Airbnb’s New Listing Verification Process Favors Pro Hosts
Airbnb has started to verify listings in five of its top global markets, but the process is much simpler for professional hosts than those with individual listings, according to requirements viewed by Skift.
In the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and France, the verification process for pro hosts consists of just checking two boxes indicating that their listings satisfy verification requirements and that they are authorized to attest to that. There is no other proof required.
Individual hosts need to provide photos or videos.
Professional hosts could be those with, say, 20 listings or public companies. such as Vacasa and Sonder with thousands.
Hosts who don’t submit verification for their listings within several weeks after receiving an email prompting them to do so risk having their calendars blocked, meaning they can’t take new reservations.
Airbnb blocked or removed more than 200,000 fake listings in 2023. Now it is undertaking the mammoth task of verifying its more than 7 million listings. Airbnb, which declined to comment on the verification process for this story, is expected to provide an update in March about how many of its listings it has verified.
Here’s the process for individual hosts, according to Airbnb:
Take photos outside their property that match two images or
Provide three videos of less than 20 seconds each that the host takes inside the front door, outside the unit, and showing a street sign nearby or
If the host doesn’t reside in the listing city, then they can ask someone else to match two photos with listing images or submit the three videos.
