Every time I search for a room, I end up feeling frustrated because so many listings contain obvious errors that result in them being assigned as many — or even more — GP than entire apartments.
It is very common for hosts to indicate the square footage of the entire home instead of the actual size of the room being offered. They may also list all the bedrooms, beds and bathrooms in the house, when in reality the guest only has access to one bedroom with a bed or sofa bed and a bathroom, maybe even shared with the hosts.
The same problem occurs, particularly in Asia and Africa, with accommodation located in resorts or tourist complexes. The listing may mention a kitchen, fridge, microwave, freezer, swimming pool, gym, parking, etc., even though these are facilities belonging to the complex and are not actually available to the guest, or are shared with all the other guests.
As a result, a listing can end up with a very high GP value when, in reality, what is actually being offered is a room with a bathroom and not much else.
A few days ago, I reported exactly this kind of case: a Chinese family had listed all the bedrooms and beds in their home. HE corrected the listing, but since then they have added practically every possible amenity: home cinema, playground, scooter, car, bicycle, balcony, etc. The result is that they can once again reach almost the same number of GP as before.
And for me, this is the real problem: HE currently has no system for monitoring a listing after it has been reported and corrected. The system simply relies on another user noticing the problem again and reporting it if the host modifies the listing incorrectly once more.
I really think this needs to change. When a listing has already been reported and HE has had to intervene, any subsequent modification should be reviewed, at least for a certain period of time. This is not about constantly monitoring hosts. It is simply about preventing a listing from being “inflated” again immediately after it has been corrected.
Otherwise, the entire responsibility is once again placed on users. In my opinion, this is neither an efficient system nor a very encouraging one for users who take the time to report these issues.
