Airbnb has announced that it will verify all property listings on its platform after news website discovered numerous scams.
The announcement from Airbnb that it will verify all listings on its rentals site comes after Vice News reported a pattern of false or misleading property listings it found on the company's website.
Airbnb pledged to review every property by 2020 and promised to refund customers if they were misled by inaccurate listings. This is the first time since the company launched in 2008 that Airbnb promised to verify every listing promoted on its platform.
In October, Vice News investigated the site and interviewed a number of people who had booked accommodation on Airbnb and experienced being scammed. Vice News found that when guests arrived for their holiday, they typically receive a last-minute call from the landlord saying the property was no longer available due to an emergency or double-booking.
The guests would then be transferred to another property, often in a different area and without the amenities included in the original booking. Most of the time, they would be forces to stay at least one night at the new property especially if they arrived late at night at their destination.
The victims say Airbnb would refuse to give them a full refund despite the misleading bookings.
In response to the Vice News report, Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky tweeted: "Airbnb is in the business of trust. We are making the most significant steps in designing trust on our platform since our original design in 2008."
As pafrt of these initiatives, Chesky promised to review every home and host on their site by December 2020, to refund the entire cost to guests if the accommodation does not meet "accuracy standards" and if it failed to find another property "that is just as nice," and to launch a phone line so "anyone can call us any time, anywhere in the world and reach a real person".
