We are Realtors in Cape Town specializing in residential sales & long term rentals as well as have some of our personal properties on the Airbnb platform which personally, I have found to be amazing. The only concern that I have is that of security and by association accountability from the guests side, as on the Airbnb portal it remains possible to be "verified" by simply providing an email address or phone number & nothing else. I see from Brian Chesky's email that this is strategic so as to allow those without a passport or Government ID to still register, but in reality I find it hard to believe that anyone who has a bank account/ credit card can do so without a Government ID. So as payment to Airbnb is only possible by way of Debit/Credit card, I would request that for the safety of all hosts Airbnb make it mandatory before booking to have a government ID as part of the basic verification requirement. Thanks guys for a great service & hopefully we will all soon see this simple but extremely important verification step initiated.
