Instant book setting to require government issued ID verification

1

In my Instant Book settings, I no longer see an option to require verification with a government-issued ID. The only setting is in “Optional settings” to require a “Good track record”.

Do you also see government ID verification no longer available as an option you can explicitly check? An airbnb rep said “good track record” now automatically enforces the government ID check, but I don’t see anything to that effect on Airbnb’s pages and suspect the rep is not correct.

2

They did away with those IB settings, replacing it with “Good track record” at least a year ago. Yes, I think the rep is wrong. All “good track record” means is that they haven’t had any negative reviews. Which also means they can be newbies with no reviews.

3

Thanks, I hadn’t looked at those settings in a while. So, is there still any reason for a guest with no reviews to send a booking request instead of just using instant book? I’ve had this happen a couple times in the recent past and don’t understand it. Wouldn’t Airbnb just show them an option to reserve when IB is enabled instead of making them send a booking request just saying “visiting friends” or the like that doesn’t even need a response?

4

I have never used IB, so don’t have much insight into it, aside from whatI have read other hosts say.

Maybe they do have to be verified to IB, or maybe they haven’t uploaded their payment info.

If they are new to the platform, maybe they aren’t aware of how to IB.

Also, just because guests can IB doesn’t always mean they want to. They may have had a past experience, or had friends or family who did, of IBing something, only to have the host ghost them. So they may want to see if and how quickly the host responds to a request.
I have also had single female guests tell me they wouldn’t use IB, as they want to get a sense of the host by sending a message and request.