Verify ID for all guests?

[Janice68]

How do I request that ALL guests have a verified ID before they are allowed to book? My issue is many times one person does the booking while I have no clue who the additional guest will be. I am uncomfortable  accepting bookings without knowing who the other guest is for safety concerns. I open my home up to Airbnb guests, and offer one bedroom and private bathroom. I remain discreetly in the home for their entire stay. If there is a way to do this through the Airbnb application, I have not found it. On a side note, I find the entire website application to be clunky and sub-par for navigation, but that's another issue entirely.

[Gordon0]

The key line here is; 'If you want to share your trip plans with the people travelling with you'. And 'if' means they don't have do. It isn't an Airbnb rule. 

[Kirill13]

It happens all the time. For instance, the primary guest seems reliable and older than 25 years, but, as additional party, suddenly, arriving with him / her bunch of unruly teenagers 

Every guest must have verified ID 

[Song6]

This whole ID thing is problematic. I ask for and must have a look at the id's of complete strangers who come to sleep in my house-or they dont come in the door.

[Geri-and-Osiris0]

If a guest books a hotel room, the person who books would need to show ID and a credit card at check in or they wouldn't get the room. This is the only way hotels can recoup damages (to have a valid credit card on file they can charge for any damages). It's unfair that as an Airbnb host we wouldn't be allowed to do the same. I had an IB guest, June 2 - June 5, 2019, who joined in June 2019, and booked my place at 4 a.m. June 2nd, for a 3 day stay starting June 2nd, with supposedly verified governement ID and a selfie. He had zero reviews and I had set the option that IB guests must be referred by other hosts. But all the IB booking requirements I had set were oddly not checked! Anyways, this guy and his girlfriend ransacked, damaged and looted my place to a tune of $16,000 worth. He knew to reset my wifi in attempts to disable my security system's cameras. He left cocaine and graffiti behind. He is obviously a criminal, doing this regularly, and knows how to operate around the system. I am not posting publicly what he all did as I don't want to give other wouldbe looters any ideas.  I think this is going to become a bigger problem for Airbnb hosts and Airbnb needs to do something NOW to nip this criminal behaviour in the bud!

[Colleen253]

@Geri-and-Osiris0  Your guests sound eerily similar to the the fraudulent couple I had who caused me trouble. It would be interesting to compare more notes on the stays in private. We're only a few hours apart so it's feasible could be the same people. I would imagine they travel around making their 'living' at this. My guests were definitely pros, and were in fact known to police, I found out later.  Which is interesting and confounding. Guest makes a profile and books a place on Airbnb with the same name he's known to police by. Uploads a gov't id too. Trust no one and depend not on the Airbnb process for anything.

[Heather430]

I can relate to all the conversations...I have had people show up who look nothing like their profile picture, call themselves by a different name and haven't shared travel partner info even though it is in my House Rules. Now I carry a colorful clipboard with reservation names and simply ask them to "check in" by showing ID. If they get huffy, or spout Airbnb doesn't require it, I kindly explain that their reservation will be cancelled as the House Rules do. In 2 years only one aggressive refusal and they left of their own accord. It is telling that they never called the site to complain or ask for a refund. My pet peeve is that the site might verify ID, but anyone can actually show up...and how do we know when their profile picture is of a dog or something? Although 99% of the time matching people to reservation info is easy, it is that 1% that leave you uneasy. I too wish all people in party were registered and had ID.

[Chris1564]

Is it possible to just require guests to submit a photo ID through the message platform to verify their ID at the time of booking?  This way the host can confirm the ID and run a background check on guests when they book?  I don't like that all I can see is "verified"  especially when the name of guests seem to be clearly fabricated.  

[Clyde-and-Gaye0]

My big issue is allowing a guest onto the Airbnb site without having their identity checked. This is a huge security risk to hosts. Yes, you can exclude them from your booking. However, if you are a genuine guest the minimum should be a verified government ID check.

[Janice68]

I agree. There really needs to be better ID verification. I am always uneasy when all I see is "verified".