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Airbnb management firm criticised for advertising claims

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
02/05/2018

Airsorted, a firm which offers management services for short-term lets on Airbnb, has had three complaints against it upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The issues centred on claims it had made comparing Airsorted’s service with rival firm Hostmaker, which included a grid listing service such as ‘free 24-hour check-in’, flexible pricing and a personal dedicated service.

Against each category the grid listed yes for Airsorted and no for Hostmaker.

In a separate Facebook advert, the firm claimed to be the world’s biggest Airbnb management company and that it could help property investors earn 300% more from their properties.

Insubstantial response

When Airsorted was first approached over the complaints, which were made by Hostmaker, it promised to make changes to the advert but would not confirm what changes nor provide any “substantive response to the complaint”.

After investigating, the ASA found that Airsorted could not substantiate the claims made in either advert.

It said: “Because the basis of the comparisons had not been verified we concluded that both ads breached the code.”

As both adverts were deemed to be misleading, Airsorted has been warned that they must not appear again in their current form.

The ASA concluded: “We told Airsorted to ensure that future ads did not make claims by comparison with identifiable competitors, unless they held adequate evidence to substantiate and verify the claims.”