Airbnb to verify all 7 million properties to improve trust

Airbnb says it will spend the next year verifying that all seven million of its listings are accurate and that the homes and rooms being offered for short-term stays meet basic quality standards.

It’s one of several moves the San Francisco-based company is making to improve user trust and make it easier for guests, hosts and others to report problems and obtain refunds when things go awry.

The changes come after a rough week for Airbnb.

Last Thursday, a shooting at an unauthorised Halloween party in an Airbnb rental in Orinda, California, left five people dead.

A Vice story, meanwhile, revealed a scam by Airbnb hosts who put guests up at inferior properties after claiming the ones they initially booked weren’t available. Guests told Vice they had trouble obtaining refunds from the company and were given bad reviews by the shady hosts.

And on Tuesday, voters in Jersey City, New Jersey, approved restrictions on short-term rental companies in a referendum in one of Airbnb’s most important markets.

In an e-mail sent to employees Wednesday, Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky said the company will take its most significant steps to improve trust since its founding in 2008.

“People need to feel like they can trust our community and that they can trust Airbnb when something goes wrong,” Chesky wrote.

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