I'm combating Airbnb's guest anonymity... I think?!

[Donald28]

Tired of getting booking requests with nothing but a first name and no reviews... I just added this to my listing under house manual. I do not use instant book so all reservations must be approved by me. 

"House manual

WHEN REQUESTING TO BOOK: Tell me a little more about you and your guests please. Why are you coming to this area? How'd you find us? Ages of all guests & are you bringing pets and anything else Y-O-U would want to know about complete strangers if they were about to come stay at Y-O-U-R home. Airbnb tells me your first name, the city you're from and how many guests you're bringing. That's it. No picture of you, no last name... nothing. From that little tiny bit of info I am supposed to make a decision that people who I don't know are "OK" to come stay at our place and play in our arcade?! Imagine strangers are requesting to stay at your home. What would you want to know about them. Tell me that about you & your guests. THANKS!

 

IDENTITY The guest responsible for the reservation must be present at the time of check-in. We also reserve the right to ask and view government issued ID for any members of the guest party before entering the property."

[Patrizia16]

@Gordon0 

In Italy it is mandatory to present a government document .. I will tell you more ... we must register all guests in the police website (anti-terrorism) within 48 hours and if the guest stays only one day we must register him the same day ..

.

[Gordon0]

Like I said, @Patrizia16: >> (unless a country/state requirement exists)<<.

[Huma0]

@Gordon19 

I also have in my house rules that guests may be asked for ID on arrival. I don't actually ask them for it, but I hope that it might put off third party bookings and possible scammers and I would ask for it if the guest doesn't appear to be the one who booked.

[Mark116]

If anyone is interested, we got our first booking where the person doesn't have a last name, just an initial. 

And I don't mean an inquiry, I mean after the reservation has been accepted there is no last name.  Nice. 

[Ben551]

@Mark116 Have you written to the guest?

I had this happen last month. I just wrote to my guest and politely asked him to update his profile or confirm his surname to me manually. I referenced insurance requirements as the reason I needed it. He sorted it out straight away, no issues.

[Brett3]

Hey Mark,

(sorry system won't let me tag you)

I just had a guest ask to book and their profile name is an email address. CS seemed to be just fine with this.

[Mark116]

@Ben551   We did send a message on Sunday, but so far no reply.  We also contacted airbnb, and they told us, basically, it's fine, they, airbnb, have the last name, which they will not give us due to privacy [???]. 

The CS rep did say that we could ask for ID upon arrival if the person didn't respond with their last name, but, they recommended against it, because the community is based on trust.  I told them that trust goes both ways, and that someone staying in my home, where I live, needs to give a last name.  The company has really become nutty, to say the least. 

[Summer64]

 Do you require people that book be verified with an ID. I figured that would prevent it. Does it?

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

If you haven't heard back from your guest yet, I would recommend calling Airbnb again and seeing if you can get a more sensible rep on the phone. We are supposed to only get a guest's first name before they book for privacy reasons, but we are supposed to also get their surname after they book, so the rep you spoke to doesn't know what they are talking about.

[Huma0]

PS, I have had Airbnb reps cancel bookings penalty free for me because a guest is not responding to my questions. I assume this guest instant booked?

[Paul584]

? Could it have anything to do with BREXIT or the bomb scare for London. I never heard of that before. Even if they did instant book (I would love), you should not be  contacted by Airbnb. Airbnb only contact you IF there is a problem, never give out your login details from an incomming call.

[Donald28]

NUTTY is a nice way to put it.

I'm furious with the way airbnb is leaning toward guests anonymyity all in the name of POTENTIAL racial bias. That's the only reason airbnb has swung so far to the guests side on the identification issue... they don't want a black person to feel that they've been declined due to their skin color. 

It is ridiculous.  

[Paul584]

OMG. I'm Irish, I don't care IF a person in Black, Blue, Red or Green..... (Exception pink - Trumph). as long as people have respect I am happy.

[Dorina3]

That was not necessarry actually,you just proved racism.We americans would never offend your people or president .Verry desapointing,i would never use your place and none of decent americans .Sad

IM PREETY SURE OWR PRESIDENT DIDNT HURT YOU OR YOUR COUNTRY,RESPECT GOES A LONG WAY .

[Linda356]

Dorina, Your President is the laughing stock of the rest of the world.