Why does airbnb allow active guests to have just a first name & no photo?

Donald28
Level 10
Lithia Springs, GA

Why does airbnb allow active guests to have just a first name & no photo?

I recently had a local guest want to book our place for a movie shoot. As I always do, I opened her profile and it gave almost no info. Her name was just "Mary" with no last name and she had no photo. She did have 1 good review though. 

 

I asked her to provide a photo and a full name so I can do minor background check (I search guests name on facebook to see what kind of person they are) and she replied... "I'm not going to jump through hoops." I just declined her after that. Hotels require a credit card and a photo ID upon arrival. As hosts, we trust airbnb to be getting this info from our guests BEFORE they are able to book at our airbnb. 

 

I reported her to airbnb and asked how can they allow members to have no photo or full name? Hosts need to know who to expect will arrive to share their home/property. Without this very basic info, anyone could show up and say "I'm Mary".

 

This is the very odd response I got back from airbnb... 

Hi Donald,

This is xxxxx from Airbnb Customer Experience Team. I hope this message finds you well. I got your message regarding the Guest that you declined because she has no photo or last name in her profile.

I do understand your point Donald. However, that is why we have the ID verification process. By following and completing the process, it also gives Airbnb an idea that the Guest or Host is the legitimate user. If you have other concern please respond to this message for me to assist you further.

Thank you"

 

So, to me that says... "don't you worry donald. We have verified them and decided they are a legitimate user.  You don't need their last name or photo. Trust us".

 

But how can I verify that "Mary" is not a scammer, partier, prostitue or whatever other horrible guests we could encounter? How do I know the person who booked is the person who arrived? Isn't part of the airbnb verification process that each member has to provide a photo in their profile?

16 Replies 16
Clara116
Level 10
Pensacola, FL

@Donald28 Hello, I too require a photo of my guests coming. It appears that ABB has recently passed a new thing that many will not have photos because many have cried discrimination due to the photo. I just write to the guests inquiring that I would like to welcome them but like they have the photo of me their hosts I need them to put a current face photo for booking purposes and I thank them inadvance. So far it has worked every time. If i don't know who is coming--------------They ARE NOT staying in our cottage. Its simple. 

The fact you Reported to Airbnb is where you might have done the less than perfect thing - just try to get info from guests very sweetly and if that fails - just cancel/decline but first try with guests. 

 

Oh, the red flag is LOCAL guests requesting.....movie shoot - ??? what kind of movie??? bedroom??? oh no......I mostly DO NOT book local people - unless they have been displaced due to a fire or something very obvious. Locals are usually up to nothing wonderful. Just my take on things. happy hosting, Clara

Susan151
Level 10
Somerville, MA

You will never be given a full name for an inquiry or request to book. Not until there is a reservation, will the last name be revealed.

 

Guests, and potential guests, are not required to have a photo. I have rented to dozens of people with either non-human or no photo without issue. To be honest, what someone looks like tells me very little about what kind of guest you will receive.

 

If it is that important to you, either establish a rule that you must see ID when they arrive or that they upload an avitar before arriving at your home.

But if you dont have a photo of the guest, how do you know they are the person that booked and has arrived at your airbnb? Yes, that's very important to me. Airbnb should be making guests upload a real photo of themselves. Isn't that part of why we pay them our host fees? 


@Donald28 wrote:

But if you dont have a photo of the guest, how do you know they are the person that booked and has arrived at your airbnb? Yes, that's very important to me. Airbnb should be making guests upload a real photo of themselves. Isn't that part of why we pay them our host fees? 


Going to correct that statement just a bit. We pay AirBNB for credit card processing. The guest pays all the fees. That aside, somehow the person who shows up at my door always "sounds" like the voice of the person who has been messaging me. They answer to the right name. They have arrived at the agreed upon time. They came to the correct house.

 

AirBNB is going in the opposite direction, as you no doubt know. Going forward at some unstated moment, as a host you will not see any avitar until there is a reservation.

 

Clearly you feel very strongly that you want a picture, so it will be up to you to add this to your house rules and then enforce this rule.

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Donald28 I find nothing trustworthy about "verified" with ABB -- search a few posts, you will see that after "verifying" ID a guest is able to change ANYTHING in their profile (photo, name, city, etc). And Susan is right, the verified info is only shown to you AFTER a reservation is completed anyway.

 

So, I don't have any guest restrictions to my IB, BUT I do require that within 24 hours of booking that I have full name, age, address & contact # for ALL adult guests. My rules also say that ID will (may) be confirmed at booking stage or at arrival and I decide how fussy to be based on how the initial communication goes.

 

I do not count on ABB to tell me who a guest is, bc they don't (even tho they say they do...)

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Donald28

we do more or less the same as @Kelly149 , we don't care about Airbnb verification or their profile picture bc it is a joke but we have in our house rules that all guests will be registered at the arrival and we just take a photo of all our guest's passports.  Nobody ever complained.

 

it is legal and all hotels and motels register their guests and we have to know who  the keys from our property.

 

Linda-And-Richard0
Level 10
San Antonio, TX

I'm seeing more and more guests with blank profiles.  Just a first name but no photo, home city or anything about them.  I had an inquiry just yesterday that was a name only.  Only verification was facebook and phone number and zero reviews.  She asked all sorts of questions about things to do in my city, distance of listing to various locations, was Uber a good option for transportation, ticket pricing for local attractions and so on.  I gave her a wealth of information but stated I would not offer a reservation without a complete profile, including photo.  Never heard back from her.  Guests can see EVERYTHING about the host, their property, location, past reviews and more.   This is getting too one-sided in favor of the guest.

 

Rebecca0
Level 10
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

@Donald28 I don't think you can ever be guaranteed anything when you open up your place for business.  The best scammers are the ones that will give you a nice photo and all kinds of seductive chat.  Personally, I don't set much store by a photo.  The quality of communication is more important to me.  There is discussion about profile photos here, with info from airbnb about their plans: 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Airbnb-Answers-Guest-profile-photos/m-p/839227#M8...

 

I have to say I think it's a bit strange and creepy that you want to check out guests on Facebook.  It's none of your business what they choose to share on there.  And what happens when you "determine what kind of person they are" ?   Do you decline them if their politics don't align with yours?  Or they like a different type of music?   Or if they have some photos from a particularly crazy party they attended 5 years ago?   Or what?

@Rebecca0 Two days ago I would have agreed that it might seem strange to check out guests on Facebook. My last guest was communicative, booked for herself, her mom, and her grandma for a "nice quiet weekend" . I even met them when she couldn't get into the apartment. But I decided to look her up...and I got to see all the "Happy 21st Birthday" wishes  being from allllll of her friends. Who were coming over. To the AirBnB. Glad I checked. 

 

 

haha rebecca from the UK might call you strange & creepy but you saved yourself a HUGE amount of hassle and heartache by looking the guest up on facebook and heading that 21st birthday party off at the pass. Good job girl ! 

Rebecca0
Level 10
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

@Emily487  Yikes!!  OK, I take it all back.  Obviously in this case it was very worthwhile to check up.  But how stupid was she to post that publicly?!

 

@Donald28 My sincere apologies for implying that you were creepy.  I didn't mean you personally, only the behaviour.  But having thought about it, and with Emily's example, if someone has their FB page set to 'public' they can't really complain if people look them up.

By the way, I love how you've written your listing to deter partiers.  It's so clear!  

The very first thing a company will do when thinking of hiring a job applicant, is to do a thorough search of their internet footprint. It's really very easy to see what someone is "like" just by reading the things they publically post on FB and instagram. If hosts aren't taking advantage of the info to screen their guests, they put themselves more at risk. Especially, for hosts that allow the guests to share their home! 

So, what did you do when you found out there was a big 21st birthday party scheduled for your home? How'd that all go down? Did you make her leave? Did you stand in the driveway and shoo arriving partiers away? Sounds like a good story?!

@Donald28

It was a lot less exciting than that. The host drove over to "dissolve" the party...the mere presence of a 50 year old bald man had the desired result. The AirBnB is less than a block from lots of little local restaurants and bars so they just moved the show on over to the local dives and there weren't that many people yet anyway. According to the neighbors, they were quiet from then on out and she left the place in great condition. 

 

We've had some great local guests:

-There was the couple who every 6 months they leave the kids with grandma, book a place, bring spreadsheets (really!) and plan out all their home and family projects that they just can't manage to really talk though with a house full of kids.

-We host people going for surgery at the research hospital a block away and they don't want their family hanging out in the recovery room.

-We host a LOT of in-laws for a lot of neighborhbors 🙂

But even with that, I think we are going to have to say no to local bookings...it's just not worth the fuss and stress.