AirBnB Passport Request

Airbnb is asking for this or is this request from an owner? Did you confirm that this apartment displays the government required, 13 digit registration number on all online solicitations? I cannot think of any reason why a legitimate property owner would need your passport information.

We travel every year to Italy for a month. It is common for hosts to ask for this information. We either supply photos of our passports in advance, or if the host meets us we will supply them then.

It probably means they’re legal because they are registering you just like a hotel would do

The risk of your passport being compromised is so negligible it’s not worth worrying about. No you can’t open a bank account with a passport. No, you can’t take out a credit card with the passport. You can’t really do anything except cross a border with a passport so you have no real risk of identity theft from giving out your passport information

Nearly every place you stay will want your passport info, either ahead, or at checkin, or should.. Since most private lets do a remote checkin, key boxes, or a local rep, they need the information ahead of time.

Your passport does not contain any sensitive information, nothing that anyone can do anything with, fill out the form and send it in, many request a photo of the passport, I keep one in my phone just for that. The main variation I see is if they only need information for the person making the registration, or need information for all guests.

Would you rent your place to a stranger without ID and to an international stranger without a passport?

Is this standard procedure in France? Certainly not in our experience. Is it unheard of? No; it's rare, though.

As for the no ID thing, it's my experience lately that credit card security for online purchases (such as overseas accommodations) is pretty robust, so if I were a French person hosting an American who had successfully paid by Visa, I'd be OK so long as the arrangement met legal requirements.

I’ve never stayed at an Air BnB but can confirm this is common practice for hotels in most counties in Europe. In fact I believe it is a legal requirement to report where visitors are staying.

You have no direct financial responsibility with a property owner when renting an Airbnb. You do not pay the property owner, you pay Airbnb. If Airbnb wanted a copy of your passport, that would be different, but I would absolutely not give that kind of personal information to a property owner.