I registered with Airbnb, as there was one property in particular that we just had to have: this really beautiful seaside bungalow with views to die for. I made a booking and the owner accepted it, but in order to finish the booking I needed to get verified. I thought that would be no problem. I got my email and phone number verified, and then they asked me for my passport. Last time I checked, only border authorities have the right to check passport, but I just wanted to book my holiday so I went ahead and sent it in. I made a photo of my passport and waited. The website said there was a problem. Then I made another photo, this time with perfect lighting conditions and saved it in the highest resolution; Airbnb gave the same response. I held up my own passport in my webcam (a real person, with real documents) crossing my fingers that a computer would recognize me as a real person with a real document; nothing happened.
Normally this would have already been a few too many steps for me, but my girlfriend and I were just in love with this bungalow, so following all the guidelines and help desk information (which was not a lot, considering they are massively invading my privacy with this verification process) I linked my Google account so they could cross reference my name. I still had no luck, just a lot of frustration. At this point it wasn’t just coming from losing our dream holiday. The frustration was also coming from realizing what I have just done, allowing some website (and whatever 3rd and 4th parties behind them) to go through my personal emails, including my PayPal information, and have a perfect high resolution photo of my passport.
Needless to say I have deleted my account and will never return to this website. The keen traveler I am, with 80+ nights booked with my Expedia account, I will finish my experience at Airbnb with zero nights and actually quite a bit of fear and frustration that I had to go through using personal documents and still not getting recognized as a human being. I will never return to this website, unless in the following years I ever end up being a victim of some identity theft.
I did respect the fact that it’s because of Airbnb that I found this bungalow, so I never wanted to cut them off, and was more than happy paying their share. They cut me off with their ridiculously faulty (and arguably dodgy) verification system. After that I had no other choice but to Google the name of the property, and after a little research, I ended up with a direct contact to the owner. I do not encourage anyone to do this; it is against to policies and also not a “nice” thing to do. However, it was literally the only choice they left me with. Ironically, it saved around 100 bucks, shared between the owner and myself.
I am also having trouble with the verification process. I have been a member of AirBnB for over 12 months and have recently booked two properties without question. When trying to book a third, I was asked to verify my identity. I copied my Driver’s Licence and it was accepted without problem but I don’t have any social media accounts. The instructions said to upload a short personal video so I did. It went through its saving process then returned to the same screen with the video and two buttons, a red one labeled “New Video” and a clear one saying “Delete existing video” with no indication that the original had been uploaded or rejected or what would happen next. I assumed that there was something wrong with the first video as the New Video button was red, so I took another video (three times) with the same result. I then decided I needed help but couldn’t find an email address to contact or a phone number to ring and the help menu was pathetic. I eventually used the feedback link and, even though the screen said the feedback was to improve their service and not directly answer emails, I received a reply from Elayne somewhere on US Central Standard Time (I’m in Australia and it was well after midnight) after about an hour. I was told that the video would be checked out by their “Trust and Safety” team and the process would take 24 hours. That was 3 days ago and my validation still says that I have not completed and have one item to go. In the meantime, I have tried to book the property twice, thinking the validation would come through, but it has timed out twice (after they took my money – I at least got an email saying it would be refunded in full, but the bank was slow and it would take up to 5 working days). I have tried responding to the email from a real person that I got telling me all was OK, but it was returned as “this address does not accept emails” – Some help system. I’ve been bitten once and I don’t think I’ll be jumping in the AirBnB cage again.