How we verify
Most listings on Bnbdaddy have not been checked by us at all. A listing showing Verified by Bnbdaddy is the exception: a person went and confirmed that the host is real and controls the property they are advertising. This page is what that did, and — just as importantly — what it did not.
What the check involves
We find the host somewhere else
We look for the same property, listed by the same person, on an established booking platform — and we look at the account rather than the listing alone: how long it has existed, and what previous guests have said. A host who has been letting the same place for years, with a public history attached to it, is a very different proposition from an account created last week.
We look at their own dashboard, not just the public page
A public listing page can be copied by anybody. So we ask the host to show us the view only the owner of that listing can see — their own booking dashboard — and we keep a capture of it. That is the part that distinguishes the person who controls the property from somebody who has found its photographs.
They walk us through the property on video
The host records a walk-through and sends it to us. It is checked against the photographs on the listing. This is what catches a real, verifiable host advertising a place that does not match what they are actually offering.
An identity check, run by somebody else
Identity is confirmed through a specialist provider. We receive their reference number and whether the person passed — and nothing else. No identity document, no passport, no facial scan is ever sent to Bnbdaddy or stored on our systems. We could not show you one if you asked, because we do not have it.
What the badge does not mean
- Nobody has been to the property. We do not inspect, and we never have. Nothing about the badge speaks to whether the place is clean, safe, well maintained, or as nice as the photographs suggest.
- It is not a guarantee of your stay. Bnbdaddy is not part of your booking. You arrange everything directly with the host, and the badge does not make us a party to that arrangement or a guarantor of it.
- It describes a moment in time. A check happened on a particular day. Properties change hands, listings change, and a host who was genuine then can stop being reachable now.
- It can be wrong. A determined person can deceive a remote check. We think these steps make that hard and expensive; we do not claim they make it impossible.
If a badged listing is wrong
Tell us and we will act on it. A badge can be removed the same day, and if you paid to unlock a listing that turns out to be fraudulent, or we gave you a number that was never the host’s, you get your money back — see refunds. Reports about a badged listing are the ones we look at first, because a badge we got wrong is worse than no badge at all.
You can reach us through the contact page. For how reviews on this site are produced, which is a separate question with its own answer, see how reviews work.