Airbnb says its removed 59,000 fake listings in a crackdown, these having emerged as a major problem for an open registry of amateur hoteliers.
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. … Airbnb also said that later this year it will begin verifying all listings in its top five markets including the United States and the United Kingdom to combat an outbreak of fakes.
"Free accounts, post without oversight" was a fundamental mistake of the modern web. It created a numbers game, drove massive growth and investment, got damp, got rotten, released toxic spores everywhere, is now a shimmering moldy gloop of fraud, fascism, human despair and marketing, and everyone is looking at it and grimacing and saying "we can fix this with AI."
