I think AirBnB has every right to ask its users to verify their identity in some way. It just so happens, the methods they chose were maybe not the best options for their UX.
I mean, I don't see how you can go half way on this. Leaving the choice up to the host doesn't protect anyone. It's easy to say "hey, I don't want to bother with this.", but the minute something DOES go wrong, who are they going to blame? AirBnB.
They have to cover their ass, simple as that. It sucks, but we live in a litigious society that loves to transfer blame.
If you were in a position where you had to make a tough choice and disappoint some people to protect your family(or company), you'd do it too.
As far as data mining goes... what's new? Are there any massive scale online businesses that aren't looking for new ways to mine their users for marketing and business data? I don't like it either, but I can't say I didn't expect it.
I have a feeling the OP couldn't care less whether AirBnB were doing those checks. The OP knows he lives there, he doesn't need someone to verify that.
I'm not jumping on the conspiracy theory bandwagon and think that the idea is nonsense, but hypotheticall, if I were trying to make Airbnb look bad (and had had spare cash to do it with), I wouldn't just pay someone to say it happened, I'd also per someone to rent the appartment, and actually do this stuff, so that any checks show the crime did indeed happen.
Airbnb is pretty shady. Basically hosts can lie and Airbnb won't really help you out. Plus you have to give them a picture. I don't think I will be using them again.
Presumably AirBnB needs to do some verification, so they're not handing out cash to anyone who makes up a story. Any such verification system will have some rate of false positives.
If anything, I'm surprised they allowed you to rent out your place without that verification in hand. There is enough possible legal/liability quandaries around the idea of AirBnB that is seems risky to sanction the rental of a place without confirmation of the owner's identity.
Exactly - in which case, I don't understand why AirBNB allows listings in those places, or at least warn you. It's a terrible user experience to find out you're an unwitting co-conspirator in someone else's crime.
I recently rented an airbnb in France. The place straight up lied about its amenities. But because those lies sent me scrambling for two days to purchase the things rhe space was lacking I didn't report it until my 3rd day ( on a one month stay and I brought it up with the host on the first day)
Airbnbs response: tough luck. You only have 1 day to report if the host lies. After that, it doesn't matter how much they lied, it's your responsibility.
And it's not worth the credit card challenge if you are a frequent traveler because you will get banned from the platform and they have an almost total monopoly on a certain type of property.
Thanks for stranding me in a foreign country where I had no support network airbnb.
I recently booked a place in an apartment complex, and when I arrived, there were big signs at all the entrances saying it wasn't a hotel, that it was for residents only, and anybody found to be renting daily/weekly would be arrested as trespassers. I was only staying there for a couple of nights and didn't have time for the hassle of arguing with Airbnb at the time, so I just took the risk.
After my stay, I reported it to Airbnb. I didn't want to leave a review because I didn't want to deal with the fallout if Airbnb banned the host and they knew I was responsible. Airbnb ignored the report, the listing is still active, and none of the reviews mention the problem. I wonder how many other guests reported the problem to Airbnb without leaving a review as well.
Airbnbs can really suck. I'm in one right now. I showed them proof that the owner is lying to guests and putting them in danger. They won't suspend his account.
On the very last page of the process it said Airbnb might need to contact me to prove I made the request. I don't trust them either, but it's certainly better than the "deactivation" they were pushing.
I needed to report an airbnb that was having someone else who's not the host on airbnb site run it. So I was staying in the place with a person that they ran no background check on.
They only allow you to make a report from a pre selected list of possible complaints and support wasn't any help. The system was setup to prevent the user from reporting problems that they cannot easily solve.
Airbnb is just one little step above hopping on craigslist and finding a room.
Of course it's deliberate. AirBnB's business model is to achieve profit margin by cheating laws and contracts, and facilitating their customers doing same.
You could never trust a host to respond honestly about that anyways, so it's a moot point. AirBNB up until recently never acted on indoor cameras, and didn't care if a user reported it even if they felt the host hid/misled that information.
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