Post by High Priestess on Sept 29, 2016 17:17:58 GMT
It's happening...some of the things we all dreaded and feared...as a result of the extremely misguided "anti-discrimination" policies...it appears that at least in some instances, in some places, Airbnb is now blocking out guest photos and hiding them from the host until after the guest books the host's listing.
See for instance this guest inquiry:
When you click on the guest profile on the app, the photo is blocked out:
We used to be able to actually talk on the phone with prospective guests, back when I first started hosting. We could use a feature called "voice connect" to do that. THen we couldn't do that. So we had less information to use to screen guests. We've been making do with the message communications and the photo and the verifications up to now...but now Airbnb wants to hide from us who it is who wants to stay at our home.
Would you still feel safe accepting a guest if their photo were being intentionally withheld from you? For a short reservation of 2-3 days? How about for a long reservation of 2-3 months? Would you accept a 2-4 month long booking from a guest if AIrbnb hid their photo from you? I am extremely concerned with Airbnb withholding information about the prospective guest, particularly for long term reservations. It is already risky to take long term bookings from guests on Airbnb given that you can't talk to them in advance, you can't check out their credit history or any references in advance, they may not have any reviews, and now...Airbnb may hide their photo from you, to boot. THis could be a very serious problem. Now it may be that Airbnb will only hide photos of guests who seek short term stays as opposed to long term ones..I don't know what they are doing. But at least for me, I'm not able to accept a booking from someone who wants to stay for more than a month, if I can't see their photo.
I also think that if these changes go through the whole platform and hosts find that photos of prospective guests are being hidden from them, hosts would do well to just change their own profile photo to a beach umbrella, a sunset, a dog or a cat. IF we can't see photos of the guests, guests shouldn't be able to see a photo of us in advance either.
See for instance this guest inquiry:
When you click on the guest profile on the app, the photo is blocked out:
We used to be able to actually talk on the phone with prospective guests, back when I first started hosting. We could use a feature called "voice connect" to do that. THen we couldn't do that. So we had less information to use to screen guests. We've been making do with the message communications and the photo and the verifications up to now...but now Airbnb wants to hide from us who it is who wants to stay at our home.
Would you still feel safe accepting a guest if their photo were being intentionally withheld from you? For a short reservation of 2-3 days? How about for a long reservation of 2-3 months? Would you accept a 2-4 month long booking from a guest if AIrbnb hid their photo from you? I am extremely concerned with Airbnb withholding information about the prospective guest, particularly for long term reservations. It is already risky to take long term bookings from guests on Airbnb given that you can't talk to them in advance, you can't check out their credit history or any references in advance, they may not have any reviews, and now...Airbnb may hide their photo from you, to boot. THis could be a very serious problem. Now it may be that Airbnb will only hide photos of guests who seek short term stays as opposed to long term ones..I don't know what they are doing. But at least for me, I'm not able to accept a booking from someone who wants to stay for more than a month, if I can't see their photo.
I also think that if these changes go through the whole platform and hosts find that photos of prospective guests are being hidden from them, hosts would do well to just change their own profile photo to a beach umbrella, a sunset, a dog or a cat. IF we can't see photos of the guests, guests shouldn't be able to see a photo of us in advance either.
