Do rental sites with a BBB logo offer a better sense of security?
A few months ago, our rental listing site, Off Campus Network joined the BBB online program. We wanted to let landlords and property managers know that when they list an apartment or house for rent on our site, they are dealing with a creditable organization that will protect their privacy and address any concerns they may have.
Yesterday, I was looking at a few of the other online rental listing sites and was surprised to see many of them are not members. This does not give a rental owner a lot of confidence that they have someone to go if an issue arises. We have seen so many rental sites come and go over the years. Perhaps they were just not able to build a level of trust with rental property managers to get them to list their properties.
The next time you go to list a rental online, check what assurances exist that your personal information is safe.
- How long has the company been in business?
- Do they offer a phone number and address on their contact page?
- Is your credit card information secure?
- What is the privacy policy?
- Can you update or cancel your listing at any time?
All of these things are very important. The BBB logo is also a very good sign.
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5 Responses to “Do rental sites with a BBB logo offer a better sense of security?”
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I think it is really expensive.
If you find out it helps you conversion let me know.
i agree with dave -however i dont charge on my site so there is no need for fraud -if i did charge, i would invoice the customer not the person looking for the home -i have been a member in the past with other companies and found that some times the networking in the local level is great
I think it does help. We had several hundred people run a BBB report last year not to mention thouands of landlords and property managers that saw the icon when they considered listing a rental with us. Also, I think it is just one more thing that separates legitimate listing sites from some of the others.
my problem with the bbb is they dont dop any thing to help with fraud at all i have used them on items i have bought on line and they send me forms i fill them out and nothing -one problem i had was a company i used that charged me 49.99 for two month on my credit card when i didnt sign up for there service reported them and the company that charged me sent me a notice saying they made a mistake by the bb did not nothing even when i report the fraud to them i would not have had the charges reversed if i had not called the law to begin with –i just feelit is a waste of money except for the local networking part
While there certainly is room for improvement at the BBB, there are very few things that can give an owner or property manager the sense that they are dealing with a legitimate business.