Jenny P-Booking.com-1697175518

We stayed in a short-term rental in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. A day after check-in, our host asked us to switch units two days before our checkout date and offered to move our luggage if we weren’t free. Given our circumstances as we had an excursion to attend to the day of the transfer, we obliged. Cash and personal possessions, (including a bag of women's underwear) go missing from our locked suitcases and backpacks after the host and his cousin transferred our luggage. Booking.com tells us to give 20 hours for the host to respond and even tells us to not pursue the police if the host returns our missing items. The host insists that there was “no stranger or suspect” that could have stolen our belongings and has conflicting narratives of the event while not presenting CCTV footage to us nor to local police. Local police conduct a loose and apathetic investigation and has refused to give us the official police report after 6.5 hours of a frustrating reporting experience. The host offers 50% of the money as compensation and we accept as we figured it was better than not recuperating any of the money. We later discover some of the stolen items hidden in our accommodation in obscure places. Our accommodation gets broken into and more cash stolen from our possessions in the wee hours of the night. All signs point to the host and his team as the perpetrators. We leave town petrified and notify Booking.com. Booking.com takes no action against the host and states that these events are out of their jurisdiction and that the host has already offered partial compensation. The host is likely still victimizing other guests who rent his accommodations as he is listing multiple apartments on Booking.com in Saigon, Vietnam. Review of interactions with the host and the course of events leads us to believe the communications with the host were part of his manipulation tactics and that there is likely a sinister theft scheme operated by the host and ignored by Booking.com