At Airbnb, trust is the cornerstone of our community—where millions of people across the world place trust in each other as they travel or host services, experiences or homes.
A key part of building this trust is verifying the identity of our users. Our identity verification process is a series of steps we take to help ensure users within our community are genuine so that everyone can feel more confident using Airbnb. Every host, new co-host and booking guest must be identity verified to use our platform.
While no process is perfect, this aims to minimise fraudulent behaviour, promote safety and enable meaningful, real world interactions within our community.
Note: Our identity verification process checks a person's information against trusted third-party sources or a government ID. The process has safeguards, but doesn't guarantee that someone is who they say they are.
Verifying the identity of guests and hosts helps us to:
We require primary hosts, new co-hosts and booking guests to complete identity verification for all stays, services and experiences on Airbnb.
Verifying your identity means verifying certain personal information, such as your legal name, address, phone number or other contact details using trusted third-party sources or your government ID. In some cases, we can do this without any additional info needed from you. In other cases, we may need to ask for more information, as described below.
Some users may be able to choose to use facial recognition technology—also known as facial recognition—as part of completing identity verification.
Identity verification methods may also differ across regions. For example, South Korean users may also use third-party certificates for identity verification.
Don’t worry—any identity information you provide to verify your identity won’t be shared with any hosts or guests on Airbnb, and will be handled according to our Privacy Policy.
If you’re not able to be verified with this information, in limited circumstances, you may be eligible to provide other proof of who you are, like a marriage certificate or court order, to complete this process.
Note: Hosts may be asked to verify additional information, such as your home address or citizenship, and other details, if they’re hosting as a business. Additionally, if you are an EU resident and receive income from renting accommodations, providing experiences, or acting as a co-host—or if income is received from a listing in the EU—you’ll also be asked to verify additional taxpayer information.
As a guest, you’ll need to verify your identity when you book a stay, service or experience. Most users only need to do this once, and we’ll guide you through any steps you’ll need to take.
This typically happens during checkout—where we provide you with a specific deadline to finish. During this time, your reservation is pending. Others can’t book your dates. We’ll also send you notifications (like emails, SMS and push reminders depending on your preferences) to help you finish before the deadline. If you don't complete the process in this timeline, your reservation won’t be confirmed.
Know that you may be required to re-verify your identity if you edit your legal name in your Account, make other updates to your account information, or for other reasons, like when we detect risk.
If you’re asked to go through identity verification again, we may be able to re-verify your identity instantly using information you’ve already provided us, such as your name and contact details—or you might be asked to complete other verification steps. When this happens, any existing trips you’ve booked won’t be affected, but you won’t be able to make a new reservation until we verify that change.
Note: If you’re trying to make a reservation, it’s critical to submit the information we need as soon as possible. If your check-in starts within 12 hours, you’ll have one hour to complete verification. Otherwise, you’ll need to complete verification within 12 hours of making your reservation. Your reservation is pending during this time, and it will not be confirmed if you can’t complete verification before the deadline we specify to you.
If you’re getting started as a host, you’ll need to verify your identity when creating a listing for a stay, service, or experience for the first time, or if you’ve been invited to be a new co-host of a listing. While there’s no time limit for hosts to complete verification, your listing won’t be published until you finish. This means you can’t accept reservations until after you’ve been identity verified. Similarly, as a new co-host on a listing, you’ll need to finish verification before you can accept your invite.
As a host or co-host, know that you may also be required to re-verify your identity if you edit your legal name in your Account, make other updates to your account information, or for other reasons, like when we detect risk.
As a primary host, if you’re required to go through identity verification again, your existing reservations won’t be affected, but the calendar for any listings will be blocked until you complete the process. Co-hosts who are not primary hosts on a listing may be removed from listings if identity verification steps are not completed when required.
After you submit your info, it typically takes us less than 1 hour to verify your identity. This may differ based on the country you live in and what info you provided.
Make sure the info you provide is valid, accurate and up to date. Otherwise, it could take us longer to verify you, or we might need to follow up and request additional info.
If you’re a guest making a reservation—remember to complete verification by the deadline we provide you. During this time, your reservation is pending and others can’t book your dates. We’ll also send you notifications—like emails, text messages and push reminders—to help you finish before the deadline.
Once you’ve been verified, you’ll get an Identity verified badge. Your verified badge is shown on Airbnb as a red badge with a tickmark next to your profile photo and your verified status is also shown with the Identity verified link on your profile. If you’re a host, your verified badge and Identity verified link may also be shown in the host section of your listing. If you tap on the user’s profile card or an Identity verified link, you can see the month and year when the user first completed the identity verification process on Airbnb. Know that some users may have temporarily lost their identity verified status or have been re-verified since that date.
If you’re a Host who operates as a large enterprise, you may have created multiple accounts to help manage all of your listings. In these cases, your connected host accounts may not always display an Identity verified badge even though the business operating the account has been verified.
If you change your personal information, such as your legal name or remove your government-issued ID from your account, you may lose your identity-verified badge and need to verify again to book or host future guests.
Airbnb doesn’t share your government ID with a host when you book. However, your host may ask for a government ID after reservation if they added information about what is required and why in their listing description at the time you make a reservation—and only where required for legal or compliance reasons as outlined in Airbnb’s off-platform policy.
Some regions have laws that require guests to register with local authorities. This can be done directly with the local authorities—or at the accommodation by the host on behalf of the authorities. In other words, if you’ve booked a stay in a region where this applies, a host of a bed & breakfast, hostel, hotel or other accommodation on Airbnb might request this registration from you.
We are a community built on trust. A fundamental part of earning that trust means being clear about how we use your information.
Only authorised Airbnb personnel and authorised third-party providers may access the information you submit, and all info is stored and transmitted in a secure manner. We share your identification information with authorised third-party service providers to help support the identity verification process—including such things as verifying your identity, authenticating your identification documents and performing background checks (where permitted under applicable law).
We delete your Government ID after a prescribed retention period relating to the purpose it was collected for has elapsed—unless we’re legally required to retain it. Note that after your ID has been deleted, we continue to retain some information from it—such as your date of birth—for the management of your account, legal compliance and general security purposes.
We handle the information collected during identity verification for purposes outlined in our Privacy Policy. Examples of the info we collect, and the purposes we may use them for are below.