Interesting. I wouldn’t give them that either. I wonder if VBRO is the same now. Did they say why that was the new policy?

Some owners will rent direct if they know you because the fees are getting steep.

How recently did this happen? I just booked last month and wasn't asked for that...

I would absolutely not give it.

ETA but we had a great experience!

I just rented a home for the month of August from VRBO/Home Away From Home. They didn't ask me for anything but my name, address and credit card info. I've found that most AirBnB rentals are also listed on VRBO. You might give them a try and see if you can rent the same property through them.

i find that ... Creepy

http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2013/05/28/lets-help-airbnb-rebuild-the-bridge-it-just-burned/

Interesting article re: the subject. Apparently, this has been ongoing for a few years.

I also rented an Airbnb recently (I think I reserved the end of January). No photo. I wouldn't do it either, if asked.

I own a vacation rental and am on a couple of vacation rental boards. We do not advertise on AirBnB or VRBO because of the fees.

Many owners on the board require the renters to provide a copy of an ID to be sure that they are the person who is actually renting the property and that, hopefully, they are the person whose credit card is being used. Scammers abound in the form of both property owners and renters.

Their position is that they have a right to know who is renting their property which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is not like renting a room in hotel where you have face to face contact before getting the keys to rooms. It is likely that you will never see anyone who owns or manages the property if you are renting an entire house. They give access codes to renters so they can enter the property.

I understand both the need to protect one’s personal information and the desire to protect one’s investment by being able to identify who is staying at your property.

Edited to add: Most property owners won’t give out the address of the property until you’ve paid the rent.

I would have no problem with a property owner or their agent asking to see my ID before I take temporary possession of their home.

I have a big problem with Airbnb or any property owner keeping a copy of my ID on file.

I joined Air BnB a couple years ago and had to do something like that.

It may be up to the individual property owner...from the Air BnB site:

“When you’ll be asked for an ID

This may happen for a couple of reasons. For example, some hosts require their guests to provide a government ID in order to book their place or experience.

There are also times when we’ll ask for an ID to help us confirm you’re really you.

But whatever the reason, your ID will never be shared with a host or anyone else who uses Airbnb.

If you need to come back and finish adding your ID later, that’s fine. Just go to airbnb.com/verify and you can pick up where you left off.”

Link to more info

We have stayed at this house before and the homeowner was trying to help me with this problem, but she too found out she has no say in the matter. Yes, the stated reason for this requirement is for the purpose of protection of both landlord and renter, but my problem is with the STORAGE of such info; I have no problem proving my identity to the homeowner, who has now lost out on $1,000. It was stated to me that as of two months ago, this requirement is now policy. From a Tripadvisor post I read, the other sites haven't implemented this... yet.

I also wonder if all such info will be freely given to ICE, being that the powers that be are so rabidly working on booting out the unwanted now.

sjerin, can you deal directly with the homeowner and rent the house without going thru AirBnB? Normally, that might be considered fee avoidance or a violation of their TOS, but since they are making it impossible for you to rent the home, I would think their rules don't apply in this case. They are almost forcing you to deal directly thru the homeowner and to bypass AirBnB.

I agree that it's intrusive to be asked for this type of info on the internet (especially given all the security breaches that have happened with various banks and retailers), but I think it's just going to get worse as most people don't seem to care. I'm not sure how people who don't have social media accounts or smart phones are going to do business in the future.

"I also wonder if all such info will be freely given to ICE"

Whether that does or doesn't happen (and I think probably only by court order or subpoena), is that something you have a problem with?

I can understand where a homeowner might stipulate those conditions if they have had problems with someone renting a unit and someone else showing up. For example kids on spring break. So far, I have never been asked for ID. I do wonder how they check people for authenticity though. I thought perhaps they a people search.

If my ID will never be shared with a host, how in the world will it benefit the host?

Airbnb does background checks and tells the host "yep, checks out"??

I'll tell you what, I've worked at a kids' camp and all staff had to go through criminal record checks. The only result we got back was "no criminal record found."

There isn't any way Airbnb can get any more info than that from a gov't issued ID. I doubt they can get that much. The homeowner is not protected at all, and the risk of a data breach would make it untenable for me to provide that info for their database.

We have advertised our Maui condo on VRBO for almost twenty years. I've never heard of this requirement. Everyone has been hurt since the site ceased to BE "By Owner" -- when big business reintroduced 'the middleman' in vacation rentals. I tried airbnb for a couple of months but dropped the ad there. One reason was that they didn't offer meaningful damage protection for the owner.

In Hawaii, airbnb has been more likely to advertise illegal rentals, but neither outfit really cares about anything beyond their commission.

sjerin -- Why can't you just rent *direct* from the owner? We do direct rentals whenever we can, saving our guests the brokerage fees. We take personal checks and hold CC information against damages (nothing put through after a clean check-out). This also saves us having to pay CC fees on charges that include Rent, 14% Taxes, Cleaner, *whatever*. Once someone has found us on Vrbo, there's no need to go through them again. (They no longer want to be "VRBO". They want to be "Vrbo".)

Your ID will never be shared - they've never heard of hackers? I hate sharing personal ID on the internet. I'll share credit card infor if I initiated contact and we have an internet specific card with a really low limit. Who knows if that would be enough.

Before there was Airbnb, we used to use a firm called Owners Direct. I have no idea if it's still in existence but it worked well.

Elmer, yes, I would have a big problem with that.

I have given the lady one of my email addresses but haven't heard back from her after our lengthy exchange on airbnb; I will be looking for a hotel instead.