Horrible And Dangerous New Profile Pic Policy

[Daniel2195]

AirBnB’s new “no pic needed” policy is HORRIBLE and dangerous to hosts and guests. It leave hosts with no way of knowing that the person checking in is the person who actually booked the reservation, without rudely asking to see a picture ID. I was told the policy change was to “combat racism” by an AirBnB rep. I can’t think of anything more dangerous to both hosts and guests than AirBnB sending people of color to stay at some racist host’s house (who would have previously just looked at their profile pic and declined their reservation). Instead AirBnb is endangering people of color by sending them to confront such racists IN PERSON and in ignorance.

Also, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community it’s not safe for me and my husband to book places to stay for ourselves without making it clear we’re a gay couple. It could get us beaten and killed, especially overseas. AirBnB’s new “no pic policy” endangers LGBTQ+ people who don’t bother posting a pic of themselves for bigoted hosts to see them as a couple (and decline the booking). Instead, we can now show up as a gay couple unexpectedly to a bigot’s house and be confronted with their hate.

It’s clear that whoever formulated this new “no pic required” policy has zero understanding of the safety and liability issues involved for both guests and hosts. Please require pics so everyone can get back the small measure of protection they provide for all involved!

[Mel140]

I totally agree with you, I believe Airbnb should create an "LGBT welcome here badge" for hosts who are friendly to the community.

People are all different and have different choices in life, and we should accept and embrace that. To force people to accept something they strongly believe against is dictatorship.

We live in a free country and make our choices everywhere we go.

-Maybe I should not include my pet pig in my listings, who cares if the guest is allergic to pet dander !

-Vegans like to enter a fully vegetarian restaurant because they strongly believe animals have feelings. My vegan friend would not go out with a meat eater !

-We should be allowed to make an informed decision on who we allow to our home.

-Some cultures like to cook with ingredients that produces smoke to smoked food in which the smells linger throughout the home, and ingredients that permanently stain furnishings we should be able to say no.

-Smokers allowed or not allowed ? Is that discrimination or something to do with health concerns ?

-Some people do not have money, perhaps scouting for valuables ....... etc

People have strong beliefs and Airbnb should not pretend that discrimination  does not exist.

We should be allowed to make an informed decision on who we allow to our home.

And thus profile pictures are essential and we can make our choices based on our personal life experince in reading faces.

[Laurence298]

I was about to copy/paste  the following email i sent to customer service regarding the "No pic" issue. But then i read Daniel's post and understood the problem from a much more serious side.  As a host, i was grumbling about bachelor parties and potentionally messy, destructive people in my home.    i never imagined the uncomfortable or dangerous situation of being in someone's home who could legitimatley hate who someone "IS".  

  If ever there was an argument for removing this policy, Daniel and many of the other commenters nailed it.  Thanks for showing me the other side of this that i couldn't even imagine before.   I really hope this becomes a non-issue in the future. . ..........

SENT TO CUSTOMER SERVICE:

 Airbnb's new policy of withholding a guest's profile picture is unfairly asking guests to make a decision on allowing a person into their home without enough information. As hosts we make determinations based on a variety of factors including how a person presents themselves, or if they look like a mature guest who is not about to throw a bachelor party in the home. And yes, "Do they look old enough to be responsible in my home."
Despite my careful decision making which included requiring profile photos and guest contact, i've still had a bachelor party thrown which required police intervention and also had some significant damage to my home.
This policy is like asking guests to book before they receive photos of the space. 

The change is being touted as fighting discrimination, but individual hosts are being penalized. Rather than REMOVE a safety feature from hosts, Airbnb should be fighting discrimination with random requests for guests of an ethnicity that Airbnb feels is being discriminated against. Weed out the BAD hosts. Dont punish the GOOD hosts. I strongly object to this policy. 

[Sheree18]

Given this new policy I have decided to request photo ID either passport or license and then will match it up when the guest arrives. Some of my booking requests are from people who have just joined and they’re only verification is an email address. Airbnb are dropping the ball, prospective guests need proper verification it shouldn’t be our job as hosts to do it, but I will for all the reasons we are concerned about!

[Tif1]

I feel airbnb are just using the umbrella of discrimination to force hosts to take more bookings. OF course we should be able to see who wants to live in our homes and make a decision from that, it is OUR home. The guest can quite easily glean a fair amount of information about us, our homes , and because of this policy I changed my profile photo to a non descript one. Do you think any guests care about that. No , because they already get to know a fair bit about us from reviews.  We should have the right to choose who stays . People who are racist or discriminatory will still be so, with or without a photo so , that doesn't really address such an issue, in fact it could incite more than it solves.

Alas I think it is just about airbnb making hosts take more bookings  because they realise that we turn down potential guests who do look threatening or unsuitable. To me it is that simple. So someone came up with the 'bright idea' of sticking it under the umbrella to ensure we don't quite rightly say no to people we think may be a threat to ourselves or our homes, and that should be our own personal decision, full stop.

[Julie1387]

Hello to all from Montana! I’ve been trying to learn about hosting by reading the community conversations. This dialog has been particularly interesting. I’m relatively new to the hosting community so I have limited experience to speak from, that said it has been positive. I’m asking my guests questions before their arrival as was suggested. This has been very reassuring and helpful. I’m making an effort to meet them and reinforce my gratitude for the opportunity to have a work situation close to home. In our case part of our home. I would like to stay optimistic  working for a harmonious experience for all concerned. I choose to believe that  Airbnb isn’t just about making money. That the ideals that created this site and it’s foundation are real. That’s where I’m coming from with this new endeavor. 

[Cindy249]

I fully agree Daniel!!

You don't want to see the picture AFTER you have to accept a reservation - You want to see the photo BEFORE you decide IF you will accept or not .

As your pair of eyes is the last one of your senses that nature gave you to connected to your 'gut' feel.

Even if I don't have a color , religion or gay or straight issue , I will NOT allow someone in my house that has that 'morning-fresh off the herion needle look ' into my house!

AND if you then dare and cancel the reservation AFTER it was accepted , YOU - the HOST gets PUNISHED by loosing your SuperHost status and by being unable to make super host status BECAUSE of your 'cancelation' ??

So the HOSTS, who are the very reason WHY Airbnb EXIST, are NOT protected - ONLY the guest are!?

 In that case turn it all around and tell me how many guest do you think would book with you if they could not see who YOU are and what YOUR house look like?

[Camilo103]

This policy is absurd. It puts the host and guest in a very dangerous predicament.

[Steven614]

I am new to AirBnB and on my 4th guest. And I just searched the “no pic” thing and came across this post. I have my first multi night guest who was booked w no picture and is on her last night here and apparently is the daughter of the person who booked it. I’ve had several small issues. First was that it wasn’t the person who booked. And second she called from 5 minutes away asking how to get in the house.  It’s a one room in my home and I send a very detailed info with key code, where the room is located, what snacks are available etc. so she shows up and just beforehand springs on me that she is not the person who booked the room but the persons daughter. Then the next morning she leaves the guest bathroom a mess with a soiled toilet seat and soiled sink from I don’t know what. So I texted her when I had gone in there to steam clean the floors. She did apologize. Since the booking was half done I decided to let it go.  Then that evening she was in my fridge and dropped a piece of cheesecake I had from cheesake factory which I have no idea why she was touching my cheesecake and it spilled on the floor. Just a few small little things which individually are not much but in totality are irritating. And she did say she had her own account but wasn’t convincing to me. So my question is how many stars should I give her when she leaves tomorrow morning? I was thinking 3 but I don’t want to be too mean and I’m new to this. I’ve given 5 stars to everyone so far even the couple that showed up and stayed almost 24 full hours. When I listed for one person. 

[Linda108]

@Steven614   Air BNB does not support third party bookings which is the case with the daughter.  You will not have a chance to review her as the prompt will ask you to review the parent.  Hopefully there will be no further damage as you will not be able to submit a claim.  

My question is when the booking was completed, was there a profile you could view with a picture or was this profile incomplete without a picture?  Do you have Instant Book turned on?  When you got the request, did you message the booking guest and ask questions to clarify why the guest was coming to your listing?

With this new policy of not allowing host access to a profile until after the reservation is accepted, I think it is important to establish communication with a booking guest to get a feeling for who they are.  I use IB which allows me to cancel a reservation if I do not get good communication with a guest.  In this case, you could have sent a message thanking the guest for the interest in your listing and confirmed that the booking guest is the actual guest and requested an upload of a picture.  Many guests do not understand that 3rd party booking is not allowed on this platform.

You do not need to be a push over for guests who over stay the check out or bring more than the stated number of guests just because you are new.

[Steven614]

Hey thanks for the reply. I had instand book turned on. It is only the 4th guest, 4th day in a row I booked and a 4 day stay, the first non 1 night booking.  So I was a little confused not to see a picture. And then when I got a phone call and it wasn’t the person who booked I started looking up what was the right thing to do but she had already arrived by then.  And she’s also been leaving lights on in every room without any regard for the bills and has left a lot of personal stuff in the guest bathroom which is not for just her and has been mentioned in the ad and to her. But it’s one more night then she is gone. I plan to make sure I check as soon as she leaves tomorrow morning that everything is ok or I will make an issue on the Mom’s account who booked it. And I did add a security deposit and cleaning fee which I had not done previously. Only $6 for Cleaning fee but $150 security. I’m unsure if I should make that higher or not.  I really haven’t minded the past guests even the one that brought his plus one even tho my ad is for just one single. I do find myself looking forward to this one checking out.  What kind of stars do you think I should rate because I will rate the account that paid anyway.  

[Cathie19]

Hi @Steven614. When you received the phone all from the girl, that’s when you feel a little betrayed. How old is she? Is she 18 or older? As this is required if she was as an active member with her own account. Third party bookings are not allowed on Airbnb, but there are times they slip through the net., and aren’t always a problem.

The daughter seems immature and clueless like some inexperienced teenagers. Curious but bad hygiene habits, lacking life skills. Maybe use to mum cleaning up behind her...

Technically you are not covered by third party bookings. I would note in your review, that “mother’s name” did not make the booking for herself or appeared to disclose the homestay information to her daughter, which is regrettable. All information was communicated  in good faith to “mothers name”, so I wish them well in understanding the Airbnb platform needs and requirements.

3 stars for communication

3 or 4 for cleanliness

recommend = no? Your choice....

Just a couple of things Steven. You might need to tighten specifics for your house rules. 

Your amenities  lists parking available on premises, then states in house rules no parking on premise, but parking available off site. 

Maybe place a small basket or something for a  guest’s  personal items, that they can carry into the bathroom and back. With your stuff all visible in the bathroom, she hasn’t broken any written rules in the listing, that says her items need to stay in the homestay bedroom space.

Maybe have a basket or small tray in the fridge with Airbnb use/ guest items here. That creates a delineated space that also says, tripe other stuff is “mine”.

Separate from the third party booking, a guest can’t be marked down, if he/she has no understanding of your “sharing”  requirements, unless they are listed to back up verbal communication.

If not already, ensure bedrooms  have locks on them for safety. I’m not sure I would advertise your weapons, or your wifi. Wifi can be given before check in, on check in or in the house manual.

Welcome to Airbnb!

[Steven614]

Thank you for your reply. I’m learning most of this as I go. The weapons is a question AirBnB asks so they posted it however they posted it. It was part of the posting they wanted to know if I had them on the home and I’m a ccw carrier so I answered truthfully. But they stay in the master suite or locked in the safe also not near the guest bedroom. I didn’t mind so much that she left some things in the bathroom just that she kind of left a lot of things everywhere in there. And it’s listed as a shared bath not a private one. I mean not just stuff on the sink but hangers on the towel rack towels on the floor clothes on the floor and a mess in the sink and on the toilet seat. I think you are right tho perhaps potentially due to my own inexperience I’ll chalk this up to a learning experience and keep it somewhere at a 3 or 4. Maybe the mom should get a break as well. I was hoping to give all 5 stars and get the same. 

[Kevin1056]

Too many Racists in the world.... I agree with the Policy.

[Sarah977]

@Kevin1056  They're not going to stop being racist because they can't see a profile photo. And why would someone in a demographic that gets discriminated against want to have their booking accepted by a racist, putting their hard-earned money in that racist's pocket?

[Kevin1056]

Because it **bleep** them off... I Love **bleep** off racists. I slept in his bed and they changed my sheets. If he doesnt like people of other skin colors and Nationalities he can always take his listing off the platform and use a plaatform that allows discrimination based on race and gender.