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

Lots of hosts are NOT the homeowner though.

@Mike-And-Helen0  When hosts sign up, they should be required to provide documentation that they are the homeowner, or if not, produce a notarized letter from their landlord, stating that they have permission to list the place. It's not that complicated.

Agreed on both counts @Sarah977 .

If you read here a lot (which I expect you do) you'll see people posting who clearly don't have their landlord's permission.

Do you think they shouldn't host?

@Mike-And-Helen0   I absolutely think they shouldn't host without their landlord's permission- that's illegal, apart from being rude and inconsiderate and disrespectful. As a homeowner, I would be livid if a had a long-term tenant who was listing the place, or even rooms in it without asking my permission. 

If a tenant is listing without the landlord's permission, if the guests stop up the plumbing, do you really think that tenant is going to pay a couple hundred bucks or more to hire a plumber? No, they're going to call the landlord, and expect them to pay for it, and never mention that their heretofore unknown Airbnb guests were the perpetrators.

Another thing that's quite common among these types of hosts is that they instruct the guests to tell anyone who asks that they're just friends. It puts the guests in an uncomfortable situation to be expected to lie on someone else's behalf.

Tony-And-Una0
Level 10
Belfast, United Kingdom

When I signed up with Booking.com several years ago, they posted a letter to the property with a verification code.

 

Crude but effective.

 

However, this is an additional barrier to hosts signing up so would be surprised if Airbnb did it.

@Tony-And-Una0 

Exactly! It's not rocket science. No need for complex technology, or machine learning, or AI... as a first port of call, simply do as other sites have been doing all these years, and post a verification code, by regular mail, to the physical address(es) each host has listed. That one simple meaure would eliminate a large proportion on scams/scammers in one fell swoop. 

@Susan1797  Not every host around the world gets mail delivery at their homes. I don't. If that's the way they verified our physical address, I'd be dead in the water.

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

@Sarah977 And not every British citizen has government i.d! It's never been compulsory here. Not everyone has a passport, not everyone has a photo driving licence. We've never had I.D. cards here. 

@Tony-And-Una0 

 

Same here, and they did a skype video call from the apartment too for veracity.

 

They also closed off new properties on the bdc site when the World Cup 2018 was on to prevent speculative punts and such. Not that bdc is perfection but they at least have a gateway before listing

 

 

@Tony-And-Una0  And what if  the property isn't somewhere that receives mail delivery?

@Sarah977 

Ah.. very valid point. Didn't think of that! Maybe something like the skype video call like @Elena87 mentioned above, might work in those instances? 

@Susan17  In my case, Skype could work, but that would have to be set up ahead of time as my computer isn't just on all the time and I don't use a smart phone. But I'd imagine that there are some rustic, remote listings which have neither mail delivery nor internet service. 

@Sarah977 @Susan17 

I am surprised by what I read here 🙂 You don't have to have any ID in the UK? 😄

 

Well, in Croatia we have to get a city license for every unit to be allowed to rent it STR. It's a ton of bureaucracy, forms, various inspections, and paperwork to obtain the licence. It is very easy for Airbnb to verify all listings in Croatia - they should just check if we submitted our VAT number and optionally, our STR license.

 

But verifying hosts is a solution for just a part of the problem. Guests should be verified too.

 

 

 

@Branka-and-Silvia0 - Sarah & Susan might know the answer to your question, but neither are UK hosts! I am British, & wrote the thing you're referring to: NO, there are NO i.d.cards in the UK, as I said, not everybody chooses to get a passport. New driving licences have a photo, old ones don't. 

Rob468
Level 3
Stockholm, Sweden

I applaud Airbnb's pledge to verify all listings.  I'm going to start looking for Airbnb-verified photos when I book something.