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Can someone confirm if Airbnb has made ID checks mandatory in Paris?

No matter which apartment I try to book, when I click "reserve" first a screen appears that verifies my payment details and then I'm confronted with a screen that wants a scan of my government ID (and perhaps additionally a selfie).

With data breaches on a record high and the number of people's identities that are compromised exceeding the size of all of America, I feel such a request from a company in today's age and time is unsatisfactory. [1]

I know that sometimes Airbnb singles out individual users whose AI system for some reason has flagged as suspicious (this can be for reasons as benign as using a VPN server, or having our credit card issued from a different country than the phone number you put in). Therefore I'm trying to find out of it just me that receives "preferential" treatment, or in if in general (perhaps due to some law), Airbnb became much more unfriendly in all of France by doing detailed KYC checks.

EDIT: I exchanged messages with the host, he claims that he does have set an ID requirement.

[1] https://www.technewsworld.com/story/data-breaches-affected-nearly-6-billion-accounts-in-2021-87392.html

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    Without minimizing your concerns about data breaches and identity theft, consider also that someone renting out their home to strangers may similarly consider it "unsatisfactory" to not even attempt to verify the identity of customers.
    – Zach Lipton
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 9:45
  • Have you tried initiating a transaction for a place elsewhere than Paris? It would help ascertain whether this verification is triggered by your account rather than your destination.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 9:57
  • @ZachLipton I know that. I'm not complaining about the hosting wanting to check my ID. I'm complaining about a website hoarding millions of IDs for an unknown period of time.
    – user7088941
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 10:07
  • You could always book a hotel instead. No ID upload required.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 15:50
  • @JonathanReez Technically, in France, hotels are supposed to collect these details from all foreign visitors (not necessarily upload them in advance, though).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 16:30

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As far as I know, it is not legally required in Paris and I couldn't find anything suggesting that it is on paris.fr or service-public.fr. From your description, it sounds like an AirBnB safety measure, not something related to the host or location. In that case, the host should not get a copy of your documents but AirBnB will indeed keep it on file. You can request it to be deleted but only after your stay.

When there is a requirement to collect such a document (e.g. in Italy), hosts typically ask you to upload a copy on a separate system or take a picture of your ID when you arrive. That has been my experience for multiple rentals in Italy (both on AirBnB and dealing directly with hosts) and I don't think AirBnB offers to do it for the hosts.

Note that, rightly or wrongly, identity theft seems to be less of a concern in Europe than the US and it is in fact relatively common for various apps or services to require a copy of your ID (e.g. car rental and other mobility apps, airlines, or banking and financial apps).

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  • Thanks for the insight regarding how this is handled in Italy. My takeaway message is that, yes, Airbnb has singled me out.
    – user7088941
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 10:09

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