Is Guest Verified ID less important for Hosts than for Airbnb 'Experiences'?

[Rachael26]

So here is my question of the week.

We know that Airbnb really want us Hosts to use Instant Book - and some of us Hosts are renting a room within our own homes - and I know we all feel strongly about having guests who have a clear profile face pic - as well as verified ID. And some of us ask our guests to do so before booking - but Airbnb do not make it compulsory.

So why is booking an Airbnb 'Experience' so much more important that Airbnb INSIST on a selfie to prove against verified ID?

Here is what Airbnb actually state on bookable Experiences (most of which do not occur in a private dwelling - but out in a public place) - 

"Government ID- You’ll need to take a selfie and match it to the photo on your ID. This is so Airbnb can confirm who’s actually going on the experience. You’ll only have to do this once."

Question: SO WHY WON'T AIRBNB DO THE SAME FOR US HOSTS?

So if I want to book an 'experience' to walk around San Francisco, with a guide, taking photographs for a couple of hours - Airbnb will insist I send a selfie to match my gov ID so 'they know who I am' - but they will allow a guest with a dog pic profile and an initial as a name and just an email and call that 'verified ID', and allow that guest to book to stay overnight in the house that I live in, and bring another guest/s that I will not know even the name of until arrival.

Seems a little out of balance to me.

[Robin129]

Girl I am right there with you! I don't know what the best method of pressuring ABB on this might be. Why should I be forced to decline a guest instead of the guest being forced to post a "selfie" that is in focus? I can't offer an "official" experience because ABB didn't choose my community to allow one. So I don't have that option as a way of seeing who want's to crash at my place. AND, I can't check the potential guest on social media until I accept the reservation, then I get dinged if I cancel. They push to use instant booking. I don't want to let some rabid hounddog with a sketchy background instant book my extra room.

[Annette33]

Right on...! even though the company continues to profess  that "human connection " is the core  of what Airbnb is and stands for, they sure  don't act like it. Dealing with hosts' (and guests!) satisfaction is old news, way too tedious, lets move on and have a magazine now! 

[Leah40]

I wonder how will Airbnb address this current issue now?

Hope ABB will come up with a better way to address the problem on how do we know if are soon-to-be-guests at our homes are not persons of interest to the police? How can they prevent the Manchester's case to happen again?

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/suicide-bomber-raided-citycentre-flat-manchester-arena-blast-a3...

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Oh, and to make your pot boil a little more, something I learned about "verified id"..... 

So a guest fills out a profile and goes through the process of verfiying their id, Airbnb NEVER checks that that information is the same information provided on their profile EXCEPT that selfie picture bit.  AND to top it off, the guest can change the profile picture at any time after that verfication process without changing the status of "verified id".  So the information provided to you after the reservation is actually made, could be completely false. 

So let's walk through a worst case scenario... some guest signs up using the name "Ariana G".  They go through the verfication process but they are "Mike Tyson".  Mike gets his profile verfied, takes that selfie picture match, and gets the little check box "verified".  Then "Ariana G" (no she doesn't need to provide a last name because they don't check for this) changes her selfie picture to a picture of some woman, maybe even uses a picture of Ariana Grande because, well, they don't check for copyrighted pictures either.  And then Ariana/Mike make a reservation at your location for 2 people, you accept Ariana and their guest in good faith that she's the one who will arrive at the door.  So "Ariana/Mike" and whatever woman he picked up on the way to your listing show up and let themselves into your self-service location.  You, as the host, will have had absolutely no idea who stayed at your place, not ever.  Talk about trust!  

We've had 2 guests recently with verfied IDs who (1) changed her phone number after being verified so that number was not valid, at all - assuming it was valid when she had that "verfied" and (2) a guest who instant booked as a brand new user who was verified, whose profile came through as "Adam J".   We had to ask him to provide a last name.  It could have been ANY name because they didn't bother to verfiy that the last name on the ID he provided actually met the profile information he entered.  (BTW - he turned out to be a nightmare too).  

Airbnb you need to think a little bit harder - or ask us as hosts!!! - about safety and trust.  

[Robin129]

I just finished reading "The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World

Jan 31, 2017 by Brad Stone"

It is a long, tiring read, but provides some great insight into the creation of ABB and three significant lawsuits they were subject to. Safety was primary in two of them. ABB should revisit what lead up to those suits. You may or may not be surprized by what you learn.

[Annette33]

@Robin129 , interesting that the safety issue is being highlighted.. that will probably also be brought up in connection with the manchester bomber having stayed at an Airbnb before his actions, as posted above by Leah (sorry I can't highlight her)   :

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/suicide-bomber-raided-citycentre-flat-manchester-arena-blast-a3...

Too bad that it takes horrible events to focus on the issue that needs to be taken care of.

[Robin129]

The article doesn't say ABB that I saw, it says short term rental and holiday rental online. The odds of it being ABB are high since it is the world leader in the business.

At any rate, hosts should expect ABB to provide us with the highest likelyhood requesting guests are who they claim to be.

[Annette33]

o wow, @Robin129, so I checked again: yesterday, the article clearly identified Airbnb - now it doesn't anymore..... hmmm.

right now, these articles still identifty Airbnb, but who knows, tomorrow that might also be changed:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4537016/Three-men-arrested-Manchester-connection-attack.html

https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/5/manchester-bomber-reported-to-have-stayed-a...

[Robin129]

When I read the stories just now the Daily Mail still named ABB, the other did not. I was having a little trouble following the Daily Mail piece. Does it say there were more ABB type places searched? 

[Annette33]

@Robin129 , yes, so one more has now retracted the mentioning of Airbnb! I can only conclude that that is because of legal pressure from the company.....so they can react fast - if they want to.

[Duane4]

So we go off on a 1 off event like the Manchester bombing and get all worried. Not saying that things don't happen but somethings are really rare and unlikely to happen and those are the things that people seem to concentrate on rather than the likely things.

I just "Verified" my ID. It's more extensive than just matching photos. As they asked at least 3 background questions that most people wouldn't know like the street name I lived on in High School which was over 40 years ago. I wasn't paying attention. It also said that I couldn't get 'verified ID' unless I verifired my ID.

I just started hosting so can't say I know much about this. But I do know a thing about security and human nature. I traveled extensively on a motorbike in Mexico and an experiecne from there comes to mind.

When I was staying in City A (cause this happened over and over again) I'd meet some folks that lived there any they asked where I was the night before. I'd answer I was in City B, they would say you're so lucky to be in this city tonight because the crime in City B is really bad and you're lucky you didn't get hurt. Then where are you going tomorrow? I'm going to City C. They would say be careful in City C, crime is really bad there you might get attacked. Of course when I got to City C this would repeat.

[Alexandra224]

Well, i havent use verified Id since a while, for me it's more important, a guest with reviews... lets be also realistic, not everyone has an Verify ID, depending on the country, and some are lazy or sketchy about this.. So for me its most important, that they have good reviews, if they want to do instant booking.. and i've not have any problem at all since i started using that method!, so.. i think that just having "reviews" for instant booking, it's better than verified id.. if someone DOES NOT have any of those.. obviously they can't book and it's up to you if you accept or not 🙂

Cheers!

[Jan209]

I agree. I read all reviews very carefully.  See how many they have and if they are spread out in different places. One guy who was accepted had, not a photo , but a downloaded photo (no face, just a shadow face) with a ninja sword.  I asked him to provide a photo and he responded with a "i want to keep my personal life private..haha. You can see that i have good reviews' . Well, I looked at his reviews and they were both from same area of this City, so I thought they were possibly friends. As if he was so great then why wasn't he staying with them again? He then also told me his plane gets in at 11.30 at night. I declined him on grounds of no ID, no photo and arrival time after my stated time of 8 PM..I had no repercussions from Airbnb as this was all valid.  

[Annette33]

@Jan209 , I also look at previous reviews to get a feel for what a potential guest will be like, and if I should accept  or decline. Unfortunately, quite a few of reviews are not worth much: everybody makes nice-nice, often you don't get valuable information.

I have seen hosts here in the forum complain about a certain guest, but when I double check and look at the review they left, guess what: it is very nice! No help to the next host. Thus I always try to encourage honesty: no hostile over the top rants, but also not sugarcoating a behavior that should be mentioned. Thatbis something we hosts have control over - lets use it!

about the profile picture: I'm with you, I even put it into my house rules that people need to have a human profile picture. That's another point where we hosts could lead by example: quite a few hosts also have no human profile picture and neither anything in their profile description.