I was ‘catfished’ by my vacation rental apartment, it looked nothing like the pictures

A woman has lashed out at a popular website after the Melbourne apartment she booked for a short stay looked nothing like the glossy photos advertised online.

Keeley Pejovic revealed the true state of the room she and a friend stayed in and, after checking out, claimed she “genuinely cannot believe how badly we got catfished.”

The apartment, within the Arrow on Swanston complex, was advertised to have a spacious and modern open-plan layout with views of the city.

Pejovic said the apartment’s listing on booking.com made it seem “nice and clean” with a “big living space” and “everything” else a guest could need.

The reality however, could not have been further from what they were expecting.

Photos, shared in Pejovic’s TikTok, showed a small room with one bed squeezed into a nook between two walls – one being the glass bordering its small balcony.

Pejovic pointed out the second “bed” was just a mattress on the floor.

The bathroom had no separation between the shower and toilet, and had hand rails much like what could be expected in a hospital.

“It looks like a hospital bathroom babe,” Pejovic said.

The balcony, complete with a no smoking sign, didn’t have the “city view” that was promised either, instead looking over at a car parking complex.

“I wanted to complain so bad but we have nowhere else to stay, but that is a big fat catfish and I almost cried,” she said.

Reviews on the establishment’s booking.com site suggested Pejovic was far from the first person to feel deceived by the apartment’s photos.

A review posted on June 15 said, “The room is quite older than I expected, it’s not the room in the image.”

“Looked nothing like pictures,” another person said in a review posted earlier in June.

“This property is certainly not as nice and comfortable as appears in the photos,” someone said in January.

“Stayed here with family of five and never again, the photos on website very misleading. Rooms are tiny and bathroom/kitchen disgusting,” another said around the same time.

“The room itself was tiny – the photos displayed are extremely misleading. The ‘sofa bed’ was actually a very hard futon,” someone else said in a January review.

“The place was horrible, we booked a family apartment and what we received was completely different to photos that were shown,” another of the countless similar reviews said.

Arrow on Swanston said the “catfish” photos were of one of its “penthouse apartments.”

“If you visit our website or any other OtA’s like booking.com, Expedia and Agoda, you will see this is the photos of one of our room types,” a spokesperson told news.com.au.

“I have 12 different room types: a studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, four-bedroom, and penthouse apartment. They all are different from one another. We are one of the cheapest hotels in Carlton.”

A spokesperson for booking.com said it had a team dedicated to investigating complaints and relocating unhappy guests.

“We’re proud to offer a reviews system that helps travelers from all over the world find the stay that’s right for them,” they told news.com.au. “In the very rare instance that a property does not meet expectations, our customer service team are available to assist with relocations, as well as picking-up complaints with properties directly to ensure any action required on their part is taken.”

The apartment also had a 5.7 star rating on the website, with some suggesting Pejovic should have known what to expect.

“Why would we even think we’d get catfished at that rating?” she replied.

“We were struggling to even find accommodation so we just saw this, thought it looked amazing and went with it. Will be looking next time.”