Muddy, I “verify” that.
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We did a virtual tour back in June. It took less than 20 minutes as far as showing the house and everything we provided. I personally think it’s a great way to help weed out the fake profiles. Actually to be perfectly honest I think sending people out to homes listed, would be even better, have them make a reservation, Actually stay in the home and report back if listing is real and legit And of coarse don’t mention who they really are and why their really there until after they gone to every single listing. Sly and sneaky but the ones being truthful and going by the book shouldn’t have a problem with it. By now the scammers have figured out a way around the virtual tour thing. Just my opinion.
No thank you. No “mystery shoppers” masquerading as guests while taking notes to tattletale to Airbnb. The company is already far too non-transparent and punishing to hosts. The last thing we need is more of that.
I am truthful and going by the book, and I do very much have a problem with sly and sneaky.
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I totally missed this thread about the verifications. Vacasa opened a sales & service office in my area. They have a representative go to each new listing & verify all. Verification is a differentiator/selling point.
Btw-Airbnb hasn’t contacted me or the other hosts I know about verification. Ours are rentals for 2-6 people. Perhaps Airbnb is starting with larger rentals?
No, I think it’s just random. A host on the Airbnb CC who is a home share host with a couple of bedrooms listed had them contact her. She cut the virtual tour off when they asked her to open her silverware drawer and show them the contents. This was her kitchen that guests have use of. What on earth did they think would be in her silverware drawer, dead rats?
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How so? Don’t you think that hosts who are scamming would have bad reviews and bad ratings? If they were truly trying to weed out scam listings, they would start with the listings that had bad reviews, not long-time hosts with pages full of stellar reviews and 5* ratings.
There are scam, bait and switch, filthy listings on Airbnb that they have gotten plenty of guest complaints and reports about, and those listings are still up because the so-called hosts are big players with hundreds of listings who bring in lots of revenue for Airbnb.
This isn’t about weeding out scam listings. This is just more Airbnb BS PR.
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Maybe the truth is in the middle
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Routinely people report being scammed when renting what they see as an Airbnb rental. Yes it is usually because the guest is lured to an alternative method outside of Airbnb and ignore Airbnb’s warning to not pay off platform. It hurts Airbnb’s credibility and by extension the credibility of our listings
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A neighbor/friend is listed with a traditional short term rental management company. Her renters tend to prefer this over Airbnb & VRBO & Craigslist because they feel confident they are getting what they are paying for.
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Competitors of Airbnb are offering verified listings with 3-D video walk throughs.
Airbnb must both appear to take steps to prevent scammers and must compete with other platforms.
Just under three million hosts…
Around seven million listings…
Good luck with that plan.
JF
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Which competitors? I know there are some platforms that advertise as only having curated and inspected listings, but I don’t think any of them are big and most are only for extremely expensive homes.
@PitonView
I’m not aware of any as large as Airbnb but Airbnb didn’t start large.
Vacasa is increasing their service areas. Rabbu out of Charlotte NC is pushing to grow too.
Also
My area has several reputable Short term rental management companies.
My rentals are for the budget conscious. All the resources I listed we’re interested in my rentals do not always for the more expensive rentals.
I’ve been dealing with hosting burnout for about a year. Unfortunately due to Covid19, I haven’t had the rentals to support changing to a property management company. However I’m really thinking about it for the future