Airbnb Vows to Verify All Its Home Listings After Scam Uncovered
TRYING HARDER
Airbnb said Wednesday that it will review every home and host on its site “with the objective to verify 100% of listings” after a Vice report exposed a nationwide scam that swindled vacationers out of thousands of dollars. “We are introducing the Airbnb Guest Guarantee,” Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky wrote in a tweet. “Starting on 12/15/19, if a guest checks into a listing and it doesn’t meet our accuracy standards, we will rebook them into a listing that is just as nice — and if we can’t, they will get 100% of their money back.” Chesky added that the company will also be “expanding manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection models.” The new measures come after an alarming Vice report detailed a scam in which people posing as homeowners posted fake listings, then essentially forced renters to cancel their reservations upon arrival, allowing them to still collect their money.