Inquiry from guest in China, phone and Zhima credit only verifications

1

Hi all,

We’ve had Chinese guests stay but not guests from China that I recall. Just got an inquiry from someone with no reviews (joined January 2017) whose only verifications were a phone number and Zhima credit.

Is it unusual for a guest from China to not have government-issued ID, email, and other personal information verified? In this case, I declined because of the discount request and because s/he didn’t answer my question re the other guest, but I’m not comfortable with the lack of verifications.

I’d appreciate hearing from other hosts with more China experience re verifications. Thanks!

2

@SuiteInSeattle I’ve had guests from mainland China, but wouldn’t know whether it’s unusual for guests from mainland China not to uploaded government or other ID, as I only take guests with verified photo ID.

I wouldn’t imagine that other hosts would have stats on whether it is unusual for a guest from mainland China to have verified ID.

If you are concerned about verified ID why not change your listing so you only accept guests with verified iD?

3

I would skip that and put in your house rules they need to provide YOU a copy of ID prior to check in. The “verifications” by Air are useless because they do not share them. Nobody should book a guest without a copy of ID, you cannot get a hotel room without it why should we be so naive ?

RR

3 Likes
4

Appreciate the responses, but this is my only question: Is it unusual for a guest from China to not have government-issued ID, email, and other personal information verified?

I’m aware that I can change settings to require government-issued ID and that I could also take the extra step to require ID be presented to me. I might do the former (though we’ve had lovely guests who provided everything BUT gov’t issued ID, and I was able to vet them to my satisfaction), and will not do the latter.

5

I received a helpful PM that I’ll post in case it assists someone else:

All Chinese guests who have “government ID” show with Zhima credit. This is what the Chinese government allows.

6

I am curious why not? If you do not get the ID yourself then you have nothing, zero, nada. Air will not share anything with you, the idea that somehow they are verified is meaningless if you have no access to the verifications, they will not even share the email address.

7

I don’t find Airbnb using an independent third party to check guests have verified photo ID useless @RiverRock.

I just need to know Airbnb has verified the photo ID of the guest, I don’t want or need a copy of it.

I live at my listing and have no interest in having to manage collecting photo ID on arrival, particularly with our GDPR regulations in Europe.

8

I can see not wanting to do it and privacy regs getting in the way but I disagree that the verifications are not useless. They are of no value to the host because Air does not share the information with the host. So you need a court order to get the ID if you are robbed or worse.

I think the hosts need to understand that the booking platforms are just that, ways to get bookings and nothing else.

RR

1 Like
9

You can hardly do anything in China without showing government ID. You can’t even enter a museum or buy train tickets, and you certainly need to give them your passport when you check into a hotel.

If you want to ask the guests for ID when they check in, I doubt they would think anything of it.

Zhima Credit (Sesame Credit in English) is actually kind of creepy. It’s a social credit system, which is sort of like a credit rating, combined with social media.

You can gain and lose points depending on how you lead your life.

Volunteer for charity= plus points
Get caught littering= negative points

If you’ve seen the Black MIrror episode “Nosedive,”…it’s kind of like that.

With regards to Chinese Airbnb guests, I wonder if it’s possible to make their Zhima credit rating go down if they trash the place?

2 Likes
10

Never had anything broken, missing or stolen in 3.5 years. Most of my guests are from overseas so having their ID is unlikely to help in the event of me being able to prove they stole something from me.

You are assuming the only value of having ID for a host is if they get robbed or worse. I don’t agree I want it so that I know the person who books has been verified through official government ID. Just because this is useless to you. Doesn’t mean that is useless to me and other hosts.

if I get murdered in my home by a guest, even Airbnb wouldn’t fail to disclose the information they have about a guest to the police. And I would hardly be bothered if I am dead :slight_smile:

1 Like