So, normally I look at the app for all messages but just so happened that I got an inquiry at midnight that didn’t show up there but saw the email. The email has the profile pic clear as day (and there I can zoom in whereas the app I can’t). Also, when I get a guest who is also a host I can usually find their profile pic as well, but sometimes it disappears when it “realizes” what I am doing. Maybe using incognito would help. Haven’t figured that one out yet though as I haven’t really had a need.
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I like the idea of being able to zoom in on the picture and see if they’re high school or college kids. They have been the ones that have caused much disruptive behavior due to unacceptable partying. Thanks for letting us know.
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I got an inquiry yesterday (unusual since I have IB enabled) and yes there’s a picture of the guest with the email. Since I pay so little attention to these kinds of things and get so few inquiries I couldn’t recall so I went back and looked at all 32 of my “inquiry” emails from the last year and only 4 of them had a picture. 3 from last Jan/Feb and the one yesterday. So my guess is that they are A/B testing to see how the pictures effect booking/acceptance rate. Not all the inquiries without pictures look alike. Some have the city the guest has associated with the account and some don’t. Some guests have a green checkmark badge and some don’t. That check is supposed to mean the guest has submitted a selfie but it certainly doesn’t mean you get to see it on their profile. LOL.
Most of December is booked now but I’ll be keen to see if I get any more inquiries and if there are pics or not.
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Don’t expect it to remain.
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The zooming in on the picture is becuase you are able to zoom in on your emails. It has nothing to do with the fact that it is from Airbnb.
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I don’t usually look at the emails but just went and looked at them to see. As @KKC, some of mine have photos and some don’t. It seems like the initial inquiry or request don’t have photos but once a conversation started, the emails with the guest’s replies all had photos. I didn’t check back very far but the last couple months have this pattern.
If you are desperate to see a pic then one workaround which sometimes works is to save their mobile number as a contact on your phone, and if you have WhatsApp installed you can then view their profile pic there.
Ok, some folks have dogs, mountains etc, or just nothing at all. But others have their pic.
JF
I quite often find the guest doesn’t look like their profile picture. It maybe because the pic is of them at a different age, a different hairstyle etc. Some photos are of more than two people and I don’t know which one is the prospective guest.
I fly on trust most times- except in the case when I expected a male and a quite different looking young woman turned up with no explanation.
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This made me smile as I went back to check our pic on ABB. My now-teenager was 2, I only had 1 chin and my husband was still a ginger. I don’t think I’ve taken a good picture since then, so that’s was we went with. I imagine guests and hosts do the same 
If someone tried to match me up to my picture all they’re going to get is (1) white female … wait, make that (1) exhausted white female and (2) two other people.
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I must admit I ‘think’ I still look like my profile pic !!
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But I have a picture of Pepe, our inflatable pool unicorn, who looks nothing at all like me.
I’m quite phobic about having my photo taken, and would NEVER take a selfie. In Real Life I am reasonably pleasant-looking but I take a terrible photo. My passport photo, taken ten years ago, caused one Customs officer at the airport in Malaga to look at me, look at the photo and say “If you really looked like that I don’t think I’d be letting you into the country!”
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Curiously, most of the guests we’ve communicated on via WhatsApp actually have their pic. Not always just them on their own, but at least a recognisable image. Me, I have a picture of our shiny new front doors 
When I went to the DGT in March this year to swap my UK licence over I’d forgotten to get new passport sized pics. In my laptop bag was a wallet of official government sized pics from Istanbul, from about twenty years ago (everything official in Turkey requires a piccie).
Two mins with a borrowed set of scissors and my lovely new Spanish driving licence has a twenty year old pic. There is a difference, seriously. The woman looked at pics, looked at me, shrugged and processed them 
No pasa nada!
JF
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Like me with Airbnb photos.
I wonder if it’s just me whose guests don’t look like their photos. Those who demand clear face photos must never get that guest who has aged decades, doubled their size, or lost all their hair. And a guest could honestly post a pic when they joined Airbnb and look quite a bit different over time. And if they do get those guests, do they say anything? Do they check everyone’s ID at check in?
Oh no! They also say if you look like your passport picture, you need a holiday!! Ha! Ha!
I’m not photogenic and really love the rare pic where I think I look ok.