@Helena535 @Helen350 @Rebecca181
At a time when they desperately need to be showing impressive month-on-month pre-IPO growth - and are offering unprecedentedly generous sign-up bonuses to lure new hosts onboard - you can bet your life that Airbnb is not going to be erecting barriers to entry by requiring every single host to verify their identity. Several test accounts were set up over the past 48 hours to check this out, and none were required to complete the verification process. (Retention of existing hoss is not such a priority however, so better to target those already in the loop, and locked in with upcoming bookings - they're far less likely to baulk, and bail)
What will happen in this instance, is what always happens - a relatively tiny, randomly selected subset of hosts will be told that they must verify, or lose access to their accounts (or even re-verify - the selection algorithm doesn't appear to be sophisticated enough to differentiate between already-verified and non-verified hosts). This will create the illusion that Airbnb is pro-actively working towards the gradual vetification of all hosts, but in reality, only a small minority of hosts will be chosen to complete the process, while most will remain blissfully unaware that this is even a thing.
They've employed a similar approach as regards hosts being required to register as a business account on the platform. On foot of the EU Commission ordering Airbnb to clearly identify and delineate between small individual hosts and large commercial operators on the site, the company employed a similar scatter-gun approach by ordering a very small, seemingly random selection of hosts earning over a threshold of $15K/£10K, to sign up for an Airbnb business account, under threat of suspension/delisting for non-compliance.
Apart from the few who have been targetted, the vast majority of hosts remain oblivious to the fact that there are legal requirements for all EU hosts operating as a business - however small - to clearly post their details on their listings (name, email address, legal representative, phone number etc). For reasons best known to themselves (although it doesn't take a genius to figure them out), Airbnb inexplicably chose not to send out a blanket email to all EU hosts who would fall within these parameters, informing them of their obligations, and requesting that they update their listings with the relevant details asap. Instead, they bury that info somewhere in the bowels of the "Help" section, and persist with their occasional random selection methods.
Also, from Day 1, Airbnb has always required a token 25% of users to be verified - regardless of whether or not verified ID was required by the host. One can only assume that they have a certain guaranteed quota built into their contract with Jumio Corp, the controversial third-party outfit to which Airbnb outsources its ID Verification processes, and with whom the company shares certain key VC backers in common. And rather than inconvenience new hosts or - god forbid! - guests, by placing pesky verification obstacles in their way, far quicker and easier to simply target the low-hanging fruit of the existing host-base instead.
It's all about keeping up appearances. Just the usual smoke and mirrors efforts from The Firm.
