Booking.com allowed ********s to **** us by allowing them to list property that isn’t available for hire

Stay away from Booking.com their app/website is infiltrated by ******** hosts. On the 1st we booked accommodation in Balito KZN through booking.com because we thought its a secure platform whereby properties and hosts are adequately verified and due diligence is done. We completed booking and had to pay full price. Couple minutes after we were contacted by the host requesting a R5000 security deposit to confirm our booking which advised by the host will be refunded to us once we check out. Before paying the R5000 we checked booking.com terms and conditions around hosts and deposits and it stated that hosts are allowed to request this before check in so we proceeded to pay. We travelled to Balito to check in and when we got to the property we were advised by the guard that we are one of many that have been ****med as this property is actually for sale and not for hire and the guard asked did we pay the R5000! We then contacted booking.com and the bank to log a case and was advised by the bank to open a case at the police station which we had done. Booking.com found other accommodation for us but still we have lost R5000? We have been dealing customer support from booking.com having to repeat the story daily and share case number, bank statements, proof of payment and confirmation of reservation and to date nothing has been done? Booking.com has allowed ********s to infiltrate their system and rob innocent people. If we were one of many why wasn’t that property removed? How did that property get loaded in the first place? Do they not verify hosts and properties? This is extremely disappointing and traumatic as losing R5000 is a lot of money