Ok, so I am in Scotland, and my concern for the last 18 months has been that our immigrant crisis might connect with Airbnb. All these people coming to,the country, all with a smart phone and the ability to connect to Airbnb. Alongside this I have a number of people wanting to stay in my accommodation but with no previous guest reviews and no facial photo…tonight I have had yet another; never done Airbnb and a profile pic showing the back of her head in an art gallery. WTF?
If I keep declining Airbnb will rap knuckles. Surely time they laid down a few more rules.
Are you getting Requests to Book or Inquiries? If you’re getting inquiries, message them back and tell them you’d love to host them, but you do require a real full face photo, not a cartoon or the back of someone’s head.
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Thanks Ken, you are right, and I have taken to doing just that…but some do not like it.
If someone has a right to be in the UK, why would you mind if they stayed in your airbnb? Airbnb has made a public commitment to welcome people from all backgrounds.
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I host mainly people who are new to Airbnb. Often they have strange photographs. Recently I hosted the Taj Mahal (if his photograph was to be believed) and he was a lovely guy and a truly super guest.
I’ve had a guest whose profile photo showed a demure little blonde and when she arrived she had dreadlocks dyed purple and a load of tats. (She was lovely, by the way).
Most of the time I’m amazed at how different guests really look when compared to their photographs. I had a guest last year whose photograph made her look so scary (Halloween type scary) that for the first time in years I was apprehensive about her arrival. When she arrived, I blurted out ‘oh, but you’re so pretty! Not a bit like your scary photograph.’ Luckily she took it as a compliment and was an excellent guest.
A guest whose profile pic showed him as a thirty-something businessman in a suit and tie was actually in his early twenties wearing a backwards-way baseball cap.
So really, even if guests have photographs you never really know what you’re getting.
I’ve said before at this forum that many years ago in the UK when I had a traditional B & B we took anyone. There were no verifications, no online profiles, nothing. And we were OK. 
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I don’t have a facial photo on my profile either as a host or when I’m a guest. I’ve thought about it and decided I just don’t want my face attached to my address and paraded across the whole of the interwebs. A few years ago I had a stalker… all I need is for him to be trawling through the net and find me. And believe me it’s easier than you think.
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Anyone can grab any old stock photograph from the internet and use it as their profile photo. It means nothing at all.
So you want to see a picture, in order to make sure they’re not an immigrant?
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LOLOLOLOL! 
Just made me spit my tea at my phone.
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I was wondering that too! @runninglaura I think your concerns are misplaced, to say the least. What are you imagining? That some Romanian is going to book your place, take your job and then bring over their extended family to “ruin” your community? Or maybe a wily Syrian refugee fleeing war will think 'oh I know, I’ll book an Airbnb in Scotland and all my troubles will be answered".
I agree with others that don’t set much store by a facial photo. I can count on one hand the number of guests that are actually recognisable by the face they upload on their profile.
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This makes me laugh and reminds me of trouble I had in Romania with my British passport. I encountered a lot of racism and was pulled aside for questioning in almost every Eastern European destination. Finally at one point as I was being questioned I commented wryly that if I was going to be an illegal immigrant anywhere it certainly wasn’t going to be Romania. That went down like a lead balloon but they didn’t refuse entry.
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Interesting. When were you in Romania? Maybe it was after the BSTravellers were there and pissed everyone off with their nasty vblog that went viral. But then, they’re American so that doesn’t compute. Ah, I just remembered that you’re black so that makes sense, sadly. Yes, a lot of catching up to do in E Europe on that front. A LOT.
edit Btw, I’m tempted to call troll on the OP. It’s just too silly, even for an avid Daily Mail reader.
I have hosted babies, children, groups of children, cartoons, drawing, dogs, logos, symbols, snowmen, sports logos, and even Kevin Costner once I believe. Many photos I believe are not real. Airbnb “requires” a face photo, but they do not seem to do a good job of enforcing it.
I actually have an issue that another host with an extremely similar property has MY name! I am not sure if she is real or she just loved my listings and name so she “stole” it for herself. (My last initial is “D”, and her last name is “Dreams”. Suspicious?) It causes guests confusion when they message both of us and get confused when we both answer on which property they are actually trying to book. She as a host doesn’t have a picture - she has an icon. I have my photo posted.
That’s not good and would really annoy me. Have you thought about contacting her directly to sort it out? I’d actually call Airbnb directly about it.
My worry is that we receive guests who book for a couple of nights, and then decide not to leave. In U.K. over many decades, there has been a problem with what we call “squatters”, people who having got access to a property then take up permanent residency and pay nothing. There are even squatters’ rights, laws to protect them. To have squatters removed from a property can be a drawn out legal procedure.
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Squatting is illegal in the uk now
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It is illegal, but it still goes on, and can be a huge and difficult issue for property owners.
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This is a very funny topic. In Australia most of our ‘illegal immigrants’, I say tongue in cheek as they are not illegal, are the Brits on working or tourist visas. They all fly in have a great time and decide not to leave and overstay their visa! The real refugees couldn’t afford an airbnb.
I once had a profile pic of a clown wanting to stay with his wife and niece. I approved it and asked about his pic as I loathe clowns.He said he wasn’t a clown. I googled his name and he was a clown in the US. Needless to say we stayed at our farm out of town that night.
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IMO, you can ask for proper photos either way. I personally don’t worry too much about photos. I do, however, ask the guests to tell me a little about themselves, including their full names, and their travel plans. I think that’s a good idea. Also ask them for ID. You could even ask for ID in advance if it makes you feel more comfortable. Do a search online using whatever information you like. These days a lot of professionals have Linkedin profiles online, for example.
Some of my more attractive female guests have had photos that make them look rather unattractive. Or omitted the photos entirely. I’ve occasionally wondered if that might be deliberate.
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