lady there she checked the phone number with me. She said that's the host and you're fine to deal directly with them."
Ms Akbarian then told the host she would pay the new amount once he had transferred the original $700 back to her.
"A couple of days later I got the refund. It wasn't the full $700 because they keep the cleaning fee or admin fees of $120.
"I got the rest of it in my account and I was really shocked and like, 'Oh my god; it's actually real.'"
She transferred the "discounted" amount of $400 to the host's account but became suspicious again on the day of the trip when her check-in details failed to arrive.
"At one point Stayz said they did speak to the host and the host said it was all fine. They said I should call him. I realised later the host had blocked my number."
Stayz at one point offered to pay the Akbarians $850 to make up the cost of any alternative accommodation they could find in Nelson Bay, but by that time they were on their way home.
The company has now agreed to refund the Akbarians the $400 they paid to the scammer, but Ms Akbarian said Stayz had not handled the matter well.
"I feel a bit silly being scammed, but I am a bit disappointed.
"Its definitely great getting the money back, but I don't know the next time we're going to have the opportunity to go away.
"It's a lot of build-up, and trying to get three little kids, time off work, I don't really like to take my little daughter out of school ... I would rather them keep the money and we have the holiday.
"They were acting so unconcerned. The people themselves were lovely, but there was no follow-up.
"I asked them if there was any compensation, because I don't think we've had a holiday for 12 months.
"It's obviously hard getting away with little kids. I just didn't feel like they understood what it really meant."
She said she felt sorry for the Port Stephens businesses she had booked at.
"Everyone was so lovely about it and apologising to me. I feel for them as well. I hate having to cancel at the last minute.
"We'd pre-ordered champagne and oysters for his birthday and they refunded it all with no hassle."
The owner at the Lawson Street address told the Akbarians that it was not the first time a Stayz customer had turned up at the property.
"We did go to the house and meet the owner. She said it's happened before and she'd reported it to Stayz and the police," Ms Akbarian said.
"I don't understand why it was still there on the website. When they do find out something's wrong, why isn't there a better policy or process to make sure it doesn't happen again?"
Ms Akbarian said the house had disappeared from Stayz on Monday.
Stayz said it had started an investigation into the Lawson Street listing.
"Keeping our site secure for both guests and hosts is a priority and we take instances of fraud and misrepresentation on our platform very seriously," a spokesperson said.
The Stayz website says it offers customers payment protection against fraudulent listings and lodging assistance if travellers cannot check in.
