booking loophole for criminals

[Cari3]

I recently had 6 fully armed SWAT team member surrounding my home trying to apprehend a guest with 32 warrants for his arrest from another state.  Here's the loophole I feel airbnb need to close to protect hosts (and in my case - the other airbnb guests I host at the same address).  So if someone who is verified is booking for someone else - the actual person staying never gets verified....a great loophole for criminals.  So if I have warrants out for my arrest, I can't stay at a hotel without showing  ID but I can stay at an airbnb relatively easily.  All I have to do is to get a wife, friend, etc.. to book for me.  The booker is verified but the guest isn't.  In many cases, I don't even meet my guests so I need to rely on airbnb's verification process.  Please airbnb, during the booking process as if this booking is being made for someone other than the booker.  If it is require verification for the person who will actually be staying.  Sadly though, in this instance not even that would have helped.  The booking was made by a 'cousin' who said that Kyle would be arriving first as he was already in the area.  She never did arrive.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Cari3 You say yourself that your proposed solution would not have helped in this particular case. Whilst having a SWAT team descending on your property must have been somewhat concerning but I suspect it is significantly rarer than being run over by a bus so probably doesn't need to be worried about too much.

[Anonymous]

@Cari3   I'm sorry you experienced what must have been quite a shocking incident. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of hosts out there are severely overestimating the "verification" that happens when a user submits an ID to complete their profile. You have no guarantee that this is the ID of the account holder, nor that they're using their real name or photo. All that jargon about "trust and safety"? Marketing. In reality, Airbnb is no safer to use as a platform than Craigslist or F*c*book.

In order to fully close the loophole as you propose, Airbnb would have to require that even in large groups of up to 16 people, every person complete a profile and submit an ID in order to complete a booking. That still leaves another loophole: families. They tend to contain children under 18, who are not permitted to have an Airbnb profile. This is not a workable solution for your security.

What you can do to take matters into your own hands is require in your House Rules that the primary guest on the booking be present and show a valid ID matching the name and face on their profile in order to check in. You're not obliged to hand the keys over to anyone other than the person who made the booking, although you will forfeit your right to a payout if you refuse entry.

[Quincy]

Hello @Cari3,

I hope you're well. 

I want to let you know that I have passed this on to the team. I've also sent you a private message.

Quincy

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Cari3 

I don't care about Airbnb verification, I verify my guests by myself, in person. i meet them at arrival and they have to show me their IDs, I take a photo of it and register everyone in the group (including babies) online to the police, immigration office. This is mandatory in Croatia, Italy, and many other countries but I would do the same even if it wouldn't be mandatory.

If someone from the group arrives later then he has to send me their ID in advance, before others check-in.

Yes, it is time-consuming to meet my guests, they are sometimes late and I am an off-site host but it helps in preventing a lot of trouble.

Guests are more careful in what they do at someone's Airbnb when they know they are not anonymous.

[Jillian115]

@Cari3 That is terrifying. I agree there need to be more protections for hosts. I have the ID requirement and also state in my prebooking message that the person booking must be the guest. I also state that the profile picture must show your face. Similar to what @Anonymous mentioned.

I hope is it deters the bad guests from booking. However, I think if they want to get around it they can. I am also curious if the government ID uploaded is actually matched against the name on the credit card. Anyway I would love more security and protections. 

[Anonymous]

@Soli43  And while you're at it, spread the word about Santa Claus and God.