ID verification delays causing lost bookings!

[Helen0]

I have been a host for over three years and currently manage four listings - so I have had a lot of guests now!

At least 50% of my booking enquiries come from first-time users who need to get their ID verified before they can book.

I'm fine with this requirement, I'm not fine with the difficulties a lot of these guests report with the process!

It always seems to fail the first go around and I then get queries from the guest about how to resolve this. If they can't get it to work withing 12 hours then the enquiry fails altogether. 

It is very frustrating that I have no idea how to help them - all I can tell them is that I have no control over this process and as a result many of them become discouraged or confused and drop their booking altogether!

I have searched the Help Centre repeatedly for information but there isn't a lot there, only an overview of what Verified ID is, nothing about how exactly it works.

Can anyone explain the step-by-step process of how a guest's ID gets verified, so that I can at least understand what problems the guest might be having?

Does Airbnb have any plans to make this process smoother and less prone to failing?

Is there a way to de-activate the requirement if a guest is having problems and I am happy to accept their booking anyway??

[Tony42]

I too have had several guests, mostly international people, having trouble meeting the verified ID requirement. They generally cannot find someone at AirBnB to help them or AirBnB just tells them to wait and it will fix itself the next day. Typically that is not the case. 

If I turn off my verification requirement, it does not resolve the problem for that guest who has already begun the process. The workarounds I have heard from my guests are:

1. Complete the process on a desktop or laptop computer, not a phone or tablet

2. Use a different credit card

3. Sign up for a free email account on gmail and use that for verification

4. Have the host turn off the verification requirement and then have one of the guests create a new AirBnB account and start the booking process over again

Anyone else come up with a workaround?

[Chris773]

I'm suffering with this as well now, too. Fortunately the booking isn't until next month but I am getting the feeling from this first-time Airbnb guest that "using Airbnb is too difficult" and they're likely to go either to another booking site or to a hotel if things aren't resolved soon.

I know that Airbnb's COVID layoffs aren't helping things here, but any word from on high about what's going on with ID verification delays right now and any possible resolutions?