Guest WITHOUT Profile photo

Alberto51
Level 3
Portugal

Guest WITHOUT Profile photo

Hi everyone,

I have a guest who made an "instant booking" and who has NO profile photo. Airbnb rules state:

"Airbnb requires the following from every guest: Profile photo"

How was it possible that this person was able to do an "instant booking"? 

Definition of instant booking according to Airbnb: "Guests must still meet Airbnb’s requirements", so, if one of the requirements is having a profile photo, i wonder how tbis situation was possible..

Can anybody help?

Txs

Al

153 Replies 153
Allison2
Level 10
Traverse City, MI

Just another thing ABB could do a little better!

 

I'd message your guest and ask them to add a profile photo - especially if they're new they may not realize.  It's also a good opportunity to point out how ABB can be different from staying at a hotel - "Thanks for your reservation! I'll look forward to meeting you in "whatever month". Since I'll be sharing my home with you, would you please update your profile with a photo - and any additional information you'd like to provide so I can best prepare for your visit?"

I did wrote them, nicely, those with empty profile. They do not answer. I wrote them again, and asked at least write to me directly and send me a photo. Previously, once it happened to me, it worked, the guy eventually gave up and filled up his profile. Now I keep waiting for (any) reply and time of their arrival is rapidly approaching. Googling the name in the said state just gives me all kinds of criminals cases. Will see how it will go, I’ll take a chance. Now I think if I should change my instant booking requirements to those with ID verified. It will probably repell some bookers though...

You should absolutely do "verified ID" only - your ID is verified, shouldn't theirs be?  Better to have a solid booking than an anonymous person, I doubt your bookings will lessen.  Quality over quantity any day, that's why I don't use price tips.

Air B & B informed me last night that they are no longer posting pictures and last name of potential guest until the booking is accepted....WHAT????  This has become their new rule and I need to investigate further via their disclaimer.

 

I was very upset last night when a guest by the name of Joscue tried making a reservation and there was NO history, no picture and no last name.  When I called Air B & B their respond was that I would get this info, once I accepted thier reservation.  I DO NOT THINK SO!!!

 

I wrote the potential guest and explained why I could not accept their reservation and hoped that they would understand.

It's completely absurd that a bunce of rules is forced to be accepted as a host, but guests they can verify with just a phone no and a mail without one word of who they are! It's up to the host to figure out! Guest can see the profile picture of the host before requesting, AirBnb "excuse" to cover guest picture due to nondiscrimination policy, ONLY works one way!! So much for AirBnb nondiscrimination 😉

Undisclosed profile before booking?? Absurd. To be fair to a host, Our houses should not be disclosed either, before we accept the undisclosed reservation! 

I think it should be an option: if guest is undisclosed or invisible to a host, has incomplete profile, he is only aligible to undisclosed reservations. And vice versus, guest which can be seen is eligible to the listing which can be seen.

i contacted ALL my previous guests and let them know to spread the word about my home, but that i would not be accepting any "strangers without a face" 

my host picture now is a post a note written with a sharpie that reads " only accepting previous guests, no strangers without a face" 

if ALL the hosts did this, there would be no place for the faceless people to stay and perhaps they would erase this ridiculous policy. 

Just reject any booking that does not have a photo or meet your minimum criteria. I am new at this, I don't really care about the picture, but there should be at least a verified ID. I just got one with only a verified phone. Like, is it a burner phone? LOL! 

Thanks for the advice 👍

Jaxon0
Level 6
Stafford, VA

I'm now getting reservation requests without a photo of a person, instead it's a dog, landscape, etc.  I would like to see a picture of the person whom I'll be letting into my home, I'm not comfortable letting someone in who may or may not be who booked the apartment.  How to best handle this?

I am having this same problem right now, with 2 people  who booked instantly from China, who have no photo posted, and their name is only in chinese characters. A google translation of the characters is simply "Lucy!" They booked yesterday (Sunday) for Wednesday (day after tomorrow). I emailed Sunday to say I will need them to provide ID to check against their profile names when the arrive, but got no response. Today I asked if they can please upload names and profile photo to their AirBNB profile - but I fear they might be traveling already. I'm not sure what to do. Mainly I want to make sure that the person who paid is one of the people that is actually staying, obviously for security reasons. But I literally have no way to do this! Shouldn't AirBNB be on the hook not to allow instant booking of people who have no photo?

Technically they should, because it says they require a photo of guests to be on the profile, but I bet if you read the fine print, it says they're not liable.  This is why I don't allow instant booking; you have 24 hours to respond, why let strangers book your place when you know nothing about them (how do you know the people who show up at your door are really the ones that booked it?)

I just went to a Host2Host conference in Portland,Oregon and had the opportunity to tour the North American headquarters for Airbnb (very nice digs). In order to enter the building we had to sign in on a computer pad and the security guard could see our non-virtual faces, ha!

When I asked about the instant booking by guests with photos of objects instead of them, they said keep writing on this forum and someone who reads these comments may eventually address this issue. 

I was disappointed this was not an obvious top priority.

Ask all your airbnb host friends to complain mutlitple times on this commuinty site about this topic. Like writing to your senators, apparently.

Post your concern multiple times. Airbnb is data driven.

Copy and paste your comment to all areas regarding requiring guest to have accurate photo. (They can change it to an object after initially using real photo.) Create new forum topic headers and post there too. Thanks everyone!

 

We also just had a booking from someone with no profile photo that booked for 5 guests for 6 days, after sending just one question twice:  "How far is it from the Statehouse Convention Center?" No "hello", no other message at all. We will have no idea who any of the 5 people that are going to stay in our house are. I have requested that they add a photo to their profile, but haven't gotten any response. Having a profile photo that clearly shows your face should be a requirement for anyone who books on Airbnb. We've had the problem of guests booking for other people in the past in which we had no idea who was actually staying at our house, so the very least Airbnb can do is require a profile photo.