Verification System
4 tiers of verification
From Verified to Roost Signature — the higher the tier, the deeper the audit. No tier can be bought.
Verified
100% remote review (documents + a short video call)
- Identity matches the owner + proof of ownership/lease
- At least 10 real photos (never stock)
- Accurate map pin, clear house rules
Premium
Remote review + an on-site visit
- Everything in Verified, plus an on-site visit by the Roost team
- Professional photos, safety equipment checked
- At least 3 completed real bookings, average rating ≥4.5
Luxury
On-site visit + a curation committee review
- Everything in Premium, plus a full amenity-by-amenity check
- Professional video/drone footage, a dedicated concierge contact
- Sustained average rating ≥4.7
Roost Signature
Hand-picked by Roost's own leadership + a full audit
- Everything in Luxury, plus full storytelling produced by the Roost team
- Personally audited by Roost's leadership team
- Average rating ≥4.8, response rate ≥95%
These standards are what backs up every trust claim on Roost Home — booked and managed by one team, inspected before you arrive, and supported for the whole trip.
Why four tiers instead of one badge
The trouble with the word “verified” is that on its own it tells you nothing, because it never says what was checked. A property whose paperwork someone opened and a property the team flew out to and slept in while working through a checklist are very different things — but give both the same badge and a guest has no way to know which one they are booking. These four tiers exist to give “verified” a unit of measurement.
Each tier contains all of the one below it; they are not four separate boxes. Premium is everything in Verified plus a real on-site visit. Luxury is everything in Premium plus a full amenity inspection and a selection committee. And Roost Signature is everything in Luxury plus an audit by our own leadership team. Read them from the bottom up and you can see exactly what each step adds. No step is just a new name for the same work.
A higher tier does not always mean a nicer property. It means we know that property in more detail. A small villa at Verified may suit your trip better than a large one at Luxury. What the tier guarantees is the depth of the inspection, not taste.
How a tier moves up — and why it cannot be bought
No tier is for sale. An owner cannot pay to move up, and we do not offer a package that would let them. The reason is simple: if paying moved you up, the tier would become a price tag rather than information, and the person harmed would be the guest who believed the badge.
What moves a tier is what can be checked — ownership documents and the owner's identity, real photographs rather than stock imagery, map coordinates that are actually correct, safety equipment that is actually present, through to a record of real stays and an average rating that has to be held above the bar continuously. The top tier is also tied to guest response rate, which is a hard number to fake.
Tiers move down too. The average-rating and response-rate thresholds are conditions to be maintained, not a gate you clear once and keep forever. A property whose quality slips does not get to keep its tier because it qualified in the past.
If a stay does not match its stated tier
Tell us during the stay — there is no need to wait until the trip is over. Roost Home properties are handled by one team from booking to check-out, so you are not chasing the owner yourself, and you do not have to prove anything before someone picks it up.
A report like that affects the tier itself; it does not end with a one-off apology. Because each tier's criteria are tied to things that can be re-checked, whatever is found during a stay goes into that property's next inspection.
Frequently asked questions about Roost Home verification
›Does a higher tier always mean a better property?
Not always. A tier states how thoroughly we inspected that property; it is not a ranking of how attractive or enjoyable it is. A Verified property that matches your trip may be the better choice over a Luxury one in the wrong location for what you plan to do. A tier is inspection depth, not a verdict on taste.
›Can an owner pay to move up a tier?
No, and there is no package to buy in the first place. Tiers move only on things that can be checked: ownership documents, real photographs, an on-site visit by the Roost team, a record of real stays, and an average rating held above the threshold. If a tier could be bought, it would stop being information.
›Can a property be moved down a tier if quality slips?
Yes. The average-rating and guest-response-rate thresholds are continuing conditions, not a gate you pass once and hold forever. A property that falls below them is moved down, and anything guests report during a stay feeds into that property's next inspection.
›Do these tiers apply to properties found in normal Roost search?
No. They apply only to Roost Home properties, which we manage ourselves. Properties you find through Roost's metasearch come from outside booking providers; we do not inspect them, so we do not assign them a tier. Those are ranked by Roost Score v2, computed from the data providers send us — a different thing entirely from this four-tier inspection.