Guest profile photos: Airbnb response to community feedback

[Airbnb]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your feedback on the recent changes we announced to the guest profile photo process. Our team has read each and every one of your comments. We understand many of you are feeling frustrated right now, so we want to respond with some more details and clarification.

First, we want to acknowledge that this is a complicated and emotional topic: It touches on elements such as discrimination, choice, safety, and equality between Airbnb hosts and guests. As always, we’ve been really impressed by the quality of the conversations, and the supportiveness of the community in this thread. We’ve had significant discussion and debate about it internally at Airbnb, too. It’s clear that we need to keep listening and engaging with you (our hosts and partners) on this topic, and we commit to continuing to do so.

At the same time, it’s important that we also continue to take guest concerns into account. Most guests do provide a profile photo, but others told us that they didn’t want to share a picture of themselves when booking on Airbnb because they’re concerned their photos could be misused in a way that violates Airbnb’s nondiscrimination policy. As you know, Airbnb’s mission is to create a world where people can belong anywhere, and we want to make sure guests can feel comfortable when they travel on Airbnb.

We also know from many conversations with hosts (and from reading through your comments here) that you really value profile photos, for several important reasons (knowing what guests look like before they arrive, feeling safer, etc.). We always want to balance the needs of both hosts and guests and, at the same time, make sure we’re working towards Airbnb’s mission. It can be exceptionally hard to get that balance right, but we tried to do this with these recent changes.

As we highlighted in our previous post, the new policy means that Airbnb will not require guests to provide a profile photo and that, for those guests who choose to provide a profile photo, those photos will not be shown to hosts until after the booking is accepted. At the same time, we introduced a new host control that allows you to opt in to require that your guests provide a profile photo prior to submitting a booking request. This photo will be shown to hosts as soon as you accept the booking request, so you’ll be able to ensure you know what your guests look like before they arrive. In addition, you can always require your guests to provide a government ID to Airbnb, as well (more on that here).

Here are a few more tips to help you build trust with guests before a trip:

• You can message with them to get more information about the purpose of their trip;
• You can use your House Rules to set expectations with potential guests, too. (Guests have to review and agree to your House Rules before they can request to book your space.)
• You can review past guest reviews, from other hosts, to make a more informed decision about accepting booking requests.

Now, there are a few key themes we read in your comments about these changes, and we want to take a few minutes to address each of them:

Safety: Many of you mentioned that you’re not comfortable hosting someone who doesn't want to show their face, and some of you pointed out that you’re in challenging situations (remote locations and solo female hosts, for instance). This is an incredibly important topic. We’ve read through your responses, and we are committed to looking for ways to build trust between guests and hosts in all situations.

We’d like to extend an invitation to the engaged host community following this thread. Our home safety team is brainstorming ideas for how we could improve your experience and ensure you feel more safe hosting. While we have lots of ideas, we know the best solutions will come from listening to you, so we’d like to connect directly. Please let us know in the comments, below.

Timing: Many of you asked when you would see the changes to the guest profile photo process occur. We’re rolling them out gradually, as we often do with new products or processes. Currently, these changes have been introduced to 75% of hosts globally, and in the coming weeks will be available to 100% of hosts.  

Profile photos: A number of you raised concerns about profile photos that show a picture of a sunset or the guest’s dog instead of the guest themselves.  We have updated our policies to address these concerns. If you choose to turn on the new control and require that your guests have a profile photo, you can call Airbnb’s Community Support if you accept a reservation from a guest that does not have a profile photo of themselves.  Our Community Support team will work with you to address the situation. If you feel uncomfortable hosting someone without a photo of themselves, you can request to cancel the reservation penalty-free. (We recommend messaging the guest directly before cancelling.)

Discrimination: We do not condone discrimination by any member of the Airbnb community. These changes are part of our commitment to combating discrimination. Many of you responded that you believe these changes were unnecessary because you share our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We appreciate that feedback and can’t overstate the importance of having a host community that is engaged on this topic. Nonetheless, guests have consistently told us that they have concerns about hosts making decisions based on profile photos in violation of our Non-discrimination policy. We believe the changes to how we display photos addresses these concerns while balancing hosts’ interest in seeing potential guests before they arrive. Making these changes was an incredibly complex decision, for all the reasons you raised, but after significant debate (and working with many experts on this topic), we decided they were crucial changes to make.

Thank you for continuing to give us feedback and support as we strive to continue improving Airbnb for both hosts and guests. We hope you understand that we needed to make these changes to ensure a world of belonging and inclusivity. Please continue to tell us how we can improve, and we’ll continue to listen and adjust as we work to ensure you can feel comfortable and confident hosting.

Thank you,

The Airbnb Team

[Sam-and-Adam0]

@Airbnb  Why is it that potential guests can see all hosts profile pics in advance of making a booking then?

[Michelle13]

I have so many things to say against this but I will try to be constructive. 

Photos in advance can help to avoid 3rd party bookings, and make solo female hosts feel more comfortable. Even though I mention my listing is for females/couples only many male guests overlook and try to book anyways. Some names are not gender obvious. Photos help catch oversights before they happen. 

Personally, I feel more comfortable knowing my host chose to host me, with my afro profile picture and all. Setting up the booking process in this new way by default makes my photo a surprise, or shock. Now, a host maybe uncomfortable but still let me stay to avoid any cancellations. Yes, you may weed out bigots who cancel too much but at the guests expense. Finding a place, booking, having a booking cancelled, reporting a host and going through the process of finding a new place is a time consuming roller coaster of emotion. It's equally as time consuming as getting repeatedly declined. 

Now for the constructive part...

Profile photo required for shared spaces: If the guest books a space in the hosts private home then a prompt requiring a profile photo should pop up. Emphasis should be placed on the community aspect as an explanation for guests. 

Super Guests: Allow guests to reveal their star ratings and approved profile, photo and verifications. Perhaps if they meet some sort of regular benchmark they can get a lowered fee or flat rate on booking fees. I'm sure some incentive is worth such basic information.

[Jennifer1421]

@Michelle13  - I like your idea of "Super Guest" and the idea of gamifying the experience for guests, too. Gamification is done on this and many other sites because it works. People love little rewards and recognition, so why wouldn't Airbnb guests?

IfABB incentivized super guests with a percentage off the booking fee, there'd likely be a good amount of time and cash saved on the back end for them dealing with phone calls and damage claims. Even if there wasn't a monetaryr eward, though, there may well be positive benefits just by having this "status" as something guests can aspire to. FAB idea!!

[Markus229]

I can fully support all the raised concerns. I am thinking about leaving the plattform. Sharing my appartment is something totally different to being a hotel owner. The second has no interaction in his most private areas.

[Halvard-and-Brynja0]

Agree that remove guest profile photo was not a good idea. As host you want to see who want to live in your apartment before you accept. I always want my guest send me a description of themselves and who are with them. A profile photo give us a good help to give us an impressions of who you give your house key to. 

Most of our guest are nice and frendly, but when there is someone who leave your apartment like a mess, it don`t help to try asking airbnb for help. They always everything looks fine? And it cost more that we earn to clean up. 

Yes, we want to see an profile picture before we accept. 

[Rebecca181]

Seems to me AIrbnb simply copied 'Innclusive's' anti-discrimination practices. For anyone that doesn't know, Innclusive started out as a reaction to Airbnb's perceived discriminatory practices. I found this to be most interesting. My post about it here: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Innclusive-s-Anti-Discrimination-Practices-Sound-Familia...

[Gigi84]

Totally agree with you here. I furnished my home with  antiques and items that I personally love and what do I get? Damages on my furnishings, soiled diaoers left on my furnitures and beddings! The quality of guests have gone way down! Proper vetting should be done by Airbandb!

[Susan598]

Hi All,

I have my booking settings set to require a photo. However, I have a booking for this weekend with no photo, even after the booking is accepted. Can you explain this to me Lizzie? I rely on Airbnb keeping to their end of the bargain. It's why I pay Airbnb fees.  ..isn't it?

Susan

[Michael-and-Jill0]

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@Susan598 wrote:

I have my booking settings set to require a photo. However, I have a booking for this weekend with no photo, even after the booking is accepted. Can you explain this to me Lizzie? I rely on Airbnb keeping to their end of the bargain. It's why I pay Airbnb fees.  ..isn't it?

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Under profile photo (for instant book hosts), it states "Guests are encouraged, but not required to have a profile photo" even for IB...That is insane!
 
I think it is absolutely essential for EVERYONE (hosts and guests) to have a profile photo. I also strongly believe that EVERYONE (hosts and guests) should be required to have a government issued ID (for safety reasons, to keep sex offenders etc. off the platform), and ALL hosts, both instant book and non-instant book, should be able to see guest star ratings (as they are able to see ours), and their cancellation history, (as they can see ours). Anyone not willing to give this basic information, should not use Airbnb, period. These tools allow everyone to trust each other equally, and provide checks and balances that help eliminate bad behavior of all individuals on Airbnb equally.

I think if we keep on giving Airbnb our feedback, there is a minute chance that they mill take our very important issues seriously and reverse this unfair, unsafe no guest photo policy.
 

[Katie19]

We have had our home on hold temporarily for personal reasons and are thinking of relisting.  Reading about all these changes to supposedly protect guests while ignoring hosts now has us seriously considering whether we want to continue being a part of Airbnb. As hosts we make ourselves  and our family vulnerable by inviting strangers into our home and are no longer sure if Airbnb is making decisions to protect us. Photos have never had an impact on us approving guests as we've had every race, gender and sexual orientation.

When deciding to open our home on Airbnb a few years ago one of the deciding factors was being able to see reviews from other hosts. Why that is no longer available to us is mind boggling.

I only browsed this lengthy conversation thread, so sorry if this is a duplicate suggestion:

Airbnb should have a dropdown option for guests to choose:

1. Share photo and biography with host now or

2. Share photo and biography after booking. 

Include a blurb saying something like "Hosts inviting you into their homes are more likely to accept booking requests from guests that provide photos and biographies with their inquiry".  Include a statistic if available.

I also think that each guest on a reservation should have to be listed. If a booking is for 3 guests then 3 boxes should automatically pop up requriing each guests name (and ID or DOB) to be entered. I've always asked for the names of each person to include on my welcome sign, but really have no way to verify who's in my home.

What about background screening of guests.  In one search Airbnb mentioned that they would do background checks of guests and hosts "where we have at least an accurate first and last name plus date of birth".  Shouldn't that information be mandatory? If the guest booking the reservation had to provide basic information for each person in their party would they run background checks on each of them?  When we stay at a hotel we each have to provide ID to get a room key, so why not in peoples homes?

Lastly, a few years ago I had two separate instances where I had escalating agressive and rude messages from guests inquiring about our home. One regarding bringing children (which we clearly had listed that we didn't allow due to our unsecured pool and my husband working from home). The other was me accepting a request when the guest was really only inquirng and then she went off on me and was threatening.  When I used the "report this user" for both of these cases I never so much as got an acknowledgement from  Airbnb.  Rather than getting any protection or contact from Airbnb I probably only got dinged for rejecting a request.

People have taken time to provide some great ideas to Airbnb on this conversation thread. Hopefully they take the information to make some changes or Superhosts like us may decide to go elsewhere.

[Wende2]

WOW.....I haven't looked at this thread for a while...didn't know they took away our viewing of reviews, and I mentioned some time ago they need a way for the host to see other host reviews about a bad guest, since they don't publish without both parties leaving a review.  Seems Admin is reading the ideas on this thread, they're then going back an taking away ways we'll been discussing on here, someone mentioned another site to visit to see guests, they took down that site asap, someone mentioned they'd been going an looking at preivous reviews, now they've done away with seeing those.?? why even offer reviews, I guess next thing that'll happen, guest leave us a review, but we aren't able to leave one for them, or if we leave an honest review that doesn't leave the guest in a good light, ABB won't publish that review, I'm sure tag words could be set to flag a bad guest review, if they haven't already.  I'll be looking into VRBO, as a few people in my area are on there, and I just found out a friend uses only that site to book.  Sad thing is, we're all disposable as every day more people are listing on this site, without a clue as to how nice it use to be.

[Jess78]

The only way that Airbnb will ever start taking host investments, safety, and preferences into any account is if the hosts delist their properties. As long as they have willing hosts, they can do whatever they want to ensure guests keep booking.

Period.

I've officially ceased taking any more airbnb reservations. I will honor the ones that I have currently. I would have done it sooner but felt like i needed to hang in and keep going.

[Larry190]

I have a problem with the new policy,  since I can't see reviews about guests requesting booking !  This was BIG to me!    We offer a beautiful large expensive Historical Home on the National Registry, and we need more info before booking..      Reviews should be shown BEFORE booking.   We are looking for people to take good care of our property and not abuse it.    This was KEY to us.   

[JoAnn67]

I thought AirBnb verified everyone before they reserved a room or house? I recently booked a house in to stay in Madrid and Barcelona. I was required to scan my license and other information. Is this because Spain has a verification requirement? 

I think AirBnb should require "verification" for all guest at booking. This information does not need to be shared with the host, for privacy reasons, but host will have peace of mind that they have been verified. Also, host can require picture ID upon checkin. If guest were to stay at a hotel, they would be required to show a license or passport, so this is not unreasonable. Make sure this is clear on the listing. 

Thanks,

JoAnn

[Michael-and-Jill0]

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@Airbnb wrote:

At the same time, we introduced a new host control that allows you to opt in to require that your guests provide a profile photo prior to submitting a booking request. This photo will be shown to hosts as soon as you accept the booking request, so you’ll be able to ensure you know what your guests look like before they arrive. In addition, you can always require your guests to provide a government ID to Airbnb, as well (more on that here).

The host control opt-ins Airbnb claims to give hosts, are for Instant Book hosts only! The ONLY requirement I am able to choose, as a non-IB host, is a PHONE NUMBER. No photo, No gov. ID, No host recommendations, No star ratings. No longer even an email. I feel very strongly that non IB hosts and IB hosts should all have exactly the same opt-in requirements available to them. Airbnb, please respond to your false claim.