The short-term rental property platform, Airbnb, announced today that it has verified nearly 1.5 million of its listings across the U.S., Canada, Australia, the UK, and France. If that number seems large, consider that it still leaves a whopping 80% of the company’s 7.7 million properties left to be verified.
Since launching in 2008, Airbnb has become the go-to for travelers looking for an alternative to hotels. It has also become a lucrative option for property earners looking to make some cash. In some U.S. cities, an Airbnb host can even earn more per year than their town’s average worker.
In recent years, Airbnb has taken some steps to improve their customer experience and weed out scams on its platform.
In September, the company said it would start verifying listings on its website and app in a number of countries. Five months later, the company’s has verified nearly 20% of its 7.7 million listings.
To verify a listing, hosts need to prove the listing is a real home, confirm its location, and prove they have access. Listings that pass the verification process will soon receive a verified badge on the platform.
Airbnb said it will soon launch new tools such as photo and video authentication to make the process easier. It will also start verifying listings in 30 additional countries this fall.
What else is Airbnb doing to protect customers
- 🏆 The company said it will start highlighting its top 25% of listings, based on ratings, reviews, and reliability. This distinction will be shown in a listings page on the app. The bottom 10 percent of listings will also be highlighted.
- 🛑 The company also said that stricter policies have reduced cancellations made by hosts by 36% in the last quarter of 2023.
- ❌ Since April 2023, Airbnb has removed 100,000 low quality listings from its platform.