Guests allowed to change name and picture on their account to a different person

[Andrea220]

I discovered something very scary in my five years of hosting that Airbnb doesn't care about. A guest can book, be accepted (or in this case, instant book), then change everything about the profile including the name, picture, description, and even gender of the person booked. This is very alarming to me yet customer service told me this is allowed. This proves security is even more of a joke than ever  and I'm not sure I'm comfortable continuing to be a host. Has anyone else had this happen?

[Linda108]

How did you find out about the change, @Andrea220?  I wouldn't know if that happened to me or not.  

[Andrea220]

The name on the reservation that originally messaged me is not the same as the name on the reservation now. Picture is completely different and it's now a different gender. Very easy to tell. 

[Victoria567]

Cancel the booking NO ifs NO buts, as soon as you discover this. Phone air bnb asap to say you want to cancel without penalty and CANCEL as you feel uncomfortable with this booking.

It IS your personal safety, it IS your living space.

Being a host requires a great deal of trust on the part of a host, as you are letting a complete stranger share your living space. You don’t want some nut job staying the night, do you?

Forvthat reason I don’t correspond with plates of spaghetti, pizzas cats or cuddly toys!

[Alexandra316]

@Andrea220 I've never had that situation happen, but I do find it ridiculous that people can confirm their profile with ID and then change their profile to another name. What is the point of that? I've certainly had booking requests from profiles with obviously made up names but the profiles are verified with ID. Very wrong, as far as I'm concerned.

[Andrea220]

My concern isn't even this guest. I believe it to be a brother/sister and they have positive reviews, I just want the profile to be who is staying. The bigger concern is that anyone else could do this too, at any time. Definitely something Airbnb should be willing to address as I see it as a huge trust and safety issue. 

[Letti0]

@Andrea220   I was able to change my first name from Letitia to Letti and also my email after verified. I could have changed the profile picture and last name also, so it can be done. I had one guest remove his profile picture to the gray face after booking and removed all his profile info. it was weird. This was the guy from Mexico that gave me a 4 for cleanliness because of my rustic table that had stains that I paid to have lol...  

[Andrea220]

Right . That's my issue. In my opinion it should be like a plane ticket, once an active reservation is in your name it shouldn't be able to be changed. How is that not a safety concern?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Andrea220

You are right. This has happened to us a year ago. It was a third party booking, and we realized it on check in . We told her it is not allowed so she just changed  "John" to "Lisa and Mary" in front of us 🙂

I've said it hundred times : you have to ask your guests for a photo ID on arrival !

[Kelly149]

agree with @Branka-and-Silvia0 even with a green checkmark there is NOTHING about a profile that should make you think you know who you are hosting. Get ID. Always.