AirBNB Not Letting me book

Blether

Am an existing AirBNB customer with feedback from renters. I have been trying to book accommodation for my summer holiday. I put in my credit card details and it won't let me book until I upload a picture of my passport. After 2 attempts and it telling me that the quality wasn't good enough I am going to have to go elsewhere to book.The owner who was trying to let the property will lose my business.

Have they gone mad. When you book with any other organisation you only need to be able to pay. Not everyone has access to scanners and relies on mobiles to take pictures which are obviously not of good enough quality.

They must have missed out this way of dealing with customers when I studied business.

NBLondon

Is it AirBnB (the agency) demanding an ID check or the property owner? If the latter, they may be trying to protect themselves against previous dodgy renters. They may choose to lose some business in order to avoid non-payers or people who might trash the place.

Pennywise

Blether wrote: »

The owner who was trying to let the property will lose my business.

Perhaps you need to adjust your settings to improve the quality - if it's automatic, the site will be using character recognition software so you need a very clear and level/straight picture or you may be better scanning it. With the well known problems of dodgy renters thrashing properties or using them for illegal/immoral purposes, I think requiring proof of identity/address will become more common.

Also they will almost certainly be able to let the property to someone else for that same week, so won't be bothered about losing your custom. It's quite common in business where you have limited supply and potentially unlimited demand to choose your customers.

Not that much different to photos/descriptions on AirBNB and other letting sites. In the most popular locations, the owners don't have to try so hard so you find their pictures and descriptions are brief, whereas in areas where there's lots of supply due to over-development, the listings are far more detailed as they have to "sell" their property harder when competing against others.