Guest discomfort with identity documents

[Beth44]

This is my first-time communication with potential guests about their discomfort with security documents Airbnb requires. The first inquiry came from someone who claimed that other people she knew were not using Airbnb because of requirements to provide documents like passports, drivers license, etc. Her issue was new to me yet then today I had another potential guest (face to face) that expressed the same wariness that Airbnb was collecting data from these sensitive documents.

Is anyone else picking up on these concerns? Is this an outcome of rumors??

With the first inquiry which gladly came through Airbnb platform, I communicated back and forth about the process of reciprocal identification for both hosts and guests as a security step for us both. I also alerted Airbnb about this issue and suggested that they might reach out to the potential guest, which they did. 

My question overall is where is this coming from, are other hosts hearing these concerns? 

[Paige73]

Beth,

I've had a few potential guests ask about this.  I think it's a variety of things. Some people genuinly are uncomfortable giving this information out, some don't think "the man" needs to be involved in every transaction, some don't want a paper trail (traveling with a woman not his wife), some have abandoned thier old airbnb profile because of negative reviews, and maybe a very small percentage are up to no good. Either way, I insist on full id verification. I do lose a guest occasionally, but someone with id usually comes along. I stay fully booked, and have had very few bad guests. People generally act better when they're not anonomous.

Your place is so cute! I'll suggest it to anyone I know who's visiting the area.

Paige