What is legally acceptable to ask when vetting potential guests?

Don-And-Emily0
Level 10
Catskill, NY

What is legally acceptable to ask when vetting potential guests?

Hi everybody,

 

We know each country has different laws when it comes to this issue.

 

In the US, VRBO hosts can set the guests minimum age requirement, but somebody said AirBnB can shut your account down for age discrimination if you mention it.  Is this true and is it listed on the AirBnB website somewhere?

 

Also, we’ve read that as a host, you can ask for copies of photo ID from EACH guest who stays at the property (not just the person making the reservation)

 

Is this legal in the US and is it cleared by AirBnB? 

Thank you in advance.

 

2 Replies 2
Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

@Don-And-Emily0 

 

In the vetting process with guest enquiries, we routinely refer to groups of persons under 30 years of age as "high risk" and ask for a (real) security deposit. We haven't had any problems so far, and if Airbnb wants to shut us down for that, so be it. But they'll lose yet another productive host. I've just learned of two more in our area who've just closed their listings on Airbnb. But they're still listed on other platforms. 

 

It is a legal requirement here to obtain and enter the IDs of all guests into a government database. If we don't do it, we lose our licence. If Airbnb wants to shut us down for that, so be it. There's other booking platforms that actually respect the needs of hosts. Well, to a certain extent anyway 😏

Same in our town. Our neighbor had a problem guest burn his rug and AirBnB did not help him recuperate damages. It was the last straw in a long running saga and he closed  his account for good last month after 3 years. 

 

Hosts are tired of not being supported properly by AirBnB I guess.