News Article - Airbnb Employee request to implement verified ID denied, according to WSJ

Michelle53
Level 10
Chicago, IL

News Article - Airbnb Employee request to implement verified ID denied, according to WSJ

"Airbnb denies a report that it rejected a plan to require government IDs to sign up for the home-sharing service because it might hurt growth"

 

"Home-sharing company Airbnb has a platform that can make it vulnerable to a host of problems, like theft, vandalism, and fraud. But when its safety team suggested that the company implement a government-ID requirement to join the platform two years ago, a new report from The Wall Street Journal says that Airbnb executives pushed back hard against the idea. "

 

Reporting at this link from Business Insider. The Wall Street Journal  article is behind a paywall. 

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-resisted-employee-advice-regulating-platform-2019-12

30 Replies 30
Jennifer1421
Level 10
Peterborough, Canada

Not surprising in the least (though absolutely maddening, of course). Here's hoping that all this media attention forces REAL change in policy, in order to protect all of the membership.

Ute42
Level 10
Germany

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@Michelle53 

 

Of course the request for Government ID hurts growth and it also hurts our bookings.

 

The more verifications You ask from guests, the less bookings You get.

 

 

@Ute42 Personally speaking, I'd rather have fewer bookings, but more reliable guests, than be booked back-to-back with guests who make me uncomfortable, and fearful to enter my own space after they leave, in case they've trashed the place/stolen items/crammed in more people than allowed.  Followed by the huge relief when nothing bad happened.  How are we supposed to live like that ?

But it appears we are required to sacrifice quality for quantity. 

It costs me more, in the long run, to solve the problems caused by bad guests, if I include costing in my time, than the income I received from the bad booking, not to mention the property damage/losses.   I'm also completely exhausted by the end of the year, physically and emotionally. 

 

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@Michelle53  

 

  • But it appears we are required to sacrifice quality for quantity.

 

You are absolutely right. All the hosts want to vet their guests as good as they can and I agree that does help the situation to a certain extend. But there is no guarantee. You can vet guest down to the bone and still end up with jerks. The worst group of guests I ever had were 7 lawyers (yes, lawyers) age +- 45. They were screaming an yelling at 3am like pigs is a slaughterhouse, totally drunk.

 

Noone wants to hear the truth: Vetting and verification reduce revenue. That's it.

 

  • I'm also completely exhausted by the end of the year, physically and emotionally

 

I think that's how many hosts feel. We would have a better life if airbnb would back us better in conflict-situations. I don't know if this will ever happen.

 

 

@Ute42  ce soucis est mondial, il est normal de vouloir connaitre l'identité d'inconnus que nous recevons .

 

ce peut-être un terroriste, un assassin, un violeur .

 

Donc non cela ne nuit pas au réservation,

 

mais embête juste les personnes qui ne sont pas prêtes a être respectueuses de nos bien.

John1080
Level 10
Westcliffe, CO

@Michelle53, yes this is a lesson I have learned over the time I have been a host. I have raised my price and standards, become more strict with my policies and with whom I allow to book. I have fewer booking now, but a higher quality of guests and also make more money each month as a result, with fewer issues to deal with and less wear and tear on my property overall. 

@John1080  Agree totally. I'm taking a break, doing some winter maintenance, and rethinking my strategy for the coming year. 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

I don't care for Airbnb verification, we verify each and every guest by ourselves at check-in and I advise all hosts to do the same.

@Branka-and-Silvia0    I have self-check in. It's a convenience both for guests and for myself. Many people drive into town for shows and events. Often one-nighters. Traffic into the city at certain times of the day can be horrible, so often they need to change planned check-in times.  A 4pm-before-the-event-check-in can often become dinner-first-then-check-in, or after-the-event-check-in. 

I've blocked out certain holiday dates like Halloween and New Year which attract rulebreaking behavior, unless booked well in advance, and for more than one night. 

I applaud everyone who is able to meet and greet guests and verify ID in person. It would be really hard for me to do in practice.

@Michelle53  I know it is a pain... we are off-site hosts and have to drive to the city to clean after our guests and often wait for hours for another 2 groups to show up. But we want to know who has our keys and make sure we explain to them everything they need to know. That's why we have 2 nights min even though most hosts allow 1 nighters

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Michelle53  Interesting article. Not surprising. To tell the truth, I've never paid much attention to whether a guest has verified ID. I don't use IB and judge whether to accept a guest based on their communication style, and their past reviews, although I've accepted guest with no, or few reviews, as well. And all of my guests have turned out to have clear face photos, so that also bodes well, in my mind. In three years I've never had a bad guest, but if I had, I might be more concerned about lack of verified ID and if I used IB, I would definitely want it.

But the fact that Airbnb chooses profits over safety, and ignores the advice of their own Trust and Safety team is distressing and makes it obvious that their "platform built on trust" and blather about taking the safety of their users seriously rhetoric is nothing but blatant lies.

@Michelle53 Yesterday I had a new guest (no previous stays or reviews) unable to book my place because their profile was, “awaiting verification”. An Airbnb CS Rep told me the guest needed to upload their ID before they can request to stay anywhere. 

We recently lost a week long reservation from a guest because of this new, unannounced policy regarding verified IDs.  The guest (a senior) submitted an inquiry and had numerous positive reviews and other information, but no verified ID. Normally we require verified IDs, but this person explained their fear of uploading their information online and talked about breaches and scams.  

 

As a compromise, we agreed to accept the reservation based on their reviews, but stated that they wouldn't receive admittance to the rental until we met them personally at the door and viewed their IDs.  Guest was just fine with this.

 

Guest attempted to proceed with booking once we approved them, but Airbnb system wouldn't allow them to do so.  After trying various tweaks on our end, we involved Customer Service.  They told guest that there was a new requirement for guests to have verified IDs and they would have to comply in order to complete booking.

 

Guest was too scare to do this and we ended up with no one that week.  How frustrating!

@Gregory87 I have just had EXACTLY the same experience and I took exactly the same steps as you, but as happened with your guest, mine also wasnt' allowed to proceed. She was also a senior, 7 years on the platform, excellent reviews, but very concerned about identity theft.  I told her I didn't think there was ever going to be a way around it for her for future bookings and suggested she might have to move to a different platform.  She did, found me and booked that way.  ( I didn't suggest that part).

I think she had to pay more money. I ended with an extra $4.