That could get him banned from Airbnb as we can’t discriminate including by age.
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Yep…police booking photo and individuals photo match the same person
Honestly in the almost 3 years I have hosted, this was my 2nd decline via IB. I normally turn a blind eye. The first was they were using a fake name and would not respond to messages.
Follow-up… the option showed up finally.
“A picture paints a thousand words.” There are so many things you can learn from a persons photo other than their race. This is a presumption (or a prejudice) on AirBnb’s part that discrimination based on race is going on, and if it is, treating all hosts as if they are a part of it. It comes down to a level of comfort that has been removed. Additionally, I think that the policies should be different for those who host what I call “investment Airbnb” properties and hosts who actually open their homes and share them with guests. It is a completely different thing to have someone in my home or have someone in a house I rent on the other side of town. If I am inviting someone into my personal residence, I don’t think it is too much to ask for a photo. If this were truly about stopping discrimination based on race, then potential guests would not be able to see my profile photo until after they had booked with me.
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FYI the host isn’t required to post a photo. I have seen many listings with no host photo.
What is a thing you can learn from a photo that is relevant to accepting an Airbnb booking?
Thanks for your response. Here’s an example: You receive a profile photo in which the individual is “flipping off” the camera. Not someone I want at my house. Or perhaps, a profile photo in which a person is flashing gang signs. Again, i’ll pass on that. Sometimes graphics on a T-shirt that might reveal we are not a good fit for this guest. (NOT THE CASE with us, but do we really want to force a host of color to welcome a white-supremest into their home if we don’t have to?) And i’ll throw one more thing out there that i know many will place little value in, but my wife has an amazing “woman’s intuition” that has an amazing track record. Please understand, over the past 2 1/2 years we have hosted over 400 trips representing over 1,000 guests from all over the world, including a wide variety of races and lifestyles. We are “open door” hosts and that was the case before this new policy went into affect. While we “pre-screen” our guests in a wide variety of ways to make sure we are a good match, we just like the comfort that viewing potential guests in our home provides.
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As already discussed on here on quite a few threads if you are not comfortable about a guest, including because of the example you have outlined, you can ask airbnb to cancel @Hampton.
Your wife can continue to use her ‘intuition’ under the updated guest photo policy just as she did under the old.
If you use IB absolutely nothing has changed. If you don’t all that will have changed is that you see the photo post booking.
here’s a post i made explaining the changes
MAGA hat comes to mind…
RR
I have a strong aversion to MAGA hats. And yes I think they are like confederate flags and swastikas in many ways. However, I don’t know what a photo of a MAGA hat wearer would tell me relevant to an Air booking. I’ve hosted many people whose beliefs I don’t agree with. I’d rather the MAGA hat wearer choose another listing but I’m not going to discriminate against them.
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I have IB so I would be stuck with it I guess.
RR
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I do as well and would not cancel based on a picture. Now if their profile description said “gay conversion therapist and travel enthusiast,” I’d have to reconsider.
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Thanks for that information, and we understand the new policy, have updated our settings to require a (post booking) photo and realize we can still “cancel for any reason.” We also are aware that Airbnb tracks every-single-thing we do - including our cancellation rate. We’re getting along just fine with the new policy, (got 8 bookings in a 24 hour period last week - none with preview of photos) but that is not to say we like it that much. We’ve noticed that almost all of the problems/issues/challenges we’ve experienced as Airbnb hosts with both guests and Airbnb itself stem from a misunderstanding of what this is. It is home sharing (or at least it used to be) - not a hotel. We are home owners - not corporations. To hold private individuals to the same standards we hold businesses and corporations to makes no sense to me. Just speaking for us, it has taken some of the joy out of the entire experience.
What is “Community Forum”?
Airbnb Host Community
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I just noticed this today actually. My first booking request came in from a user without a profile photo. If Airbnb wants to stop people being racist, they need to remove the profile photos altogether for hosts and guests. Right now its just one-sided because guests can see the host’s photo. You’re still going to get racist hosts who turn people down based on their name too.
Many, many hosts have no picture of themselves.
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KKC I don’t know how to quote you when responding but if thats the case, I guess its fair. I’ve had some reservation requests that were a bit abusive and I even had one guy track down my phone number and call me after I explained that this is against the Airbnb terms of service. So I felt like some anonymity is needed on the public facing portion of the website.
Highlight the part you want to quote (as if you were going to do a cut/paste) and a box saying quote will pop up. Select that and it pastes it into a new message.
FYI, if a guest had a photo I am able to see it even before the booking (even when there is an Airbnb note to the contrary) just by clicking on their name in the app. It doesn’t underline or highlight so you don’t necessarily know that it is a link but it works.
Also, i just had a host (no reviews as host or guest though) book and although I didn’t see her pic right away I clicked in her listing and voila! It turns up.