anonymous Guests. Do you accept or reject?

[Matthew688]

I've noticed a trend towards guests using photos not showing their face.  This makes me uncomfortable.  In this day and age when everyone has social media, and most social networking sites have a documented problem with fraud/fake-identities, it's surprising AirBNB has chosen to enable anonymous profiles.

yes, I know airbnb has government verified ID. Staff have confirmed their humans do _NOT_ cross check the government ID against the selfies also provided.

It's no secret some guests lend their airbnb accounts to friends, without a photo visible to hosts that can be used to check the person who booked is the same as the person holding the account, AirBNB are creating an easy option for fraud by Guests.

Guests already get to find out the hosts address once booked, giving guests an additional advantage over hosts by enabling anonymity is effectively bullying hosts. And lets face it, while most guests are great, wonderful people to meet. Enabling anonymity will break this trust we might otherwise have.

[John2374]

ABB now allows you to cancel a guest if they are not using a photo that looks like them with no penalty to you.

I will not allow anyone to stay at my house who has lied about their photo, has no photo or is using someone elses account.

F THAT. It's your place and your safety.  It's not worth it. 

[Deborah751]

I have had an increasingly rising concern over the protection to discrimination that Airbnb gives the guests and NOT the Host?  I had a man rent out a room inside our large home.  It turned out that a young woman came to stay and said that it was her brother that booked the room for her and a friend.  I was alarmed because they are inside our home while we are here also and I have no idea who she is? She said she didn't have an account with Airbnb so he booked it.  I was worried that if there was a claim of any kind, that our insurance would be covered for another person that Airbnb didn't even know?  Then, her friend showed up in the middle of the night and slipped out before we woke up in the morning.  Front door was wide open and a bunch of food was taken from our pantry?  This was a weird and uncomfortable situation that I feel Airbnb should get a handle on immediately!  Food is not a big enough problem to file a claim and so, of course, we let it go.  But, the idea that a total stranger can just walk into our home at any time of the night and take our personal belongings and we have no idea who he even was or what he looked like.  Airbnb is putting our safety at risk and this needs to STOP!  We should absolutely have a right to know exactly who is in our home with us at all times!  This is NOT for the purpose of discrimination as they claim, it is for the purpose of safety and accountability to all members in the home.  If a home is not shared with the owners, then of course, it is different.  But this is strictly when others are coming into our home.  Do you agree?

[Susan151]

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@Deborah751 wrote:

 It turned out that a young woman came to stay and said that it was her brother that booked the room for her and a friend.  I was alarmed because they are inside our home while we are here also and I have no idea who she is? 

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That was probably the moment you should have contacted AirBNB and asked for whatever resolution you wanted. If you had wanted AirBNB to cancel the reservation, you might have been out the money, but you would not have had two unidentified people in your home.

Or, you could have asked for ID along with information about the second friend. The food disappearing? Sadly, that may happen even with fully verified guests as well, based on other hosts' reports. Some people think nothing of eating someone else's stuff.

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Deborah751 @Susan151 as Susan says, and you are right that if people stay with you without the account holder, you have no come back if things go wrong.

[Allison2]

In the case of the brother booking on behalf of his sister, that's a third party booking and you could have dealt with it right then by calling Airbnb and asking them to transfer the reservation to the actual guest, or cancelling altogether. You're absolutely right; you would be in a tough spot if anything had happened, as Airbnb washes their hands of any damage due to 3rd party reservations.

All hosts need to realize that Airbnb gives NO GUARANTEE that they know the identity of the person staying at your house. It's right in their Terms of Service.

Even with "Verified ID". A guest can change their profile name after verification. Rupert Jones can become James Bond and you'll never know.

This means we as hosts have to protect ourselves. My house rules require the first and last name of every guest who will be in my house. We can ask for an ID at the door (though I mostly don't). We don't allow other visitors. All this is enforced with a video doorbell at the guest's entrance.

[Terrie9]

Does Airbnb have a process whereby I can require booking guest to list the names of all additional guests?  One time a guest listed names, but I've not seen anyone else do it and I'd love to require this information if they're booking for more than one because my home accommodates up to six guests.