Stuck in Verify Photo ID

[HoaiAnh0]

So this is my first time using Airbnb, when I press the Request to book button, Airbnb asked me to verify my ID (using passport, visa, ec.) The problem is the system keep insisting that my government ID photo and the photo (selfie) I just took myself doesn't match.

Customer Support didn't help much but tell me to try links to links but the result doesn't change. I've tried with my passport photo is both scanned or taken by phone, my selfie is well-lit. I'm a foreigner living abroad and, I just want to book a room and I don't want my first time experience here become something full of hatred. Would appreciate any suggestion!

Thanks in advanced.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@HoaiAnh0 - when you spoke to the help desk they provided you with links?  What kind of links?  Your pictures need to be straight on face pictures, not like the one you currently have posted.  We're mostly other hosts here but can try to offer advice. 

[HoaiAnh0]

Thank you so much! They suggested me to take photo with good lighting and the link is just normal like this one: http://airbnb.com/verify. When I take the second photo, I matched my face to the shape in the frame. What do you mean by the one I have currently posted?

[Alice-and-Jeff0 · Accepted solution]

@HoaiAnh0 - the picture you are using now on your profile is of someone in a tan, hooded jacket, with the hood up, petting a cat.  You cannot see any part of their face or body.  It is not a profile picture that Airbnb can verify.  The picture needs to be of your face - something they can match to your passport as they use an automated service - which may be why you are getting a validation error.  Many hosts will ask for a picture in which they can recognize you when you arrive at their door.  The picture of person with cat could, quite literally, be anyone.  Personally we would require a picture where we can identify you by sight.  It's the only way we can be assured that we let you in and not a stranger.  

Additionally, the link for verifying is to help you get fully verified by Airbnb - which is looks like you have completed.  

[HoaiAnh0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0- Sorry, I might get you wrong. Firstly, the verification I was talking about is the process when Airbnb asked me to provide a type of government ID (passport, visa, etc.) and then asked me to take a photo of myself at the moment using either laptop camera or their app's camera; to see if my face at the moment matches with the one in the government ID. Secondly, about my avatar, when I talked with Customer Support, they didn't say anything about my avatar, because my airbnb account links with FB so this is my avatar from FB. It has nothing to do with the ID verification.

You see my verification has been completed because I just successfully verified with my boyfriend's face and ID, not mine because I know Airbnb system never be able to match my face now with the one in the ID. 

Anyway, thank you so much for the help! 😄

[Diana2071]

I am having exactly the same problem with the relevant page in my passport. This morning I took a new photo that was very clear and well lit.I was determined to hit the nail on the head this time-my third attempt. I thought I was getting somewhere when it was followed by a request to photo the front of the passport- a new development. INCREDIBLY I received yet another rejection by air bnb! I begin to wonder if I am stuck in some kind of groove...

Has anyone found a way to resolve to this If I contact airbnb I suspect they will just refer me to their help pages...which are no help!

All advice much appreciated

[Geri-and-Osiris0]

Hi Alice,

The picture Airbnb is asking Hoai to upload is not her profile picture. It's totally seperate from the profile picture and can never be deleted from their website,  as the profile picture can be. I find this disconcerting. Airbnb already has a government issued ID so why do they need an additional image which can never be removed from their website?!?! They themselves say their photo recognition software isn't perfect and when it doesn't work right there is nothing support can do about it. Accounts are being suspended over this. This has happened to me after 2 years of hosting and I don't know what I'm going to do with all my bookings or how I'm going to pay my mortgage. I depend on the income from Airbnb.

[Geri-and-Osiris0]

... and this picture will never be shared with hosts

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/1237/how-does-it-work-when-airbnb-asks-for-an-id?_ga=2.10592823.2...

[Kelly705]

I am having exactly the same issue as a host and am about to cancel my bookings and figure out a way to change the whole thing if they cannot fix this ridiculous mess!!! I have a 3 month reservation and Airbnb will not release my 2nd payment for that 3 month rental. I have just about had it. They have asked me for my photo 16 times now. This is insane!!!!!

Kelly

[Aleksandra154]

I spent almost 36 hours trying to do exactly the same - upload photo and match it with the selfie. The system is simply not recognising it. The help support was really nice, they were trying and trying, but they could not help me. What is the problem is the system.  Whoever was the IT person / persons who came up with this system did not do their jobs properly. It is extremely frustrating I know. I don't know what to do still, because obviously my documents are not acceptable for this system. 

[Linda-Cantner0]

Hi Kelly,  I have tried to upload my photo ID 10 times now, driver's licence, which I really don't want to do. I don't like posting my face on anything because I know what hackers do with them - W5 TV program, use for false ID's and worse etc. They will share this information with their "partners" you must agree to this or get off the site.  Firstly, why all of a sudden will I not get paid if I don't.  Do they have a means to verify my ID??  Of course, they don't.  If I was laundering money, I would have phony ID to give them and they would be fine with that.  There is a whole list of issues with Airbnb since they constantly change the "rules and regulations" arbitrarily, like high booking fees, cancellation fee of $100 and  loosing your status as Superhost, adding $500 damage deposit even if you don't want one, all this is  grossly unfair.  Gouging, gouging, gouging.  I've been using this site for 7 years and every year they get more and more restrictive and the only thing you are told to do is get off the site if you don't like it, by some guy in India.  My phone only takes ON SMALL over the limit size required to post my ID that I don't want to post.  I feel for you.  Linda  

[Tamara375]

I'm sorry but the response tagged as the resolution did not solve my issue at all.

THIS RESPONSE WORKED:

---

@Bálint4 wrote:

Hi All,

I've also faced this issue and I solved it by scanning the ID card using TinyScanner app and uploading the black and white version JPG through browser, after a while the system responded that verification was successful. Hope it works for you as well.

[Ellie456]

this worked for me too!

[Geri-and-Osiris0]

Alice and Jeff,

I am 100% certain the verification process has nothing to do with one's profile picture! I was verified for 2 years with my Canadian passport. Then one day the system decided I needed to add a selfie. But I couldn't match it to my passport. Support said the government ID wasn't clear!? Well it was clear enough 2 years ago so what changed?

Here is what I believe happened.
1) Onetime I signed in to my Airbnb account using Facebook. Being a conscious internet user, I don't give my real details to the likes of Facebook, therefore it doesn't match my government issued ID/Airbnb profile. After which the Airbnb system flagged me and wanted me to verify myself further.
2) I could not pass this new "deeper" verification process by matching a selfie to my passport
3) Support was incapable of helping me
4) After 6 weeks of hosting guests for free and having Airbnb hold onto $3500 of my hard earned money I took matters into my own hands
5) I started moving my guests to my boyfriend's account. We changed his account name to Geri and Osiris
6) It all seemed odd that we could do this without needing the "deeper" verification but I was back in business and getting paid (for new bookings).
7) There was still the matter of the $3500 Airbnb wouldn't pay me from my original listing until I was "verified".
😎 So we just did the same thing . . . changed the name to Geri and Osiris . . . used his passport, and birth date etc.
9) The system verified the account and I was paid out the next day!
10) The profile picture on the newly merged account doesn't include Osiris - it's of me and my daughter and the one I've used since opening the account over 3 years ago.
11) I often get bookings with people who don't have a profile picture but some landscape or whatever. Osiris's profile picture was of a sunset and the same one used on his Facebook profile because he signed up using his Facebook account and Airbnb assigned that picture to his profile.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that if your Facebook profile matches your government ID with name and birthdate then you will be verified on Airbnb. If it does not, then DO NOT use Facebook to sign in or sign up for Airbnb or you will have the difficulties mentioned.

[Helen744]

Hello Geri and Osiris , it depends where you are booking and the hosts rules . Some people will let obscured faces thru , many do not . It is the host blocking you not Airbnb. Check the hosts rules or book somewhere else, otherwise you will need to update all ids again showing your face. If the booking has gone through which i suspect it has then comply with the host and send a selfie . Simple Cheers H