Verified Listing Badge: How We Perform the Verification

HomeyHawaii listings can be posted by individual owners, by friends and family members helping an owner to list and receive more bookings, or by a professional management company. This is clearly stated on every listing. In the “Listing Owner Information” section, right after the name, you can see one of the following three categories:
– Homeowner
– Friends and Family Manager
– Management Company

Each owner or manager that lists property/ies on HomeyHawaii.com can choose to undergo our easy listing verification process and to receive the Verified Listing badge on all of his/her listings. HomeyHawaii introduced listing verification to provide travelers with better level of confidence and reassurance. This process can also benefit the owners as it may increase the trust to their listings and may make it more likely to receive inquiries and to convert them into bookings.

While VRBO and HomeAway offer to travelers Book with Confidence Guarantee, it only applies to bookings made through their checkout system. Travelers pay additional service fees when booking through HomeAway’s system, but what exactly are they paying for and is it worth it? One can refer to HomeAway’s Terms and Conditions of Book With Confidence Guarantee to see what is actually covered monetarily and what the restrictions and limitations are.

HomeyHawaii offers an alternative solution. We believe that it’s more effective to prevent the fraud than to remedy it after the fact. Besides, it doesn’t cost travelers any additional fees.

Owner Listing Verification

We only accept listings from Friends and Family Managers if they are also owners themselves that have listing(s) on HomeyHawaii. So, the following owner verification process covers both cases of individual owners and friend and family managers.

Step 1. We search Hawaii public tax records by the name of the owner as registered on HomeyHawaii website, and we find which properties belong to this owner as well as the owner’s address.
Maui Property Tax Website
Kauai Property Tax Website

Step 2. We verify that the Hawaii tax ID is present in the listing(s) and matches the public tax records.
Search all Hawaii tax licenses

Step 3. We verify that the owner’s email is correct and can receive inquiries by exchanging emails with the owner.

Step 4. We verify the listing owner’s actual address by asking him/her to send us a latest electrical or phone bill that would match both the name and the address of the owner from Step 1.

Step 4. We verify that the owner’s phone in the listing is correct by calling the owner.

Management Company Listing Verification

Step 1. The business must be registered with the state, and this information is public. We check it on the official Hawaii.gov website.

Step 2. The principal of any company managing vacation rentals in Hawaii has to have a real estate license. We check the real estate brokerage relationship on the corresponding brokerage website.

Step 3. In this last step we check that the person who contacted us is not impersonating the legitimate management company. We call the person at the phone number listed on the websites above.

How Much It Costs

Owner/manager verification is offered free for new accounts. Later it costs only $25 and doesn’t depend on the number of listings.

Verified Listing Badge

After an owner/manager gets verified, all his/her listings (as of the time of verification) receive the Verified Listing badge. On the listing page, the larger version of the Verified Listing badge is displayed. And a small version of the badge is displayed at the top right corner of featured photos.

Disclaimer: While HomeyHawaii does all possible to verify listings and prevent frauds, it does not assume any form of liability or responsibility associated with the Verified Listing badge. Please refer to our Terms & Conditions before using the website.