This partnership follows new consumer research from YouGov, commissioned by Airbnb, which revealed that Gen Z and Millennials are the most likely to have fallen for travel scams, with victims losing an average of Rs 1,02,233.
The research highlights that the rising cost of living has led almost half of Indian travellers to consider being less cautious when booking a vacation if it results in saving a significant sum of money. Over 40 per cent of Indian travellers would take a risk to save money, even if they believed a deal was too good to be true.
“When it comes to booking on Airbnb, we encourage our guests to only communicate, book, and pay on the platform, where we have secure processes and support like Aircover in place to help protect against scams and ensure issues are rare,” said Amanpreet Bajaj, general manager for Airbnb India, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Airbnb has implemented several measures to safeguard its customers’ information and bookings. These measures include dedicated teams and systems aimed at proactively deterring scams, on-platform messaging between users, reminders across the site to stay on Airbnb to communicate, book, and pay, along with guest payment protections, such as withholding payment to property owners for a stay until 24 hours after check-in.
Airbnb has also worked to tackle third-party attempts to exploit its brand. In the past 12 months, Airbnb’s team detected and mitigated almost 2,500 third-party phishing domains globally. Such scams have become more prevalent due to the rise in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
First Published: Aug 05 2024 | 3:02 PM IST
