You can insist on clear photos all you want and Airbnb can try to require it but the reality is that the person who arrives at your rental may look nothing at all like their photo. If you want to be safe the best thing would be to check their ID against the name of the person on the reservation. If they don’t match don’t let them in and call Airbnb. For those who do self check in you could ask for a scan of an ID before check in if you have time. But you still don’t know who is staying in your rental unless you are there to check them in yourself. I’ve had multiple guests who only matched their photo in terms of gender. Everything has gone fine so far but the scams seem to be increasing and I’m way overdue for a problem.
I don’t care if they have a picture, but I do vet guests by looking them up on Facebook, Linkedin, etc. If I can’t find my own independent confirmation of their identity, I get back to them and ask for more detail. I also say clearly in the writeup that they can expect to be checked via google, facebook, etc.
Agreed. Most recently I had a guest with an old or extremely touched up photo. In the photo she is professional looking and her writeup indicates someone who appreciates nice things. I wouldn’t discriminate if that weren’t the case. I have had plenty of guests for whom that would not be true. However in this case it proved to be extremely awkward upon meeting the guest. She and her partner were much older than the photo indicated and much more infirmed. If I had seen an accurate photo I would have stressed the fact that my apartment is an upstairs garage apartment.
Turned out they were very upset about the stairs and the distance (a whole 60 feet!) from the parking to the door. The information was all there in the listing but I felt blindsided by their indignation.
Accurate profile pictures would really help with this problem.
Be great if requests included the age of potential guests.
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Yes, The profile should include, A good photo, age, origin, and maybe actual living place.
I have had many Chinese guests who give UK, France or Germany as homeplace.
Airbnb actually make statistics, that tell us, "This month you receive XX geusts from Y countries.
I also think that we hosts shall make an effort to make Airbnb implement such rules.
You have a good point, I have had similar expériences, and lately I answered a guest from Berlin in German, but he was English, and understood hardly any German, which is my 4.th language.
If you feel that you are a horse, you can allow to upload a horse pic to yourself 