Airbnb to Verify All 7 Million Listings

Suzanne302
Level 10
Wilmington, NC

Airbnb to Verify All 7 Million Listings

In case you missed it:

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/airbnb-verify-million-properties-improve-trust-66800644

 

This is great and something that should have been a no-brainer. Plenty of bad listings out there. But it still seems to be vilifying the hosts when the biggest need is to address bad GUEST behavior.

 

Thoughts?

102 Replies 102

@Laura2592  Chesky did a clever PR thing, very calculated and very disrespectful to the shooting victims- he addressed both issues at the same time, the party house shootings and the scam listing issue, and is pushing the scam listing "solutions" so they overtake the party house issue. And is blaming and shaming hosts for both.

Jody79
Level 10
Chicago, IL

The new initiatives ABB are going to put in place in response to this shooting will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again.  What about vetting guests, not allowing them to book a place (or even request to book) without verified ID's and real names?  What about penalizing guests when they break house rules...# 1 being NO PARTIES OR EVENTS?  What about not allowing guests to just delete their account and open a new one under a different name when they get a bad review?  I'm all for ensuring listings are accurate and eliminating the scams, however there needs to be measures in place to protect the hosts from guests who blatantly break house rules just so they can have a cheap place to trash.  ABB's response did not at all address the real issue here.

Alice595
Level 10
Concord, CA

@Jody79 @Emilia42 @Laura2592  @Suzanne302 

 

There is only one measure which could help to reduce the risk of party in this article

 

— Beginning Dec. 15, Airbnb will be expanding manual checks of "high-risk" reservations flagged by its system to cut down on unauthorized parties. One-night reservations at large homes will get extra scrutiny, for example. Airbnb stressed that it doesn't consider race, profile pictures, gender or nationality when assessing the risk associated with a reservation.

 

But those party goers still have chance to book two or three nights for hosting a party. Or they can lie about the total number of guests in the group to avoid triggering the system check.

 

Without thorough guests checking and allow the user changing the real name and allow guests to booking without verified government Id, parties will not be stopped in Airbnb rental houses.

Marie82
Level 10
New South Wales, Australia

@Alice, when i 1st start it was a min of 2 days during the weekend, even with 2 days group booked to party.

Now i have set to min 3 nights during the weekend on good size apartment, still, guests travel from Melbourne and come to a party in Sydney. And if u found out and threated them be sure to get 1-star review who will stand on ur profile and dig you down the bottom during low seasons.

 

By not vetting guests properly ABB is shooting itself financially as more hots will be able to provide 1/2 days stay and attract business traveller but by fear of parties we don't. So, in the end, we all loose

 

and expand our listings to other platforms with a better security deposit.

 

The only think Hosts around the world have been asking to ABB, verify properly guests, if u said Paul is coming we need to trust you that Paul is coming. I don't care about the pictures what I care is ID verification impose on any guests with a proper security deposit 

 

@Suzanne302 I imagine though, that the 'risk assessment' is basic common sense.

 

Here, let me try, with no AI, no access to airbnb's data.  High risk bookings are 1) 1 or 2 nights over a weekend,  especially one night 2) user has no photo/photo and name do not match credit card info.  3) user has no reviews  4) user is under 25 years of age, 5) user lives within 30 miles of the airbnb. 6) airbnb fits criteria for a 'vacation home' e.g. a house with at least 3 bedrooms.

 

It isn't rocket science, and the truth is that airbnb has not cared about any of these red flags at all and in fact has actively discouraged hosts from declining guests who come with these red flags.

 

 

Jody79
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Alice595 @Emilia42 Hi Emilia & Alice, I read that article, and totally agree that ABB needs to reduce the scam listings.  I also don't have an issue with what ABB is putting in place to address this.  My issue is that they neglected to address what happened in California.  What does flagging of high-risk reservations mean?  If it's something like contacting the guests asking them if they are going to throw a party, that's an empty action.  If the guest is going to lie to the host, what makes them think they are going to be truthful to them? 

 

In addition to that, it's not only large houses that get booked for parties, it's smaller residences as well.  Our listing is in our basement, we live upstairs.  Our first month at this we had 4 parties!  Our listing had stated 'no parties or events' right from the start.  One was gearing up for one of those infamous ABB flash parties.  The only reason it didn't get that far is because we intervened early on.  Had we gone out to dinner or something that evening, it would have been in full swing and probably not much we could have done about it short of calling in the police.

 

Nothing in the announcement from ABB holds guests accountable.  Nothing that would deter a guest from finding a cheap place to party.

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

I feel so sorry that people lost their lives and more so that it took such an awful and tragic event as to push Airbnb to realise that a reaction is warranted.

 

 

As a minimum I would make all hosts and guests to have the following before their profile becomes active:

 

-Full name (+ nickname)

-Address (match ID)

-Email

-Verified Phone number 

-Government ID 

-Recent Selfie which uses face recognition (not a motivational meme) - which an existing Airbnb member would need to verify and confirm 

-Date of birth (verified against passport or ID)


When booking groups- all members of the listing should have their details added, regardless of age onto the listing. 

 

I hate the fact that I have to ask guests to confirm who else is coming ( seeing for example John and guest #2, #3 and so forth) and If their total number of guests are accurate for group bookings. 

Rather than such a high admin fee all members should be made to pay a standard fee as to part take on Airbnb, similar to a subscription fee. There is one for hosting and one for guests, cooperates have different charges based on listing quantity- just an idea, not 100% on this one. 


When booking 

- Before sending a request the guest would need to give a password hidden in the listing as to proceed, which changes  upon each request.

-The rules turn up as a pop up screen and you are made to read and then manually agree to these

- Same as above for the cancellation fee, things to note etc

-The default guest number for adults, children and infant is ~ and then you have a row option as to select of 1,2,3 etc 


Once confirmed adult guests are sent a copy of rules, cancellation policy etc. And hosts receives a full reservation with list of who is coming and age.

 

This would help in managing expectations and maintain a high level of security for both. I am no expert in this field but I think this would be a good start. 


Just my two cents. 

 

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

In addition to the above would also only allow IB For guests with a minimum of 

 

3 completed and verified trips (not including cancelled ones) 

average of 4.5* rating even 4*
all thumps up for hosting this guest again 


visualisation of both hosts reviews and guests reviews for their hosts 

 

this would be a lot more helpful to the hosts and probably allow them to have more trust in IB. Thanks 🙂 

 

 

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

To verify listings 

 

I would firstly put a “freezing” on new host sign up until this is actually addressed. 

I would target current reviews and look for “key words” and terms which continuously turn up in reviews. For example terms such as “dirty”, “filthy”, “mold” as realistically when reviewing, people will not say “the place was not filthy”... and then have them pop up in airbnb’s  “to watch radar”. A group of statistician would probably be best employed as assist this, not just tech people- this would identify outliers and potentially  remove them protecting the good hosts who were wrongfully reviewed and those who are consistently bad. 

I like the idea of having a local “Airbnb resources group” and they help in inspection and also in providing general information for being able to host responsibly based on local laws and regulation policies. I would employ people not hosting on Airbnb to run this as to ensure that no conflict of interest is incurred and would have local verified hosts as inspectors, in exchange would give them discounted admin costs for themselves and/or their guests among other incentives including money which could help in pushing their businesses.

For any cooperate business hosting on the site I would require a higher minimum overall- I heard it’s currently set at 3.5* (not sure how accurate this is), I think an average of around  4* is a good point, takes into account the fact that there is more turnover so increased chances of dissatisfied guests but it’s still an achievable goal.
 Once on the radar, would have Airbnb staff spot check these listings as  regular guests- stay with these hosts as to verify if what the consumer is saying is correct, similarly to secret shoppers.

If underperforming the host is put into a “probationary period” and if no improvement, their account becomes de listed. These address regardless of format become « no go zones » and can only be re-activated if problems are addressed... this section would need more work as to solve this issue.

i also noticed several hosts have the exact same house listed in Airbnb under different descriptions, changing the way they choose to market and this only happens because the address format changes so I would standardise this 

 

1. Latitude, longitude

2. Flat/ house number (number and letter combination only)

3. Flat/house name 

4. street name 

5. post code 

6. City 

7. province/state 

8. Country 

 

And target those which are reported continuously as having an « incorrect address ». 

I know there is more and I have no idea what they’ll do but I really hope it’s addressed and not just pulled under the carpet with some flashy marketing campaign. 

 

 

 

Our listing has been reported for incorrect address because of the muppetry of guests who don't read the directions.

We'd be delisted for sure!

@Mike-And-Helen0 

 

i have confirmed twice my address on Airbnb before publishing and after and once again- their format has changed and as a result the address is incorrect- it has the name but no number. To combat this I always confirm my address after the cancellation period under “IMPORTANT- please READ!”, and guests still get lost, this is after providing a map link and screenshot of a map! 🥵

I need to spot check everything- as things on my listing keep on changing without my consent, so frustrating sometimes. 

Hugh0
Level 10
Sydney, Australia

This should have been the prime objective of the PLUS program - verify listings and confirm a standard level of amenities - rather than the fiasco it is of demanding changes to throw pillows.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

Meanwhile, while the company spokespeople are blathering all over the media about their new verification plan, this poor guy has phoned Airbnb twice to tell them someone is illegally listing his property and the listing is still up, still taking booking from unsuspecting guests.  He just posted this- so it's obviously business as usual. What a friggin' joke. 

Ishtikar's post, 2nd page of this thread: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/I-need-to-report-a-fake-profile-but-I-also-want-to-get/td-p...

@Sarah977  Wow. Seriously, is this company so big they can't address issues like this immediately? THIS is part of the problem.

 

It should take one call to customer service, verify and provide proof you are the homeowner, and that listing should be removed immediately.