Fake listings have emerged as a major problem for Airbnb, threatening to scare off consumers and prompting the short-term rental service to use AI in an effort to crack down on fraudsters.
Airbnb says it has removed 59,000 fake listings and prevented another 157,000 from joining the platform this year.
Fake listings and high cleaning fees are among several issues that Airbnb said Wednesday that its users highlighted in a company survey. Others included high cleaning fees and a desire for lower prices.
The San Francisco company said more than 260,000 listings have lowered or removed cleaning fees this year, since it gave consumers the means to sort listings in order of all-in pricing.
Airbnb says the change in how prices are displayed discourages hosts from touting low prices but piling on extra fees. However, only about one-third of Airbnb renters are using it.
“We got a lot of feedback that Airbnb is not as affordable as it used to be,” CEO Brian Chesky said in an interview. The pricing changes are starting work, he said, and more measures are in the works.
One of those is “seasonal dynamic pricing” — technology that would help hosts adjust prices more often, like airlines and hotels do. Chesky said that will prod hosts into cutting prices during the off-season, but it could also help them raise peak prices. MDT/AP
