Airbnb glitch leads man to book stay in wrong country

CRYSTAL, Minn. (KABC) -- Imagine taking a trip and finding out you not only booked the wrong room for your stay, but you also went to the wrong country.

That's what happened to an Airbnb customer who reserved a room in the country Georgia, but was instead led to Georgia Avenue in Crystal, Minnesota.

The trouble started on Wednesday when Jim Belmonte's doorbell rang. He found a stranger telling him he rented his home through Airbnb, and that his credit card had already been charged.

Belmonte broke the news to the man that he had the wrong address.

"You're going to have to call Airbnb. I promise man, that's not us," Belmonte is heard telling the man in a video.

But it turns out, the stranger at the door actually had the right address.

"Lo and behold, we were on Airbnb," Belmonte said.

The listing showed their address, but a very different house.

"The Airbnb ad had a house with tower in it," Belmonte said. "There was mountains, and one thing I can say about Crystal, Minnesota, is there really are no mountains at all."

According to Airbnb, their site autocorrected the address for the original listing in the country of Georgia to that Minnesota address on Georgia Avenue.

The company took the listing down after Belmonte brought the issue to its attention and says it's investigating, but Belmonte worries it's not doing enough to prevent something like this from happening again.

"There really isn't actually a vehicle for them to be able to guarantee that the person who is renting the house is actually able to rent the house, in my opinion that's not enough," Belmonte said.

Airbnb said it has launched an internal review, and refunded the man who was charged. To be clear, he did not think he was going to the country Georgia.