Airbnb Unveils New Category Of Rentals Rated By Inspectors

Airbnb Unveils New Category Of Rentals Rated By Inspectors

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Airbnb is dispatching inspectors to rate thousands of the properties listed on its home rental service in an effort to reassure travelers they’re booking nice places to stay.

The Plus program, unveiled last week, is aimed at winning over travelers who aren’t sure they can trust the current rating system drawn from the opinions posted by past guests. The misleading pictures drawn by Airbnb’s rating system have become a big enough problem to spawn a website devoted to horror stories spanning from an overcrowded, dirty “hippy commune ” in Pasadena, California, to a Paris vacation ruined in a moldy, bug-infested apartment.

“You realize over time that you do have to take more responsibility for your platform, you have to be hands on, you have to make judgments,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in an interview.

The hands-on touch built into the Plus program comes 10 years after Chesky and his former roommate started Airbnb in a San Francisco apartment in hopes of bringing in more money to pay their own rent.

Airbnb’s internal surveys have found nearly three-fourths of the travelers on its service are willing to pay more for inspector-certified properties, allowing homeowners and apartment dwellers to quickly recoup a $149 fee to participate in Plus.