Which? created eight fake listings on Airbnb, homeaway.co.uk and Holiday Lettings to find out how easy it would be to set up fraudulent property listings. All profiles were quick to create, and only ID requested photographic Homeaway, however, this could be avoided if a £478 yearly subscription was taken out. The research suggested that a considerable number of fake listings are slipping through the system, with horror stories from scam victims adding to this concern, even though these platforms state they monitor the "hosts" who put properties up for rent, with Airbnb saying it has recently introduced new security tools.
Which? created eight fake listings on Airbnb, homeaway.co.uk and Holiday Lettings to find out how easy it would be to set up fraudulent property listings. All profiles were quick to create, and only Homeaway requested photographic ID, however, this could be avoided if a £478 yearly subscription was taken out. The research suggested that a considerable number of fake listings are slipping through the system, with horror stories from scam victims adding to this concern, even though these platforms state they monitor the "hosts" who put properties up for rent, with Airbnb saying it has recently introduced new security tools.