Host requesting personal e-mail, driver's license copy, and a short term rental agreement - legit?

John1394
Level 1
Brevard, NC

Host requesting personal e-mail, driver's license copy, and a short term rental agreement - legit?

I have stayed at AirBnB's multiple times but my upcoming host is requesting personal e-mail, copy of my driver's license, short term rental agreement.  Is this legit?

 

17 Replies 17
Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Unusual but not necessarily a bogus listing.

 

How many reviews do they have? What sort of ratings?

 

Do they ask for this information in their house rules?

 

Which country is it in?

 

Many European countries need passport or other ID on arrival.

 

Personally I wouldn't send this information in advance.

 

I think some US hosts ask for a rental agreement for longer term lets.

 

 

Unless Airbnb has a PII (personally identifiable information) compliant system to store the govt. issued ID's, they are asking for a legal implication/case here. Sending your drivers license or passport to a host on email is a very bad idea. What if their email gets hacked or how do you know if they share their email account with other parties? 

 

I won't be surprised if Airbnb gets in trouble for allowing this policy.

Airbnb all ready allows you to require that a guest verify their identify with government id

I see this is no longer true

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

Hello @John1394 ,

Your profile shows you are allready verified by identification en email-address. An additional rental agreement can be requested, but it must be mentioned in the listing. 

more: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/465/can-hosts-ask-guests-to-sign-a-contract

(It is normally only requested when there will be a "long-term-stay": more then 28 nights)

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1354/what-are-some-differences-between-long-term-hosting-and-sho...

Best regards, Emiel

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@John1394 I don't see you in my upcoming reservations list but I would be asking for all three of those things if you were staying with me.

 

1. The ABB faux email is only active before and during the reservation term & guests often are not responsive to that address (spam folder)

2. ABB in no way shape or form verifies guests nor shares any pertinent info with hosts. I want to have a copy of a real govt ID before I let you in my house. If I get it early then i don't have to bother you at checkin time, but I will wait and see it in person if you'd rather.

3. My listing is a guesthouse at my family home. I'm serious about taking care of guests and I want to know that guests realize that I expect them to be serious about taking care of themselves and my home while they are here. Frankly ABB's host protections are laughable - they are a connection point only, so the rental contract clarifies that the guest has rented from me and is responsible to me - leaves out the middleman.

 

All of this is clairified in my House Rules, so guests should be aware before they book. Many hosts don't attend to this level of detail, so if you don't like it you certainly can book elsewhere.

Who is responsible for the security of my personal information provided to individual hosts? This is preposterous that I have to provide an image of my drivers license to every host. Do you store those images securely? Who has acess to those data records? What happens if your personal email gets hacked?  Whats the point of me providing my drivers license to Airbnb if I have to provide it to every host? 

@Harki1  whatever info you share with Airbnb to verify your identity, Airbnb does NOT share it with us hosts.  In other words, your Airbnb profile name does not even have to be your real legal name.  This leaves us hosts with very little info/recourse should something seriously go amiss.   I am one of those hosts who asks for a copy of your DL.  I have never had a guest who had a problem with that; if you do, then you are probably not a good fit for my property.   My home/ guesthouses, is a big investment, and I, as a host, will do everything possible to protect that investment.   When guests send a copy of their DL, etc, it is sent through the Airbnb communications channel--not any outside source.  

This is a data security nightmare waiting to happen. I have no idea who has access to your laptop or PC. What happens if someone hacks your PC?

 

I also called the airbnb support line and spoke to them about this. Their terms of contract  state that when you sign up as a host state that you *CANNOT* request PII (personally identifiable information). You are therefore in violation of your contract with Airbnb by requesting personal information. 

 

Also Airbnb communications channel is not a  channel meant to transfer personal information. I understand everytihng about protecting your property . But  its a risk you take as part of your business transaction. If you feel unsafe letting your property to guests without additional verification then you need to work with airbnb on it. 

@Harki1  Every host doesn't ask for ID, by any means. I never have. But I can understand hosts who rent out entire places asking to at least see ID when checking guests in, or asking for it ahead of time if it's a self-check-in situation  where the host doesn't actully meet the guests. What you have to understand is that Airbnb doesn't provide full names of guests to hosts, unless the guest has put that info on their profile- hosts have had bad guests who trashed their house, or stole high-ticket items, or engaged in other criminal behavior, and the host has no way of providing even the guest's full legal name to the police.

I can assure you that hosts don't have nefarious reasons for asking for ID. And it's all well and good for you to say hosts should "work with Airbnb on it", but hosts have been telling Airbnb that we need more information about a guest than simply some online handle which may not correspond to any legal name or ID ad nauseum and Airbnb refuses to provide it.

But I do know what you are sayng about being concerned about security breaches. It's a serious problem these days. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Sorry Kelly @John1394

 

But I don't agree with your point about Airbnb not verifying guests. Of course they do. In addition in the U.S. they run checks re criminal backgrounds etc.

 

If you set your listing to verified ID guests need to upload a passport, ID card or driving license before they can book your place. They also ask for social media ID.

 

As hosts we don't need rental agreements as we are not creating a tenancy  (I can see why US hosts might want to do this for post 29 day stays).

 

It is certainly unusual in countries such as the U.S. for hosts to ask for photo ID.  Personal emails can end up in spam just as the Airbnb email can, so not necessarily a better way of communicating. (Having said that I have never had anything go astray using the Airbnb email).

 

I certainly wouldn't provide a combination of my passport and personal in advance as too much risk of fraudulent activity. But I would be happy to provide a passport on arrival.

 

 

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Helen3 nope, I don't believe it. ABB ~may~ run a background check, may not & there are certainly plenty of stories of bad actors being in the system.

ABB specifically state they will NOT share any ID info with hosts and guests are allowed to change their name & photo at any time to anything they like. Anyone could appear, cause a problem and then disappear and ABB will quite likely do nothing. I'm not willing to take the chance.

ABB makes an introduction, after that I take responsibility for knowing who is in my home.

I have a contract not to create a tenancy, but to be clear that there are no tenant rights, that they are responsible for themselves and the space while they are here. We provide no liability coverage for them, their guests or their belongings and they sign off on knowing that they, not ABB, are liable for their actions while they are with us.

Agreed, my way is certainly more detailed than most hosts, but it's in the listing and it's my house. I'm not interested in hosting any guest that isn't willing and able to tell me who they are and that they understand that they are responsible for taking care of the space. Given that my ABB reservations have absolutely no security deposit in hand it seems to be the only protection available.

Of course, if that level of detail makes a possible guest stay elsewhere then that is ok with me.

I would be hugely surprised if they ran background checks. Indeed to do it properly at their scale would be costly and difficult.

 

I would be happy if the person on the booking showed up, and that the number of guests were correct. Given that you have no idea who the other guests on the booking are, and neither does Airbnb it's pretty much pointless to think they validate.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

@Kelly149

 

1. I never said Airbnb shares photo ID information with hosts, I said you can set your listings so that guests have to upload photo ID before they can book.

 

2. In addition in the US where you have your listing, for US guests Airbnb also perform background checks https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1308/does-airbnb-perform-background-checks-on-members where they have enough information to do so.

 

I therefore stand by my earlier points that you are incorrect when you state "ABB in no way shape or form verifies guests".

 

I appreciate you wouldn't want to host someone like me because I wouldn't want to share my passport and other sensitive information in advance because of security risks. You will of course limit the number of guests who will want to stay with you, but absolutely your perogative as a host to run your listing as you wish.