Profile Photos - What are YOU seeing because it seems to keep changing?

[Suzanne302]

We've all read that ABB announced it is not showing profile photos to hosts until a confirmed booking is made. Well, for me, that's true, sort of. I was wondering what other hosts are seeing.

I get a request in my inbox and instead of a profile photo, I see the first letter of their name. So, for Suzanne, it would be a circle with a big "S" in the middle.

BUT....If I click on "view profile", their photo comes up immediately, even before I confirm the reservation. So, what's the point of masking the photo in the inbox?

Just wondering what other hosts are seeing, or not seeing!

[Robin4]

@Suzanne302

Yes Suzanne, that is universal, that is what we are all seeing....provided the guest actually has a profile photo visible. But there are variations! I have had two who did show up with a facial image in an incognito search but, even after they booked, and in one case stayed and left a review still did not show up as a profile photo!

Try and figure that one out!

My guess is they are still playing with it Suzanne.

Cheers.....Rob

[Kath9]

@Suzanne302@Robin4, that's strange because according to the new policy, hosts are not supposed to be able to see a profile photo at all until a booking is confirmed. As Robin said, they're probably still trying to iron out the glitches.

I don't know what I'm seeing because, since this new policy was introduced, I changed my booking settings to require guests to have a profile photo. Since then, and I have had NO booking requests, NONE AT ALL for the last couple of weeks (this is from a near 100% occupancy rate and almost daily requests to book). I have no idea what is going on! I have just unticked 'Profile photo required' to see if it makes any difference...

[Ben551]

@Kath9  curious, did you used to get bookings from a lot of guests without photos?  I've only ever had one, out of dozens and dozens, without a photo.  It's interesting to me because if people are getting scads of bookings without profile photos, then this latest change (to hide them) would have no affect.. the photo wasn't there to hide in the first place?

[Suzanne302]

@Kath9

Okay, that's funny because I didn't even know we could check a box to require a profile photo!

And yes, the fact that the profile photo pops up when I view the profile is strange. I assume a glitch but who knows.

[Kath9]

@Suzanne302, that's a new thing since they introduced this new photo policy. If you go into your booking settings, you'll see the 'photo' criteria. This only applies to Instant Book though...

[Kath9]

Hi @Ben551, no, like you, nearly all my booking requests are from people with photos. So, not sure what difference it would make ticking the 'photo required' box. It just seems that my booking requests have dropped off ever since I made this change so now changing it back to see if it makes any difference (in case it introduced some kind of weird glitch that Airbnb are famous for...)

[Ben551]

@Kath9sounds suspiciously like an Airbnb coding bug, in that case... hrm...

[Kelli65]

It handicaps hosts from making safe and comfortable decisions about who they allow as guests in their home.

I have listings in what are considered party towns and the reservation requests are not always from ideal Airbnb guests. 

I find it very disturbing that I cannot see the profile photo when deciding whether or not to accept a  reservation. 

Airbnb is occulting a tool that a normal homeowner would want to see before opening their doors to guests.. 

[Helen3]

Hmm. I use Instant Book, so for the vast majority of guests I only ever see guests with a photo.

I will have to watch out next time I get an inquiry and see what happens.

I've never had to turn down a guest because I am uncomfortable with their photo to date.

I have turned them down because they wanted to bring three hampsters. Have the family she was visiting come around to cook and eat breakfast at mine with her every day, bring six month twins (I have no babies ticked), have their 21st gathering in my garden (hell no), because she wanted me to take her to her college course and pick her up every day (even though there was a direct bus there).

The point I am making is it usually what guests say or ask for that creates a red flag rather than what they look like in their photo.

If I was ever uncomfortable with a guest purely because of their photo, I would be happy to ask Airbnb to cancel.