San Francisco (AFP)
Airbnb, the private home sharing platform, has decided to check by the end of 2020 the accuracy of information concerning all 7 million rentals offered on its site, after several incidents, including a shootout that killed five people in California.
The audit must begin immediately, said one of the company's co-founders, Brian Chesky, in an email sent Wednesday to all staff. It will have to be completed on December 15, 2020.
The accuracy of the information published on the site, including the address, photos and other details, as well as all that concerns the state of housing, security and equipment promised, will be verified.
The platform undertakes, as of December 15 of this year, to relocate or refund in its entirety an Airbnb user whose rental would not be satisfactory. The company has often been criticized for not doing enough to satisfy the complaints of its customers.
Mr. Chesky acknowledges: "Most hosts do a great job, but customers need to feel that Airbnb is on their side, and we believe this commitment is a necessary step to reassure customers."
The boss of the platform has also announced the establishment of a hotline operating 7 days 7, 24 hours on 24, which should allow to join "a real person at Airbnb all over the world and to any time".
The service will run from December 31 in the United States and will be extended worldwide in 2020.
To form and set up a team of employees able to respond quickly to urgent requests, Airbnb took as consultants Charles Ramsey, who led the police in Philadelphia and Washington, but also the former boss of the police in Palo Alto in California and adviser to President Obama, Ronald Davis.
The last measure concerns the detection of hirings at risk, especially those presented specifically for partying, which are now prohibited.
The ban was announced on November 2, two days after a shooting in Orinda, California, at the same time as the increase in "manual control" of reservations reported as suspicious by the automatic risk detection system.
© 2019 AFP