Has anyone come across a guest being blocked from booking for this reason? She wanted to book a three bed property for 5 people. Is this some weird new policy or does this indicate the guest is a horror?
Is she under 25? There is a weird new policy that limits what under-25s can book.
It means the reservation meets Airnb’s criteria of being high risk for a party. Airbnb hasn’t been fully transparent about the specific criteria, but here are the general factors:
- Guest is under 25-years-old
- Guest has few or no reviews
- Guest is local
- Listing is entire-place
- Booking is short-notice
- Length of stay is 1 or 2 days
1 Like
and guest my only be a single person booking for a large home.
Am I correct that Airbnb doesn’t require an ID that reveals birthdate or age? How do they know when a guest is under 25 years old?
If you have “Government ID” checked in your listing’s booking requirements, then all of your guests will be required to have submitted ID that showing their name, photo, birthdate, etc.
Of course, we all know that Airbnb is big into data mining and they know a lot more about guests and hosts than they will ever disclose.
1 Like
We don’t require “Government ID.”
I’m asking in general, though. Can’t guests open Airbnb accounts without providing any age-related ID?
I don’t know, but I do know that Airbnb can still figure it out for most people.
1 Like
Yes and what a shame and what a recipe for disaster. They created a monster with greed and pr and bad controls
1 Like
Just a thought - since Air decided to deny the booking, you are free to coordinate with the guest and see if you like the situation and then can take it direct (along with a big security deposit, etc)
That’s just stupid. Don’t you ever have anything POSITIVE to say?
??? Sorry? I totally don’t get what you are saying. What isn’t positive about trying to spin a “can’t book” into a “can book direct”?
LOL. Please enlighten!
I agree with you if you’re willing to assume the risk. That said, I am certain that Airbnb is doing data mining for the purpose of profiling hosts and guests. If you remember, there were articles on it about a year ago. I’m inclined to think there may be more than just the known factors at play when deciding that a reservation is too high risk for Airbinb. The risk to hosts may be higher than we think.
1 Like
I believe from memory when I set up my profile I put in my date of birth. (but it was five years ago 
1 Like
Airbnb introduced this policy in the US a few months back and has now also introduced in the UK, France and Spain.
Personally I think this is a good idea to help minimise the risk for hosts of damage to their property and anti-social behaviour in their communities and for neighbourhoods where a minority of hosts accept these type of bookings without vetting their guests and then don’t act promptly when anti-social behaviour occurs. @Dolphin23
I remember seeing something about this in the most recent host newsletter.
2 Likes
Just curious couldn’t the conditions listed below be a red flag to, say, anyone?
- Guest has few or no reviews
- Guest is local
- Listing is entire-place
- Booking is short-notice
- Length of stay is 1 or 2 days
Sounds like they are having their floors refinished to me! Bookings like that make me money all winter long.
1 Like
Depends. Communicate with them about their plans. For all guests, get full names, addresses, & ages, etc.
I assume you have cameras or will do in person checkin?
Most of the damage that has been done in my house has been my people who are 30 and over. I don’t like this rule at all. I think it’s ageist.
2 Likes
For years, some hosts have said they won’t rent to locals, they won’t take same-day bookings, they don’t allow 1-night bookings, or they won’t rent to guests with no reviews because they frequently got problem guests. Other hosts have few or no problems. I suspect the hosts that had problems usually had multiple of those factors simultaneously and never made the connection, or if they did, it didn’t matter because Airbnb never gave hosts better way to block those bookings.
Airbnb eventually figured out that the combination the factors surpasses their risk threshold, and they’ve got 10 years worth of data to back it up. Of course, they’re still going to punish a some percentage of innocent guests.