07 Feb What is Airbnb and is Airbnb safe? Passive Airbnb

In part one, I have written about how Airbnb works, specifically who can book and who can host. You can read more about it here.

In this part two, I’ll be writing about the origin of Airbnb and the safety of it.

What is Airbnb?

Airbnb is in a nutshell, an online marketplace for guests to book a short-term rental with local hosts. When Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia initially launched what nowadays is one of the biggest travel websites, they named it “AirBed&Breakfast”. It wasn’t until later, they rebranded it to Airbnb.

Check out the below infographic on their story. I always find it useful!

I also found this Wikipedia page on Airbnb extremely useful. It sums up nicely about what is Airbnb.

Is Airbnb Safe?

I know that you have heard some of the horror stories out there today. I do want to say that Airbnb has monthly transactions close to if not over 3 million nightly rentals. Mathematically, a bad experience is bound to happen. 99.9% of the time, most stays go perfectly, but that .1% is what the media likes to talk about!

Needlesstosay, Airbnb takes safety very, very seriously. They have pioneered in building a trusted online marketplace.

Safety Features

Here are some of the requirements that they use to screen out potentially dangerous guests and hosts.

1. Risk scoring: Every Airbnb reservation is scored for risk before it’s confirmed. We use predictive analytics and machine learning to instantly evaluate hundreds of signals that help us flag and investigate suspicious activity before it happens.
2. Watchlist & background checks: While no screening system is perfect, globally we run hosts and guests against regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watchlists. For hosts and guests in the United States, we also conduct background checks.
3. Preparedness: They routinely run safety workshops with hosts and leading local experts and provide hosts with online safety cards with important local information for their guests. Hosts can also request a free smoke and carbon monoxide detector for their home.
4. Secure payments: Their secure platform ensures your money gets to the host—that’s why we ask you to always pay through Airbnb and never wire money or pay someone directly.
5. Account protection: They take a number of measures to safeguard your Airbnb account, like requiring multi-factor authentication when a login is attempted from a new phone or computer and sending you to account alerts when changes are made.
6. Scam prevention: Always pay and communicate directly through the Airbnb website or app. As long as you stay on Airbnb throughout the entire process—from communication to booking, to payment—you’re protected by our multi-layer defense strategy.

Even with all of those safety features in place, bad things do slip through. To further prepare yourself for a safe stay, I’d suggest reading this article from CNtraveler.com.

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