Verify ID now required for all travelers?

Ramona11
Level 4
Naples, FL

Verify ID now required for all travelers?

Has anyone else run up against a requirement to use Verify ID no matter who you are booking with? For security reasons I do not with to keep my ocs on file and link my airbnb profile with my fb page. So I have not been able to book with any hosts now, and the hosts are not the ones imposing the requirement. as a Super Host myself, I think this is going to really hurt my business. Anyone know anything? Thanks!

490 Replies 490

 When I worked at a very popular hotel chain in 2010, we copied IDs for cash transactions and credit cards for card transactions. They were kept on file even after you checked out, for a period of time. 

Kathryn154
Level 1
Boryeong-si, South Korea

Yes, but you don't store them as pictures online. Neither are they distributed to countless individuals around the world who happen to want to rent living space they own.

Hotels also DO make a copy of your ID at check in and store it.

some do pending on the govt regulations of a particular country. e.g. Cuba, China

That you know of. lol.  Could be cameras above and below these days.  They are tiny and everywhere.

 

They frequently do make a copy and they most definitely do store and transmit the information to interpol, as is the law in member countries. So your stuff is everywhere. 

Someone mentioned how hotels get our credit card when we check in.  For your information, we also give our credit card information to Airbnb.  That's how the hosts get paid.

I refuse to use airbnb which costs the same as a hotel anyway now that they require my ID. I am just booking a hotel on expedia. Bye airbnb! Deleting my account now.

Yeah, credit card should be enough. Any unhappy employee or kid working at Air bnb could simply make copies of ID's to sell on the black market. I dont mind showing ID to the host, that is standard, but look how the Russian's hacked Yahoo and many defense databases, no way my ID is secure at an Air bnb database. Once you are a victim of ID theft, you will never be able to clean your record completely, even with an attorney. And any progress takes many many years of rebuilding. Is it worth it? Plus if Facebook buys Air bnb, then who owns my ID? I would give up my LICENSE PHOTO, and LICENSE NUMBER - but not my other stuff.

My wife books our lodging but pays with my credit cards.  On this next trip, which is a couple of days away, she books via abb however she is not tech savvy and she is not able to book a host's room and she has our passports as I will rendevous with her on a connecting international flight. If I am able to get used a different ID if she persists and wants to book this room (I will, more than likely, make a reservation at a different host's room) the photo I provide will not be my passport but a local (state) ID.  How does that help you as a host?

And when you stay with Airbnb, you use a credit card. So why the added Big Brother element?

Credit Card is a lot different than a government issued ID.  I can cancel the CC if it gets compromised.

 

Had narrowed my spring break trip down to two rentals; looks like I'll be switching to the one that is not on AirBnB.

This is EXACTLY the reason I wont do it. What other website asks for such private information. I was ready to book a two day $1500 trip to a quaint cottage in Middlburg VA - not I will not.

Seriously - I wont lose out - Ill go somewhere else. But the owners now wont get the bookings they are used to I assume. 

Except you don't store the id when you book a hotel.  There is too much identity theft and I wont add my id so so long airbnb. I really enjoyed you but have had enough of companies being hacked.  I don't believe you can protect my id and I am not putting it out there foe soneone to steal.

 

That is precisely the problem: too much of our information is now stored on airbnb if in fact people give names, addresses, phone numbers, credit cards, *and* ID. It is impossible to protect identities if this is required.