If you ever considered booking Airbnb in the middle of nowhere, the last thing that you want is to realize that there is no Airbnb. It is every traveler’s nightmare to realize that they’ve been scammed.

1. How Steve Barbarich Scam Experience Changed Him
If you ever considered booking Airbnb in the middle of nowhere, the last thing that you want is to
realize that there is no Airbnb. It is every traveler’s nightmare to realize that they’ve been
scammed.
Steve Barbarich experienced something similar when he was traveling. Fortunately, he was
given a refund by Airbnb. And also, there was a hotel nearby. But since then, he made it a point
to run a business that will not let this happen to customers.
To better understand how the business goes, he started the Steve Barbarich Airbnb
management firm that handled properties. Here, he understood not just the platform but how the
business runs daily.
When he became confident, that was the time when he started his own platform. He also made
sure that all the precautions were present. A Steve Barbarich scam prevention strategy that he
did was to only operate in small areas. He started his operations in Los Angeles, San Diego,
and in some parts of San Francisco. Even if there’s a huge potential to become a serious
competitor to Airbnb, he chose to make sure that no guest will have to deal with what he
experienced in the past.
Precautions Imposed by Barbarich
Steven Barbarich imposed a lot of precautions when he started his company. One of the things
that he did was to limit the number of properties that are for rent. While this was a bad move in
terms of running a business, it allowed him to check each property and ask for all the necessary
paperwork. He even went to the extent of personally visiting some of the properties out there.
He wanted to make sure that it was never going to be a scam. Plus, part of the deal is to hire his
management company when they become part of the platform. This way, it prevents hosts from
mishandling their properties and not being able to please the customers.
Marketing the Properties
The biggest challenge that he faced was to market the app that he started along with the
properties. If you’re going to compare the reach of Airbnb and his platform, it is clear how
Barbarich’s app can never be the market leader.
But despite the challenges, he made sure to market it by pleasing the customers. He’s a
believer in word-of-mouth advertising. He believes that if you get things right, there is always the
chance others are going to recommend your product. Then, he hired a marketing staff to spread
the word about his company and things worked for him in the end.
However, it wasn’t exactly easy for Steve Barbarich to fill in the gap in the industry because a lot
of people thought that Airbnb was the only option that they had. It took him a lot of effort to
conceptualize a rental property platform that is different from Airbnb.

2. But at the core of his idea is to have a rental property platform that prioritizes the customers. He
made sure that customers got the best service not only during their actual stay but also from the
time when they started asking questions to the rental property host.