Photo required in guest profile?

Thank you, Jackulas. I just got a request from a prospective guest with 7 verifications. However their profile photo was a hips-up shot from about 12 feet away, at night, and the the message name and the profile name are different. Thanks for helpinng me dodge a bullet!

Agreed, SuiteRetreat. My evil twin wants to add ridiculously obvious ones. My top 10:

We regret that we cannot accommodate chickens.
We regret that we do not have the facilities for a meth lab.
Did we say, “space aliens welcome”?
You cannot dig a pool in our backyard, despite your best intentions.
We have a standing policy against public nudity.
Flash mobs are discouraged.
Sorry, but broccoli MAY be present. Please check with the Host.
We are unable at this time to accommodate a tractor pull.
If you are a ghost, you WILL be turned away.
We love it here! So will you! It goes without saying - please, don’t blow it up. Thank you.

I had a potential guest who is the host of several units request not only a booking but a discounted one at that for the same evening. I declined his kind offer. But the kicker was I said as a host he should know a proper profile photo is required – his was of a backyard - and he said he knows the rules and will do as he likes. So basically he’ll just ignore the rules. I reported his profile weeks ago and nothing has happened.

The requirement is: “We require all hosts to have a profile photo, and we require all guests to upload a profile photo before making their first reservation.” That doesn’t state that it needs to be a photo of the person. The potential guest did have a profile photo, it just wasn’t a self-portrait.

The rules do state that, not sure what the point of merely having a photo of anything serves. I think Airbnb needs to require it to be of the face. How does the host know, then, who is actually showing up at her/his door and that the person who made the reservation is, in fact, the person who is showing up? With no exchange of identification upon check in, a profile photo of your actual face seems minimally necessary.

Especially a host being secretive with no proper profile pic sends red flags up for me.

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We started with Airbnb back in 2010 and we would not accept any guests who did not post a picture of themselves that we could recognize when they arrived and back then everyone complied or we declined the reservation. Now it seems the anti discrimination policy is overriding common sense. However, we have always hosted in our home.

I agree on the whole that the booker must be identifiable by the host. But to take a bit of a bigger picture:

#1

The person’s Airbnb profile is on the wide world web, and hence visible to anyone with Internet access. Some folk might be reluctant to identify themselves that openly.
#2

Doesn’t the Govt-Issued ID Verification process involve a photo-based document provided to Airbnb. If they have this, then that’s a first step.

So, in terms of a viable workaround pending a proper solution implemented by Airbnb:

a) Enable Guest Requires Verified ID setting if using Instant Booking.
b) Have a House Rule about identification and require a non-Verified booker to email you a scanned image of their ppt or other id, or at least a picture that’ll match their face when they arrive.

What do you think?

It could be that they signed up with Airbnb before a photo was required. I don’t think it has always been required.

I don’t believe you can search through airbnb member profiles and it lists only one’s first name so I don’t think you’re openly identifying yourself. How else is your profile visible except through reviews and I’d have to know where someone stayed. Even the city can be manipulated – I can say a city nearby if I really wanted to be evasive.

I had a woman want to stay in my apt for an extended time and didn’t have a proper photo on her profile. She said she was a domestic violence survivor. I told her I didn’t do long term rentals but the fact that she was unwilling to even show a photo of herself was disconcerting. No one can really find you on Airbnb but the fact she was unwilling to offer a photo led my partner to believe she was still hiding and no one wants a potentially abusive person showing up at your house!

I will add to house rules and instant booking questions (I just noticed you can ask questions) that guests must have a clear profile photo of their face in order to book. Thanks for suggestion.

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