Enforcement of profile photos?

[Christopher187]

All of my listings require guests to have a profile photo.  Like pretty much every other host, I hate not being able to see the photo until after booking.  Since this change, I've had a large number of bookings where I only find out after the booking is confirmed, that the person hasn't actually used a real photo of themselves.  So then I'm stuck asking the guest to update their account with a real photo.  This is annoying, a waste of time, and a good demonstration of another way that Airbnb's new photo policy is not working.  My question is, does anyone know if Airbnb is actually enforcing profile photos?  It isn't clear if Airbnb is making self-photo a rule, or just a suggestion.  Their page on profile photos says, "A great profile often includes: At least one profile photo that shows your face."  But they're not making it sound like a rule.

Here is my most recent guest's profile photo:

https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/52966099

(I tried to just include the image direcly in my post, but kept getting an HTML error ???)

[Ricardo85]

@Christopher187 

Whats wrong with her profile pic?

Ricardo

[Christopher187]

Woops, the guest added a real photo after I asked her to, so you can no longer see the original.  The image used to just be a blur of colors.  By the way, how did you get an image in your post?  I couldn't get it to work for me.

[Mike1034]

@Christopher187  The photo could be changed to something else after a profile photo is uploaded when the profile is created. 

Not only no photo bothers me, but also a guest’s residence city/country and last name information are not displayed before a booking request is accepted.

i believe that Airbnb intentionally made this new change to reduce the rejection rate of bookings.

[Denise80]

I just got a booking and when I accepted, the profile photo is of a hat!  I wish Airbnb would stop this nonsense of not letting us see the photo before we hit the accwpt button. I'm not even sure if I am expecting a male or a female!

[Sarah977]

@Denise80  Even back when we could see a guest's profile photo when they requested to book, I once had a guest who I thought from the photo, which was taken at sort of a weird angle, looking up at the camera holding a basket of tomatoes, was a male with longish curly hair, in his mid-30s. The name was one I think of as a man's name-Elia. I was rather taken aback when the guest arrived to find it was a woman in her mid-40s! It did look like the same person, it was just my perception. And her real name was Elizabeth, but she always goes by Elia. We both had a good laugh over it.

[Zappa0]

Oh man....I have a collection of profile photos that have no faces. Seriously probably close to 50 or more. 

[Mike1034]

@Zappa0 Have you tried to change your profile photo to something with no face? And how many bookings did you get compared with those that shows a face? I am interested to know that. Thanks.

[Zappa0]

Interesting. But no I haven't. I figured it would negatively impact it, as people want to see a face. When my girlfriend had a listing we did notive a lot more bookings coming from females on hers. I do think some guests take the profile into account with who they stay with.

So valid point! Why can't we see guest profile photos if they can see ours? 

[Sarah977]

Since apparently it's okay for guests to post a photo of anyone or no one, I'm thinking of changing my hosting photo to a photo of Brian Chesky. We should all do that.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977  exactly my thoughts  :)))

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Christopher187 I recently had a booking request from a new Airbnb guest (no reviews), which I accepted. Then once the booking was confirmed, saw that they didn't have a profile photo at all.... just a generic outline of a head!

I immediately contacted him, and explained that we require a profile photo as part of our acceptance criteria for identity and security purposes ( I have a slightly longer version of this saved as a template, as we've needed to use this many times)

He was very agreeable, and told me that Airbnb had also already contacted him and asked him to upload a profile pic too. I don't know if this answers your question re... suggestion or rule? But, at least it was an indication that they are asking. 

I also used the same template for a woman once, who's profile pic was a pencil.... What are people thinking? 

[Damien197]

This blows my mind. I’m a strong believer in Airbnb and all it has to offer but if I can’t see the guest prior to booking, this will be enough to push me to other hosting platforms. 

[Tammy110]

I agree with all of you!!! It totally baffles me why Airbnb doesn't take this basic security measure more seriously. My latest run in with this issue was a guest who's profile photo was that of a thin, white girl, with ash blonde hair. When the guest arrived, I seriously thought there was some mistake, as she was brown skinned, heavy set with jet black hair. I looked her name up on facebook to see if I could positively identify her. The striking features on her face were the same but everything else was different. I can understand a change in hair colour but, how she made her skin look white for her profile photo, I have no idea. I have sent feedback to Airbnb that they make it mandatory for all members of Airbnb to have a verifed government ID photo and that be used for everyone's profile photos, guests and hosts alike, in order to stop this sensless nonsense.

[Grace264]

Got a gingerbread man, booked our home two weeks ago.😂😂