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Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

nytimes.com

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Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#21

Post by hello_friendos »

darkwizard42 wrote: post #18
zik wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also doesn't mean you're safe to use airbnb. If you're the first person to try a given scam listing you'll get scammed. And then airbnb will de-list it, after the fact. And then the scammer will create a new listing presumably to scam the next person.

For what its worth, Airbnb is pretty upfront about NEW properties in their platform especially those with no reviews yet. Someone always has to give it the first go to know if the hosts are great or not (though acknowledging the property is real shouldn't require a guest to have a bad/potentially bad experience)

Most Airbnb scams rely on false reviews that AirBnb already is failing to catch.

Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#22

Post by rehasu »

umvi wrote: post #14

Would it kill AirBnB to do random (or even algorithmically-determined) audits? Auditor signs up for a night in your house. Let's say your listing has fake pictures or fake amenities. Or you try to bait and switch the auditor by having them stay in some crappy other property because the main listing "is having plumbing problems". Bam, audit failed, your account is frozen, your listings are removed, and you are banned…

Just adding a bonus point system and giving bonus points for creating well documented problem tickets would do the same trick, imho.

Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#24

Post by accidentaldev »

They should make it mandatory, every user should be forced to answer certain question after their stay or pay a fine - they can pitch it as a 5% discount

Next advancement would be to tax every stay and use it to an agency that would establish rules on “hosts” and regulations on room conditions.

After that, next advancement would be to realize this has existed for 200 years and is called government.

Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#25

Post by djohnston »

My worst AirBnb was let via a proxy agent. The flat wasn't actually rentable even though it was online, and so I showed up to a locked flat, no key, with all of my bags in a new city. AirBnB refunded it and gave me 50 AirBnb Bucks (TM). I only do hotels now, unless someone else is handling the reservation.

Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#26

Post by djohnston »

More generally, I think we're living in the moment where all successful startups acknowledge the fact that growth means more people, and more people means higher likelihoods of terrible behavior, since humans are on average a terrible organism, at least in relation to the values we espouse.

Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#28

Post by brnt »

rehasu wrote: post #22
umvi wrote: post #14

Would it kill AirBnB to do random (or even algorithmically-determined) audits? Auditor signs up for a night in your house. Let's say your listing has fake pictures or fake amenities. Or you try to bait and switch the auditor by having them stay in some crappy other property because the main listing "is having plumbing problems". Bam, audit failed, your account is frozen, your listings are removed, and you are banned…

Just adding a bonus point system and giving bonus points for creating well documented problem tickets would do the same trick, imho.

Anything crowdsourced can and will be gamed. That is the essence of this type of problem.

Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#29

Post by smt88 »

No amount of "verification" can get me to stay in an Airbnb.

There's no way for them to prevent homeowners from installing (legal) hidden cameras, and when cameras are discovered, they defer responsibility (to preserve their brand image).

A hotel, by contrast, can't legally have hidden cameras and takes the full brunt of the bad PR if one is discovered.

Re: Airbnb Plans to Verify Every Listing

#30

Post by progval »

deadmik3 wrote: post #6

unrelated to the article but it is really dumb that ny times doesn't have anchor linking right to specific headlines if they're going to put every article on the same page. I was wondering why this linked to an article about Kim Kardashian before I scrolled halfway down the page, past every ad of course...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/business/dealbook/boeing-...
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