fraudulant guest profile

[Peta7]

We are desperately reaching out to higher level hosts and platform owners / staff and or perhaps Lizzie will be kind enough to respond to our plea for enlightenment and or assistance on the following trepidation:

After witnessing the recent overwhelming negative response from the majority of hosts to the recent Airbnb policy shift re Review, Cancellation and Profile Obscurity, apparently all in favour of the guest and without user consultation have we now become an onlooker to another ‘unmentioned’ and or ‘hidden’ and extremely worrying phenomena.

Hosting some demanding listings in Johannesburg have necessitated to imperceptibly verify Guest profile information and found most to be lacking. (before and after confirmation of a reservation:-)

Just taking our last few guests into account; one is using an alias with a wrong address, 2 claimed to be from another province with local vehicle registration, another turned out to be a 3rd party reservation and with this “booking on behalf of another” seemingly becoming the new norm and etc etc etc.

The cherry on top is that now the bogus guest profile is obscured and only reveals a possible alias equating into a “Lucky packet “reservation and hosts having to take total strangers into their home?

Located in Johannesburg, which African city is presently considered no 2 in ranking as the world’s crime capitol, with personal security issues in mind after being attacked and seriously injured by an Airbnb guest necessitated the posting of this plea for advice and or assistance;

Urgent enlightenment required on the following points:

Is there any safeguards left in place to protect vulnerable and or elderly hosts residing in dangerous areas from unknown and dangerous Airbnb guests with wrongful intent?

Should special measures not be afforded to the vulnerable??? 

Where can such hosts turn for assistance in any emergency situation resulting in acceptance of a "Lucky packet" reservation from the unknown……..or are we the elderly and vulnerable now being excluded from the platform where all are supposed to belong?

[Helen3]

@Peta7

I don't know what measures you put in place to help vet your guests but I think there is a lot we can do as hosts to vet our guests to make sure we feel comfortable and there is a good fit.

For example, I vet guests by accepting:-

1. Only guests with verified photo ID

2. Only guests who upload a clear profile photo 

3. Only guests who complete their profile/tell me a bit about themselves

4. Names of all guests on the booking

5. Reasons for stay

6. Acknowledgement of house rules

As you are aware in terms of  changes with guests photos - not much has changed. If you have IB turned on and you have ticked the book to say you only accept guests with a photo, you will see the guest when the book, so you won't notice any difference.

If you have request to book, you will see the guest once the booking is confirmed.

Because I have in my house rules that I only accept guests with a clear photo of themselves, if they provide a cartoon, flower or I feel uncomfortable with the profile image ie carrying a gun I can ask the guest to upload a profile shot or ask Airbnb to cancel.

I wasn't clear from your post what sort of 'special measures' would you like Airbnb to put in place for hosts who feel vulnerable?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Peta7

I don't think only "elderly women" are in danger, we all are. Hotels have security staff and we don't so if the host is not Krav maga trainer living with police officer then he is in danger.

Yesterday we all got a survey, as more and more cities turn against Airbnb for different reasons and safety of neighbors is just one of them - I think it would be wise if Airbnb tightens security and precautions measures and give hosts a possibility to protect themselves and their community and not to weaken them.

Just one bad group of guests who will throw a party, be loud, park a lot of cars on neighbors loan or throw bottles through the window is enough to turn the whole neighborhood or a small town against Airbnb. And the poor host can't do anything to prevent this to happen or to kick them out immediately. Whatever he would like to do and should do in such a situation to protect himself, his property and neighbors would result with a penalty from Airbnb. In a best-case scenario, such host will spend hours on the phone with Airbnb CS and will lose money when / if he kicks out such guests... and he probably would not be compensated for the total damage.

I am glad those Irish travelers who made a mess in New Zeland and were exposed in media were not Airbnb guests. If they were I wouldn't be surprised if some NZ cities would ban Airbnb after that.

I think Airbnb should think about how much damage to Airbnb reputation can make just one group of bad guests and stop protecting them like an endangered species. ..... before some poor host get killed

[Peta7]

In response to the much appreciated advice from Helen;

As a high trafic listing in a crime capitol of the world we have all measures mentioned in place.

We have also been victim of a serious assault by an Airbnb guest in the resent past and from there our concern re Safety and special measures for vunrable hosts (The elderly, Single females, physically disabled, etc) and especialy in dangerous settings, please do refer the voilent crime statistics in SA.

What measures or perhaps special CONSESSIONS to be put in place will be left up to the platform's fearless leaders

We find that after the new Policy shift, when a request is received the obscured profiles are usually fraudulant with aliases and false addresses being the aparent norm in Africa where we live.

We are now being traumatized instead of excilirated as in the old days every time the message alarm sounds as it might be another bad experience from a "Lucky packet" reservation request (only find out what is inside after purchase 🙂 We may as well be taking in strangers of the street considering the hosts penalties for cancellation?

Then we have just had a guest with an alias and no permanent address that used her last booking location as her address and she checked out with most of our linen coupoard gone missing and the Police are unable to investigate due to a lack of information. 

To obtain a copy of the guests ID; a Law enforcing agency has to request this information from Airbnb and we doubt whether such triveal matters as our missing linen will ever be resolved considering the baklog of thousands of murder and armed robbery dockets on investgators intrays.

So we will be implimenting the requirements of the reletively unknown SA Immigration Law and will be taking copies of ID documents in line with this law and will keep a Register as desribed by the law for all future bookings.

We totally agree with Branka and Sylvia's stance!