Found a place i'm not entirely sure about, please have a look

[Douwe2]

Hello! 

So i've been looking for a place in birmingham, but i'm not entirely sure if this place is legit or not, please have a look and share opinions. Would be much appreciated 🙂 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/25152563?location=Birmingham%2C%20United%20Kingdom&adults=4&check_in=20...

[Emilia42]

@Douwe2, what makes you skeptical of this listing? The host is a Superhost with 27 five star reviews. Unless there was some sort of communication with the host that put you off, I would book it.

[Emilia42]

P.S. you might want to put a little more information into your profile. ID verification and a blurb about yourself. The host may not think you are legit.

[Douwe2]

It feels very cheap for what it offers. (placing etc) 
Checked out a few of the reviews that he's had as well, and a bunch of the reviewers were mainly reviewed (as guests) by the guy that tries to rent out this appartment. 

I am fairly new to Airbnb, so maybe i'm underestimating the importance of being a superhost 🙂 

p.s. Accidentally posted this as a regular reply, trying to figure out a way to get rid of the other one. Will add some information though, thanks!

[Emilia42]

@Douwe2, I'm confused by what you mean. "a bunch of the reviewers were mainly reviewed (as guests) by the guy that tries to rent out this appartment." 

[Douwe2]

@Emilia42 Yea that's my bad, sorry. What I figured is that people who stay at airbnb's also get reviewed by their hosts. The reviews the people had who stayed at the air bnb AND left a review (aka the 'reviewers') were obviously the only ones i had access to. The reviews these people had from their hosts, at least several of them were mainly reviewed by the host of the appartment i linked. This made me a little unsure whether it was legit or not.

I hope that makes it a bit more understandable. 

Regardless, we've found a different place that also fits our needs, so it's all good.  Thanks for helping me out though. 

p.s. is being a superhost supposed to be a solid way to see whether a host is trying to scam or not? 

[Helen3]

Hello @Douwe2 

I'm rather confused by your comments.

The listing looks great. It has great reviews. None of them appear to be from the host who has the listing.

Being a superhost means that guests have rated you highly and you don't (usually) cancel guest bookings. 

[Douwe2]

Hello @Helen3! 

I wasn't on about the reviews on the appartment itself, more so about the reviews left on the people that reviewed the appartment... if that makes any sense. 

Since i'm new to airbnb I was just having a look whether people were trying to create fake accounts pretty much. For a comparison, for the longest of times you could buy people to follow you (usually bots) on instagram for example, this would make it seem like you were a big and legit instagram account. Although that is past it's glory days now, I was having a look to see if there was something similar going on airbnb, where you try to make accounts look legit/good by doing fake reviews. 

Hope that clears it up slightly, thanks for your comment!

[Sarah977]

@Douwe2   While a host could get friends or family who have airbnb accounts to leave reviews, they could only do that if their friends actually booked the place and paid money to Airbnb. The host, of course, could just pay them back for this bogus booking, but that wouldn't be to the host's advantage, as all the dates for those bookings would be blocked on the calendar, so legitimate guests would not be able to book those dates.