Airbnb wants to gain more trust with a new feature that will link users' online identities to their real-life, offline identities.
"Trust is the key to our community. There is no place for anonymity in a trusted community," Airbnb's Vivek Wagle said in a blog post.
The online service connects travelers with those willing to rent out space in their homes in major cities throughout the world. The sharing economy system allows users and hosts to rate one another, acts as references and provides a secure payment system.
Now, the company wants to take things a little further for security.
"Verified ID provides a connection between the online and offline spaces. Airbnb users can earn a "Verified ID" badge on their profile by providing their online identity," Wagle added.
Essentially, users can scan their driver's license, passport or other government-issued ID into the system for verification. Users can also verify their IDs by providing personal information that could be asked for in a typical credit check. Both names must match for verification.
The move may be another step in protecting the company's reputation. A widely publicized event two years ago, when a host found her apartment completely trashed by guests, prompted the company to provide a $1 million guarantee and 24/7 customer service.
"I'm not saying the whole world will work this way but with Airbnb, people are sleeping in other people's homes and other people's beds. So there's a level of trust necessary to participate that's different from an eBay or Facebook," Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told AllThingsD.
The company will ask at least 25 percent of users to participate in the verification tool. It hopes the verification step will also prevent those with bad reviews from simply deleting an old account and starting a new one. Airbnb says that its end goal is to make all users have a verified ID.
