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I had this request from a guest.
“Am unable to upload photo of driving licence. Am wanting to book two adults from 7th to 13th January. Email address is (Email hidden by Airbnb)
Thanking you”
my reply:
"Hi Sally, thank you for your enquiry. You must complete the AirBnB identification procedure in order to book. Any attempt to send an email address or telephone number will be blocked out by them as yours was. If you are having a problem registering then please contact AirBnB directly as I am unable to assist in any way.
regards, J"
I am on IB. In my experience such guests never book. Is this other people’s experience too? I wonder why.
I had one guest who was persistent in trying to get through verification and I asked a similar question in the forum. They proceeded to book fairly quickly afterwards, they were just elderly and struggled with the photo uploading/scanning if their ID.
When people are new they don’t know how to do many things have and also don’t understand how exactly Airbnb works. I also at first couldn’t upload my ID and I also was trying to see if I can pay directly to host without knowing that I am doing something wrong
My experience is that the people having trouble do indeed book most of the time. (60%?) I told the story many times of the booking I really wanted and Airbnb “couldn’t” help. So I found a way to go around them. Great, great guests. When I told the woman on arrival that she didn’t actually have an airbnb reservation she was surprised. She pulled out her wallet gave me the cash, showed me her ID and we were set. I’ve had a few others who had trouble but eventually followed through on the platform.
I believe that some people who don’t book just give up on Airbnb. I have a friend who is very tech savvy but has emigrated to New Zealand. She was living and working in China and wanted to book an Airbnb in Germany. She was so disgusted with the difficulty of the process and the supreme unhelpfulness of Airbnb that she’s vowed to never use them. I’ve tried to convince her that she should give them another chance booking out of NZ. But she’s probably one of those people who will book a place for $15 and then complain that it’s not clean. LOL.
I agree with most of the people who posted in that they were having difficulty and I have also had guests give up because they were having trouble with Airbnb’s system.
The only thing would add to the reply was to give the customer the Airbnb customer support number and to be a little bit more emphatic. “I am unable to assist in any way” - seems this could have been reworded to something like: Unfortunately as a host, we don’t have access to Airbnb verification process, so I would like to suggest that you contact Airbnb phone support at XXXX. Hope that helps.
Yes, I’ve had guests who’ve had difficulty with the system and yes, they have booked. Just my experience, but these have usually been younger guests - under 25. Hopefully I’m not generalising or stereotyping but it seems to me that some younger guests have had it pretty easy with most apps and to do something simple (to us who are older) such as uploading a photo is something they’ve never done before.
They make me go into granny-mode and make me want to help them out
To add a story regarding the elderly, I have a LT rental property rented to a couple that are near 80 years old. They were able to e-sign my lease and also use Venmo to pay rent. They did struggle a bit with Venmo at first because of the verification process, but now the rent arrives precisely on time and through the app. I am really quite impressed with them and hope when I’m their age can be as tech-savvy. Only 20 years separate us but the digital divide occurred during those years.
I got notification today that Venmo is going to eliminate the functionality of the website and people will have to use the app. I’ve said it before and will say again…people who can’t or won’t use apps remind me of the people who 20 years ago said they wouldn’t use the internet. One fellow teacher had always been ahead on tech when it came to computers but he bragged in 1998 that he had just gotten a new computer without a modem. He also said he would “never buy a mobile phone.” LOL.
When i visited friends in NZ a couple of years ago I was surprised to discover that their internet was very very slow, and even slower at peak times. Connections outside NZ, like just downloading email, would time out. It was very odd as in all respects they are a first world country. My friends confirmed this as at first I thought it was the hotels I was staying in. In all other respects I totally recommend visiting NZ, it is a beautiful country and the people very friendly (unlike us Aussies. They are like Canadians to Americans).
My mother who is 85 has been using email for 25 years since i bought her a PC for her 60th birthday. But she tried and refuses to use FB or Messenger. I don’t blame here they seem designed to look like text messages rather than email. I may be one of the few people amongst my friends who still sends old fashioned emails.
I’ve been over to visit them twice and I hadn’t really noticed slow internet but it could be I was just putting the device down and not noticing. We’ll see on the next trip over.
My lovely dad, who sadly left the world in February this year at just short of 94 years old, bought me my first computer sometime in the early eighties. He too wouldn’t use FB declaring it to be 'for old ‘uns’. I agree
If people can’t move with the times, then it’s their problem and if we leave them behind it’s not our fault.
