Airbnb has announced it will officially end its Plus Program on 6 November 2023. Launched in 2018, this programme aimed to provide a quality experience for guests. Airbnbs listed under this category met certain criteria, allowing them to stand out for their design, amenities and hospitality.

This was a fantastic tool, especially for discerning travellers looking for the crème de la crème. But instead of being limited to a certain number of rentals across the site, what if you could find all these benefits in every single home, and not just the select few?

At Plum Guide, we don’t need a special programme to differentiate between our regular and quality homes. That’s because all of our rentals are specially vetted to guarantee quality and guest satisfaction. Our dedicated team of home critics review every single property, putting them through three rounds of quality control checks to make sure each home and its host fits our strict criteria. If they don’t make the cut, we won’t hesitate to filter them out. In fact, we only select the top 1% of curated vacation rentals worldwide, and we’re the only booking platform with over 30,000 of the world’s most remarkable rentals.

No one likes unwanted surprises, especially when it comes to a dream holiday you’ve been looking forward to. How many times have you arrived at your vacation rental and found that things aren’t exactly like the photos? There’s no time for that. As transparency is at the top of our priorities, each home on our site has a Home Truths section. This feature is exactly what you think it is – snippets of information you need to know about the home to avoid any potential confusion. We don’t want to lose a guest’s trust, so if you need to pack earplugs, we’ll tell you up front.

Another aspect we’re particularly proud of is our excellent customer service. In today’s fast-paced world, chat bots are seemingly taking the place of humans more than ever before. We understand how frustrating it is when you contact customer service, only to be met with a standard, robotic reply that leads nowhere. As we provide high-quality homes, it only makes sense that our customer service is also high-quality. We have an in-house care team who’s available 24/7, so that you can speak to someone no matter where you are in the world. While bots may provide convenience and speed, nothing compares to the personal connection you get with a real human – we believe it’s essential for our customers to feel heard and understood.

We’ll be the first to admit that our methods are a little more stringent compared with other booking sites. However, this adherence to quality pays off – we’re rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot with an average score of 4.4 stars out of 5 (at the time of writing). In comparison, Airbnb’s average score is 1.3 out of 5.

With that in mind, are you ready to find your next dream vacation rental? Search for our homes here.