@Emilie
There is an awful lot here that is problematic, as I've already mentioned in other posts.
For starters, changing the IB booking settings without informing hosts in advance is shameful and unethical quite frankly. A lot of hosts only used IB because those settings were available. In fact, Airbnb have used those settings as a tool to convince hosts to do so. How can they just snatch it away without a word of warning? Why must it take hosts here on the CC to inform others? I wonder how many hosts are still out there blissfully unaware of this, like sitting ducks...
As for the verification process is worded in such a vague way as to be almost meaningless.
"Some Hosts only take bookings from guests with verified identity." However, it then goes on to say "This may include a confirmed government ID," and then specifies as an example "where there are restrictions on the building where the listing is located," and later that the host themselves needs to request ID from the guest in those circumstances. So, what does that mean? Does it mean that Airbnb only requires government ID when there restrictions in the building? Or does it mean they do not confirm government ID as part of this verification process at all? That's what it's sounding like to me.
Also, the next bit lists "what we may ask you for". What does that mean? In theory, Airbnb could ask for none of that and still claim the guest is verified.
First on the list is "Legal name, address and/or other personal information". There is no mention of asking for any proof of legal name or address, and what exactly does other personal information mean?
While a photo of government ID and possibly also a selfie alongside that are mentioned, again it's something that Airbnb 'may' ask guests for, and if the guest can't provide a selfie that matches the ID, guess what? They can provide some alternative form of verification instead. What would that alternative be, I wonder? Other personal information? A legal name/address without any documentation?
There is literally nothing stated in this article that reassures me that it's worth the paper it's written on, as it seems to be deliberately worded to be as clear as mud, nor that this 'multi-step identity verification process' has any meaning whatsoever.
The whole thing reads like a list of loopholes that gets Airbnb out of verifying anything, while at the same, the company is making a huge song and dance about how they are expanding the verification process in order to lure in new, unsuspecting hosts.