Great topic and concern. After reading through all the replies I noticed that only one person wrote how Airbnb isn’t reviewing these NEW guests. I would venture that it is done via software verification and not human thus allowing images of any sort to be used. The real question here might be does a human working at Airbnb have the responsibility to check data and images provided by new applicants? If they are, they’re not doing a very good job!
We have not yet finished our first full year as hosts and do use Instant Book (IB). The reason is because Dan is home full time therefore available to our guests, and manage our home. We also IB to increase our hosting opportunities as there are many homes available in Las Vegas for a low premium. And as it has turned out, we have hosted numerous first time guests who are not sure what to expect so even a low bar is easy to jump. We treat everyone like we would treat extended family so it works for us so far.
So, when a guest with a picture of their bird or cat does IB we simply reply to them with our usual greeting but add that it is Aibnb policy to provide a photograph of yourself and ask that they do so immediately. However, we take it one step further, we ask for the names and relationship of all their guests (spouse, friend, etc.), and have recently started to request that their guest’s images be posted to their profile. The initial reason for this is that another member of our household has to greet our guests on occasion and we have had several groups of individuals that arrive at different times, in other words the guest that booked the listing isn’t the first to arrive and we need to know what that person looks like in order to let them into our home. It is your home, your listing, your rules, and now you have a full record of the names and images of your guests before they arrive.
