Government ID vs Personal info

[Stephen96]

hello,

would someone be able to explain the difference between the "Personal info" and the "Government ID" in the "Verified info" box?

thanks!

[Jessica63]

Yes, me too - I only want to accept guests with a government ID. Anyone can set up social media -- I've never seen this before but I had a guest requesting a reservation with only "Personal Info" (and not "Government ID") verified and no reviews. Also no profile except a home town. I declined the guest but told her I would reconsider if she completed her profile, and the ID verification process.

[Aleksandar25]

I understand and if I was on your place I would also want to only accept guests with verified identity. But if you look at how things are implemented, then you will see that what AirBNB requires is very inappropriate. First they not only validate you but also store your scanned copy of government issues ID card indefinitely. They don't give out any technical information about how they are doing this. In their privacy policy they also reject accountability if this information is stolen through a hacker attack. Additionally they don't guarantee you that their verification process ascertains you the guest will be safe in any way. What they should do is verify the id and immediately remove any copies of it (ideally not ever store it anywhere). Also they should list the third parties they share your info with. They refused to tell me which third parties they share information with for "privacy reasons". Ok but who cares about my privacy? Additionally their site doesn't have any form of 2 factor authentication or anything else serious to ascertain somebody didn't hack your account and writing in your name. While verifying guests identity is important, doing it in a responsible way is even more important. Otherwise they would do more harm than good. I hope more people would recognize this and demand this to change. Very few people have idea about network security and don't realize the risks. Sometimes waiting for things to break before before taking measure is really really bad idea. And this is what is happening here.

[Dawn249]

Bravo!!!

[Jane267]

I have been using Airbnb for sometime and have enjoyed it.  However, requiring me to give them personal information that can be used to steal my identity is not exceptable.  Having read they're disclaimer they have voided their accountability.  Noted is the fact they do not require the same of hosts.    Airbnb is sadly not worth the time anymore.  In certain markets (Amsterdam) the properties don't even exist just pretty pics for property management companies with crappy apartments!

[Song6]

Ok Jane so you are willing to let people you have never met sleep in the bedroom next to yourswithout varifying the man with his facebook address email. bl

[John498]

Hi Stephen, I assume Government ID is passport driving licence or national ID card. Personal would be Facebook, Google etc I would think. Either could be forged or stolen but the former probably take more effort to produce/steal so are a higher barrier to being scammed. Nothing is 100% secure unfortunately, The most dangerous people are not the people you know or don't know but the people you think you know.

[Jessica63]

According to another forum on this topic, Airbnb recently changed their policy and now calls guests who have "verified personal information" but not verified a gov. ID "verified," so you must REALLY check the details of what the verification included. In another forum there are claims that these speciously verified folks have been allowed to instant book. If true, its outrageous that airbnb slipped this new policy in without notifying hosts but I am having trouble confirming the details. It appears to me that you can still require a gov't ID when you set up instant book; however there are complaints that Airbnb has circumvented this. At any rate, I would consider "personal info" to be utterly useless without a real ID. No one knows you're a dog on the internet...

[Keith65]

I just ran into this problem myself. The guest accidently added her ID to her profile picture. She swears she uploaded it to the verify process as well. When I hover over the green check mark, it states ID has been verified. Some of my previous guests show Gov ID, but this one doesn't.  This is getting a bit frustrating as I typically don't meet the guests. 

[Jimmy36]

Ok, you guys are totally misinformed. 

Personal Information is not Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, etc. Those are separate verifications and have nothing to do with Personal Information. 

In the United States, for the most part, it is either Personal Information or Government ID. Everyone knows what's a Government ID, so I won't go into any details here but you need to understand one thing that it can easily be faked. Anyone can scan the ID, edit it using Photoshop and then can upload it to Airbnb. So those of you who think Government ID is more secure than Personal Information, then you are totally wrong. Besides, Airbnb doesn't verify any data in the Government ID whatsoever. They actually don't have any resources to verify wehther uploaded Government IDs are genuine or fake. 

Now, Personal Information. These are very intimate and private information of the person that for the majority of the times only that person knows and no one else. It's hard to explain what these things are but Airbnb goes through one private company which deals with all the Government and Private agencies, DMVs, Social Security, IRS, Banks, etc. to verify person's personal information. So what happens here is you are presented with few questions and then you are given multiple choice answers for that and you will have to pick one that is true. For example, one of the questions can be, in the year 2012 you lived in xyz city, which street you lived on in that city? The other can be, your credit card was from which bank? These are just examples. There are many more questions like these. You have to get every single question right. If you don't then you fail the verification. As I said before, these are very private and intimate questions, even your spouse or girlfriend wouldn't know in some cases. 

So the point here is, Personal Information is as good as Government ID. I would say it's actually bettee than Government ID. 

I hope this helps. 

Thank you!

[Linda108]

@Jimmy36  THANK YOU!  You have provided the best response about this issue I have seen on this site.  Having looked at your profile, I am impressed.  I find that many of us resort to paranoia when we don't have information or don't understand the information we are given.  I see that you are a very experienced traveler which is an important perspective for all hosts.  Maybe someday you will be a host as well.  Again, thank you.  

[Ken28]

After having a guest try to book with a mismatched ID and profile, I am hesitant to accept any bookings without Gov't ID.

I asked a potential guest to add Gov't ID, but looking further, I see they're "Verified". Then I looked at my profile. I'm also "Verified", but neither of us shows "Government ID" under verifications. And when I go to airbnb.com/verify, I simply see a message that says my verification is complete.

@Jimmy36's post mentions that Verification can be done with personal information instead of Gov't ID, but I also recall seeing that Instant-book has the option to accept ONLY Gov't ID.

So... the question I have is this:

How can I or another user add a Government ID when we're already "Verified"? I see no way to add that online, and I'm afraid I may have sent my guest on a wild goose chase to get his verified, too.

[Jimmy36]

Ken,

I will address few of the things you mentioned so hopefully it will provide further clarifications. 

First, back in 2014/2015, when someone wanted to create a profile, they could either opt for Personal Information or Goverment ID, not both, it's either or. I was one of them. I didn't have my Government ID handy/scanned at that time so I opted for Personal Information without knowing what it was. But now I know what Personal Information is all about and I provided clarifications on that in my previous post. 

What prompted me to reply to this thread was that a host in New Zealand asked me to upload my Government ID when I sent an inquiry to him. After having rented Airbnb in over 20 different countries around the world, this was the first host who asked for a Government ID. So that made me dug a littler deeper on this topic. 

Those, who are "Verified" and have "Personal Information" as one of their verifications, CAN NOT upload a Government ID. Not online, not offline, meaning sending an email to Airbnb with your Government ID as an attachement. I had a VERY long discussion with few Airbnb folks on this. It was quite difficult to make them understand this as they themselves don't know many details. So yes, when you try to verify yourself further, it will say "Your verification is complete".

The other thing is they have different processes in place for different countries, at least that's what I was told by them. This may be true because there are few profiles I have seen which have both "Personal Information" and "Government ID" as verifications. I was quite surprised to see that and I wanted that for myself as well, however, Airbnb told me that "You are a FULLY verified member and there is nothing else to verify". So as of now, there is not any way for me to upload a Government ID.

Again, please be little more tolerant and be little more lenient towards your guests who have enough reviews for themselves which can help you look past their verifications. I know a lot of you hosts out there won't like this. But at the end of the day, please remember that when you decide to become a host, you enter yourself into a hospitality business. Yes, it's not a hotel busienss, although there are many listings which are simply hotels and hostels, but it's a relationship between a guest and a host that keeps the concept of hospitality well and alive. We both, guests and hosts, have needs and Airbnb provides the platform to satisfy those needs. 

Many of the people use nicknames which can be different than their legal name or they use some form of variation of their legal name. So matching the name on Airbnb profile with the Government ID doesn't make sense in many cases. Even today, you can create a profile with one name and upload a Government ID with a different name and Airbnb will mark you as "Verified". As I had mentioned before, Airbnb doesn't have any backend process in place where they verify the authenticity of Government IDs. 

There is always a solution to a problem or at least an alternative and moe creative solution to a problem. I recently made a booking in the Philippines and the host asked me to email him the copy of my Passport because they need to make a badge for me to access the apartment and other parts of the building where the apartment is. I simply need to pick the badge upon check in and need to present my Passport to verify that it matches to what I emailed to the host. This was the first for me but it's okay becasue the circumstances were different here. 

So as a host if someone is really worried about the Governement ID, then you can simply state in your listing/rules that "If you are from the United States, you will have to email your Driver's License or State ID, and if you are from the outside of the United States, you will have to email your Passport, after the booking is made. No exception to this rule." So you can put something alog these lines in your listing/rules. And those guests who are genuine, and over 90% are, they will not mind doing this.  

Please remember that Airbnb is still growing and learning and improving. It is still in its nascent stage. So there are a lot of opportunities for imporvements and they are working on those. They will get there. We all will get there.

Airbnb is based on the principle of trust. It is based on the principle that you can trust most of the people, both as a host and as a guest. We don't live in a perfect world and Airbnb is not an exception. 

Thank you!

[Ken28]

@Jimmy36, I can't thank you enough for providing such clear, concise, information on the topic of verification.

I'd like to see this and your previous posts 'stickied' as a help artice.

[Davina3]

I've had a guest that it says verified government ID however she even told me her last name on airbnb is different from her actual last name, so how does that come into play?