Guest ID

Rosemary12
Level 9
Burnaby, Canada

Guest ID

Is anyone else noticing that guests are now able to make a booking using only their first name and an inital, i.e. Susie J ?

Never seen this in 3 years but my last 3 bookings have not had last name. 

 

I don't feel comfortable not having the full name of a guest. On a few occasions where I have wanted to do a bit more investigating about a potential guest I have gone to their social media page. (I am a woman living alone sharing my home so I want to feel comfortable with potential guests). Without a last name it is impossible to do this. In my conversation with Airbnb she said that guests can use Facebook to make a reservation and some people only use nicknames on Facebook.

 

It only leaves me with the option of asking a guest (and anyone accompanying them) for their full names but I don't think it is too much to ask Airbnb to pass this information along to their hosts, since they must have the names from the guest's government ID that I require.  Sometimes I feel like Airbnb doesn't get it......they confirmed the phone call with a sucky email about what a wonderful host I am but a reasonable request goes unheard.  In the past week I have had to contact them about wrong price showing on my listing, not able to make a special offer, double booking because the website was incorrect and now this with the last name.

3 Replies 3
Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

@Rosemary12, I have had a few guests now with just the initial or a middle name for a last name. They are always young women, and it is always because of the Facebook sign-up. They are worried about their own security on that platform, which is understandable. In every case it has been fine, but I get why you are worried. You are sharing your home. Your security is important.

Don't feel badly about asking a guest for her full name, or for the names of the people in her party. It is well within your right to ask, and she may not have realized her full name has not been given to you automatically. Guests are a bit in the dark about those things - some think I have seen their drivers' licences!

When the system won't do what you want, you are doing the right thing by taking it into your own hands. "Hello, Miss M. May I have your last name? Airbnb is built upon trust, and I don't know who you are!" 

Very true. I feel lately AirBnB is doing anything they can to increase revenue  at the cost of putting host on the defensive. They are trying to make things seamless by having people use their FB log ins but it doesn't work. AirBnB hasn't got it through their heads that providing hosts with the guest real name and other pertinent details will solve a lot of our current issues. Whenever a guests books with a booking engine like ORbitz or Trip Advisor the hotel is given verifiable information that matchs the Passport or the DL. This same document must be presented in person to the hotel or motel.

 

Why does AirBnB feel that this info is optional?

Hi Zacharias

Could't have said it better myself.  How hard can it be for Airbnb to just give us a guest's proper name?  I had to laugh when they called me and said that the full guest's name was Susie J. I told them that no one has an initial for their last name!