Airbnb is to verify every listing on its platform, following a string of scams and a deadly shooting at a house party.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said every home and host on the site would be reviewed and verified by 15 December 2020.
A refund policy will also be introduced next month, to ensure guests will either be re-booked into a different listing or fully refunded when a property does not meet Airbnb’s standards for accuracy, Chesky said.
The announcement comes after five people were killed in a Halloween party shooting at a rented Airbnb property in the San Francisco suburb of Orinda on 31 October.
The incident led to Chesky vowing to ban “party houses” on the platform.
Meanwhile, the news website Vice published an investigation into Airbnb scammers who posted inaccurate listings and then pressured guests into staying at properties they did not reserve.
Chesky said in a tweet that Airbnb will launch a 24/7 “neighbour hotline”, allowing people to call the company anywhere in the world and speak to “a real person”.
‘Manual screening’
“We are expanding manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection models, first to North America and then globally next year,” Chesky said on Twitter. “This will help stop unauthorised parties before they start.
“I want to be clear – we are not infallible. We are a platform built on a foundation of trust. We need to continue innovating on trust to make it harder for the bad actors. The trust of our community is our top priority.”
In 2018, Airbnb permanently banned a man who crammed more than 250 people into an Airbnb rental in Seven Hills, Ohio, for an unauthorised new year party, while his host hid in a bedroom.
In July, two people were killed during a party at an Airbnb in Pittsburgh.
