Is Airbnb’s verification process a verification process at all.

[Raoul27]

I recently had a guest do an Instant Check In on my property. 

Firstly I had Guest requirements set up, so they needed to meet all my requirements beforehand or else Airbnb shouldn’t allow them to book automatically.

I received a notification of the booking confirmation and viewing the guests profile, there was only 1 guest recommendation - Airbnb requirement stated recommendation from other hosts (being the plural - a potential big difference to 1 recommendation only). According to my minimum requirements these guests should not be in my property.

I also never received any answers to my pre qualifying questions - when I called Airbnb customer support, they said that they cannot force guests to answer the questions and if they don’t wish to then they don’t have to. My question  then is why does Airbnb sell your questions as a guest requirement (it is one of the heading under that section), when it is not.

Literally the guest booked and were at the property within a couple of hours, it was all very quick.

Once my meeting finished and I had time to check the profile of the guest, it was an Indian female persons name and surname, but te selfie was of an African male.

On messaging the guest and asking if they had had a chance to answer my questions (along with some other info), I never received a response back. I tried to call and welcome them into the property as well, but no answer.

The next morning after a lot of fishing around and calling, and after no communication with the guest I called again, the guest answered the phone. However it was a females voice, after questioning her, she then explained to me that she is actually a travel agent and provides a certain company  with accommodation - she said the profile pic is of one of the people within the company (not hers).

My Property is the 2nd Property she has booked via Airbnb for this company, hence only the 1 previous recommendation.

Now my concern is what sort of checks is Airbnb doing to actually check guest verification (ID, selfie, etc, is actually not fictitious - as in this case)?

I have heard other stories of people who have used expired drivers licenses as proof of ID, does Airbnb actually verify each of the points properly or can anyone provide any selfie pic they can find on the internet and any picture for the ID ?

How did this woman get away with this and it seems so easily.

She did give me the company representatives name, who I have been in contact with and hopefully I get my property back with no damages.

[Victoria567]

Hi@Raoul

You do instant booking like me.

I had similar this summer and I wanted to decline the booking at no financial cost to me or my hosting profile.

Phone up your local air bnb number in SA and politely explain your situation, the guest does not meet your host requirements, nor is your  accommodation a good fit for the guest.

Its only a blooming machine in San Fransisco so the odd glitch happens so get a nice human from the air bnb call centre to sort it out and for them to communicate directly with the guest regarding this cancellation.

Do not enter into any correspondence with the declined guest, get air bnb to handle it all for you.

[Victoria567]

Should a similar situation crop up in the future, this is one suggestion of stopping the guest from setting foot inside your door.

[Raoul27]

Noted thank you Victoria.

Unfortunately in this instance it was difficult as they booked and within 2 or so hours (before I even had a chance to do anything), they were in the property, I also don’t think It would work with once they are already present in the property. But definitely prior to them moving in, I will implement in the future.

Thank you!

[Letti0]

@Raoul27  I am thinking she is setup as a booker. The scenerio you mentioned sure sounds like it. 

What are bookers? How do I change my booking permissions?

Airbnb allows designated people at companies enrolled in Airbnb for Work to book trips on behalf of other employees.

Any employee can become a verified Airbnb traveler, but only a company's bookers can book trips for other employees. If you're a booker, you'll have the option to let us know you're Booking on behalf of someone else on the checkout page.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1277/what-are-bookers--how-do-i-change-my-booking-permissions

[Raoul27]

The more you use Airbnb, the more you realize that you need to read the fine print. It seems that what we are led to believe on face value is often not the case.

Had you not sent me the link I would not of known about this and ever expected it.

Does it still mean that the booker is allowed to post a selfie of someone else, versus herself.

I was told by a guest recently that she used her expired drivers license as proof of ID and it was accepted /recognized by Airbnb.

Considering the above, should we as hosts trust the verification process promoted by Airbnb, is being done correctly and therefor legitimate?

Is Airbnb actually checking each ID or are people able to take a photo of anything and Airbnb accepts it -

If Airbnb does not have the system or capacity to check ID’s are correct and match the Selfie, then would it not be better that Hosts can view their Guests Verification info prior to accepting the booking, or as a minimum be given access to view the info only once the booking has been made - with the option to cancel the booking without any negative impact on your ratings if the info is found to be incorrect or false?

[Letti0]

@Raoul27  This is the reason I require a rental agreement that is signed and government ID. I really never have an issue getting it back after sending it. With this information I can sue in small claims claims court without bothering with AirBnB. I know who is coming to my place and have proof of who they are. You really need to add this to your rules. My rules state the following and it does work:

- A signed rental agreement & ID must be sent to us within 48hrs of booking. If not recieved no door code given.

[Raoul27]

Thank you Letti, that is an excellent idea and I will definitely implement it. I usually rent this property to corporate companies and have been renting both in SA and UK for 16 years without 1 missed rental - so my preference is and always has to use Lease agreements and proper tenant screening beforehand, whilst we cannot do the before hand screening on Airbnb ourselves. It is good to be able to use a lease agreement.

I do have some questions for you though pls.

1. Do you not find that the lease puts guests off, for shorter type holiday let’s?

2. Is it feasible for short term stays as well from an admin perspective?

3. How do you minimize the admin process via Airbnb. Do they have a place where guests can download the lease from automatically. Usually I rent on minimum 12 month Leases. I assume it can become admin intensive with lots of short stays, in some instances 1 night. What processes do you have in place to minimize this?

Thank you. 

[Letti0]

@Raoul27  My rental agreement was written with short term rentals in mind. I send it via the AirBnB Guest email as a pdf, they then send it back to me as a pdf signed and with a jpeg of their government ID. I've only had 1 person that would not sign it and canceled, otherwise no issues. The one that would not sign it was planning a party and I put the stopper on that with my agreement and the fact that we are on property. If you want a copy of the rental agreement I use to look at it or modify for your use just PM your email address.

[Kelly149]

no, I don't think this sounds like a booker, bc in that case the "real" guests profile would have been in the message thread as well.

I think now @Raoul0 gets the point. ABB does not have real verifications, we should all use the tools they give us, but consider those as a STARTING point

[Raoul27]

Thanks Kelly.

Yes I am now well aware that ABB does not do proper verfications. 

I unfortunately received a call off of my neighbour as this property is in a residential estate (house rules are no partying or events, or noise after 22.00 and no smoking).

He had called to complain about the noise, apparently last night and Thursday night, which went well into the early hours of the morning.

There has also been smoking in the house.

Called ABB to complain about it and they confirmed that the guest is not a company booker and is in violation of  ABBs rules.

They also said that I can cancel the booking. 

However I have concerns over doing this as I am far away at the moment and wouldn’t be present to make sure that no damage is intentionally done to my property on their way out (due to being angry of the cancelation).

Called the people staying in my property (not the person that booked)  and explained the situation to them, they said this is the first that they have heard about “House rules” and they didn’t realize they weren’t allowed to party all night (their travel agent just booked them a place where they could have fun and clearly didn’t mention any rules or conditions whatsoever (probably agent didn’t read the rules her self or couldn’t of been bothered).

Even though there are 4 guests confirmed staying over, were a lot more throughout the night staying in the property last Thursday definitely.

I have sent her the rules and asked to please abide by them or else I will have to ask them to vacate.

Lets see what happens and I really hope that no damage has been done when I get my property back.

I requested why Airbnb didn’t do proper verifying of the guests ID and selfie and  why were they are allowed to do an instant booking when they didn’t fulfill all the requirements - the case manager apologized and said there is a glitch in their system and their it guys are working hard to make it right.

In the meantime I will get the raw end of the deal with guests in my property that I would never of accepted in the first place, if there is more noisey nights the HOA can fine me.

Big lesson learnt here!

[John1080]

@Raoul27 - "I also never received any answers to my pre-qualifying questions "  

I have found that when guests instant book, they almost never respond to the pre-qualifying questions I send them, and in fact, when someone does IM, the pre-qualifying questions, in reality, become post-booking questions. 

This is one of the reasons I have turned off IB - I cannot get instant bookers to answer any questions and they rarely make any contact with me at all, which makes me uncomfortable. I want each guest to read and agree to my terms (I have a list of 14 points I send each before I decide whether to accept a booking).

[Raoul27]

My sentiments exactly, at face value Airbnb stipulates “Guests who meet all your requirements, can book without requesting approval” and under “Guest requirements” are our questions - from that it feels like we are being mislead by Airbnb as it is not as Airbnb stipulates “your guests will always meet these requirements before they book” - not the case and misleading!

[Raoul27]

I will also be deactivating my IB until Airbnb sorts this out - if IB works as sold then it is a great feature to have.

[Raoul27]

Would you be willing to share the list of 14 points ..... I am clearly not doing this Airbnb thing as well as everyone else, I just assumed Airbnb has our backs (relevant insurances and safety measures in place) but clearly we need to implement our own criteria as well.

if it is personal and you don’t wish to share, I will understand.

thanks