I’ve had two reservations this month with no profile picture. That’s happened before but it does leave me wondering if that’s going to become more common. Yesterday a guest reserved for arrival today with no “lives in” location although he has a local area code. This is the first I’ve noticed a guest with no location. Is this new, a glitch or neither?
Many of our guests have no “lives in” location. And many have no photo on their profiles.
Last year, I noticed that guest after guest after guest had “lives in Hudson OH” on their reservation. But they didn’t. None of them did. I asked three or four guests, and they didn’t remember even filling out a “lives in” field. They weren’t even from Ohio. I figured that Hudson OH was, for some reason, a default.
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Have you the box ticked on your listing that only guests with a profile photo can book @KKC? If so they shouldn’t have been able to book.
No, I don’t care about photos at all. I also don’t care if it tells me a “lives in” place since that is inaccurate a good deal of the time. But I am interested in what changes they are making and observing how they are inching ever closer to the hotel model where we are expected to host all, with a minimum of information in return.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes like eBay, where you would only be able to leave your guests a positive review, but guests would still be able to leave positive or negative reviews.
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I got an inquiry from this person yesterday. I thought about crossing her name out since this is a public forum but there’s so little information, it can’t possibly matter…
Notice that she/he (yeah, for the Cash fans) didn’t just join.
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Oh inquiries can come with no pic now, for awhile now actually. These are two confirmed bookings with no photo. New users but no photos. One was same day booking but the other isn’t. Very coincidentally, she is also a Sue. LoL
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I just got a booking from someone looks like he’s about 5.
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I had one stay in August and one in October with no photos. One was a new user and one was not - they had previous reviews but no photo.
Yeah, I don’t even know if Sue has a photo or not since it’s just an inquiry. What I was showing is that there’s nothing at all. There’s no phone, no email, no verifications, no “lives in”, nothing at all. There’s usually at least something on the left side like “Phone” or “Email” with a blue check-mark. I guess my screen shot might look cropped but that’s the full screen. Sue did not provide a single thing, not even a phone number.
I’ve always seen at the least a phone number. At least you get in touch with Stephanie if you need to:
Have you gotten some like Sue without any information at all? I’ve never seen one without at least a phone or email. Sue is especially elusive, but wasn’t an appropriate inquiry for me anyways so I didn’t hassle her about it. Maybe she is your Sue. lol.
It feels like we are still mixing inquires with confirmed bookings. I’ve never had a confirmed booking with no information at all. My post is concerning bookings. People who have stayed here without a picture I’ve had before. Now I have a guy who stayed with no indication of where he lives (but I’m 99.9% sure it’s El Paso). So I was just wondering if it was a new development.
The information you’re talking about, the where-they-live is on the profile page so it wouldn’t be any different between an inquiry or booking (but I know the photo won’t show unless it was booked). This was Sue’s profile page. I’ve just never seen one so completely blank. I just thought it strange that Sue hadn’t provided anything other than her name and she’s not even a new user. I think the chance of her having a photo is pretty slim but that wasn’t my concern.
As far as I’ve seen, I’d say at least half don’t have a “where they are from” and maybe that many without a photo, but I’m not sure. A lot of “photos” are flowers and that gray silhouette like on facebook. I’d just say it is rare that I could pick my guest out of a line-up from their booking. But no, I don’t think the where-I’m-from not being filled out is new, it seems as common to me as it being filled out. And then there’s the variation of it just saying “United States”. I guess it doesn’t bother me. But I do want them to have either a phone or email at least.
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Thank goodness this kind of thing doesn’t really bother or affect me. Just reading tea leaves for the future.
This is what I request when guests instant book. I have had great guests all year and only one pushback but Airbnb said what I’m requesting is ok. I follow up after the 48 hour grace period and also have to show them how to attached selfies. Some might say I’m over hyper but I live alone below.
Within 48 hours after booking the suite,
- Provide the full legal names,
- AGE of yourself and your guests
- Current address for yourself and ALL other guests staying in the suite.
- Booking guest’s legal name must match your Airbnb account’s name.
- Your account profile picture must be a close up photo of your face with no sunglasses or hats or anything that would obstruct your face.
- You will also need to send a selfie of the additional guest(s) that will be staying.
- You will need to confirm that you have read house rules.
- Upon arrival, we may ask for Govt. Photo ids to be shown. If you need instructions on how to attached selfies, please ask.
- Please tell use what brings you to the area.
Thanks for sharing what works for you. I’m sure there will be many hosts wanting this information as no picture becomes more and more the norm (if that’s what’s happening).
Luckily guests are separated from me so I don’t need pictures and with all my back to back 1 and 2 night bookings I don’t want to take the time to chase guests down for pictures and info.
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And that’s your prerogative. I and hosts like me are always looking for every competitive advantage so the more hosts are like you, the better it is for me. I know that sounds snarky, I mean it sincerely. The same with anything other barriers hosts put up: must check in by a certain time or must book two days in advance and so on.
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Really? That’s unfortunate.
I think we’re seeing what I’d call technology burnout in a lot of people. Every device and website and app they touch wants information from them. A lot of people—maybe a certain age group (I don’t know)—seem to disengage from a lot of those demands.
It doesn’t matter to me if guests fill out their profiles, include photos, etc. They’re still guests. And their money works as well as anyone else’s.
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I pretty much agree with the above comments by KKc and Rebecca. We have fielded and hosted numerous (70 couples) guests, often with vague photos, hats, sunglasses, far away photo etc. However I do like it if they have filled out their profile, and sometimes they do if I prompt them to:)
If they really have not revealed more than a few words…Sometimes I say " Would you like to share something about your self, your travel companion or your trip?
Enjoy new guest photo and advert photo I made!
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That’s an interesting perspective. A bit self serving and ultimately self defeating, but interesting nevertheless.
The more hosts there are like me, the better the overall quality of guest will be for everyone. But when hosts end up encouraging and supporting guests who shouldn’t even be using Airbnb in the first place, then we all lose.
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