Instant booked without reviews??

[Claire446]

I'm not sure what's going on with AirBnB lately, but it seems all screening methods are completely out the window now and AirBnB will lie to you if you ask about it.

Recently I had a guest book who allegedly had her government ID verified but who was using her dog's name. She specifically stated she had NOT changed it, nor had she done any ID verification, it just ended up that way because she logged in through Facebook which uses her dog's name. When I called AirBnB they first denied that was possible. I pointed to the guest's messages. They just said they'd look into and hung up abruptly. Never got back to me.

Then today I had someone instant-book with no reviews and an account established in 2018, even though I specifically require guests to be recommended by other hosts. I checked my settings and they're correct. Every other guest without reviews has always needed approval, so how did this one get instant booked??

[Douglas109]

Haven't been at this very long, but if you go see my history of postings on these boards, you'll see that my frustrations have been identical to yours.

I don't rely on Airbnb's screening methods due to these discrepancies and glitches. When I feel it's necessary, I respond to the booking message by letting the guest know that they'll need ID for check-in, multiple guests never responded and went ahead and cancelled on their own because of this. I prefer to not host anyone who doesn't want to show ID.

Whatever problems us hosts face on this platform are so far down the list of priorities that we're better off making adjustments ourselves whenever possible. 

[Claire446]

Yeah, that's a good point. Perhaps bookings go down, but why host someone unwilling to show ID anyway?