Hello, I am a 65 year old French citizen traveling extensively in Southeast Asia. I have been a user of Airbnb for three or four years, a guest about 20 times with 5 to 10 reviews from hosts, all positive. My ID has been checked (photos, passport copy, email address and phone numbers) many times. Airbnb still continues to ask me to send them photos and I could not book any new rentals for the last six months; they kept telling me :”It’s difficult to see you in the photo you took of yourself”; “to help us make sure it’s you, the photo of your face needs to match the photo that’s on your ID.”

I wish my face now would be the same as the one ten years ago. Passports are valid for up to ten years in France. I tried to change my profile photo (not sure which one they check anyway). I suspect their facial recognition is just automatic and crap, not done by humans. Anyway I quit. I write this because I would like hosts to know that because of Airbnb’s weak support (no way to reach them with a specific problem), they probably lose many opportunities.

As for me, either I use other providers now, or I contact hosts directly that I found on Airbnb (but now Airbnb does not get a commission anymore, which is fair enough given their weak customer experience). Only the selection is better on their site, but it is of no use as I cannot rent there anyway. Thank you for reading.