Instant booking guest requirements

[David944]

I have had a guest book through the instant booking facility.

I understood to qualify for instant booking a guest had to meet Airbnb ID standards PLUS positive reviews and no negative reviews.

This guest arriving in a few days has no personal review, but as part of a group that got a positive review. This person is therefore a complete unknown aside from some easily faked ID and no personal accolades.

Airbnb claim he meets their criteria.

This "policy" is really dangerous, anyone can turn up. I host at a remote property, and potentially vulnerable to poor behaviour or worse, and feel particularly concerned at the number of vulnerable people hosting in their homes.

Has anyone else experienced this "policy" of Airbnb and has the qualifying criteria changed?  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@David944 If you are so concerned then your only option is to turn off Instant Book.

[David944]

@Mike-And-Jane0

I have turned the option off. The matter is however, despite all requirement options being turned on in the requirements options, a guest was allowed to book who did meet any of them! 

His being part of a group with a positive booking qualified his Instant Booking. This really puts people at risk, and Airbnb initially said the was enough qualification to book!? 

They are looking into it (maybe), but be careful. 

[Sarah977]

@David944  " I understood to qualify for instant booking a guest had to meet Airbnb ID standards PLUS positive reviews and no negative reviews."

No, those are not automatic requirements for a guest to IB, they are things hosts can choose to require for IB- you have to check those requirements in your booking settings yourself.

[David944]

@Sarah977 

All requirement options turned on in the requirements options, but it remains; a guest was allowed to book who did meet any of them!

[Sarah977]

@David944  I've read other posts here where hosts said the same thing happened to them, their settings were somehow overridden.

I've never used IB.

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

@David944 

Positive reviews are not a requirement.

Only reviews are and they can be negative.

The ID is not a security.
Some profils are fake.

In spite of that IB is turned off, I had a 10 months reservation from someone who had a verified ID and 10 good reviews.

The name, Christian name, country, photo were falsed.

I told her reservation would be canceled if the identity on the reservation was not the same as the one on the ID.

10 minutes later, the profil completely changed.

Scary, isn’t it?

You are alone to select your travelers  and check the identity when they arrived is the same on the reservation.

If you don’t do this job, an unknown person you don’t even know the name can get your keys.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@David944don't rely on Airbnb verification. If you host remotely you should have a cohost or someone whose job will be to meet your guests at the check-in and make them show their IDs. If you don't have such a person then anyone can enter your property,  invite 100 people, make a trash party, stole everything, burn it, and when you call the police what will you say, who you gave your keys to? 

[Yvonne41]

I am forced to remote manage my home. I always ask my primary renting guest to show me their valid photo ID at the time of booking and sign my own rental agreement. Even though it’s an added layer of complexity, guests still have to prove they are who they say they are and sign all of the house rules in our agreement. Only 2 people have refused to do this and didn’t keep the reservation. But, more often I cancel because they won’t follow through on these steps within a reasonable amount of time, or want to only do part of it - which indicates “selective rule followers”, who can often be problem guests.

I wish we would get 3 business days to do additional screening of all instant books before we get a cancellation penalty.