How Airbnb verifies trust in 200+ countries with Incode
Airbnb, a two-sided marketplace with hosts and guests worldwide, uses Incode identity verification across 200+ countries and regions, and requires it of hosts and guests on every booking. Incode reads the name and key fields from a government ID with 99.9%+ OCR accuracy, in native scripts, and 99%+ of fraudulent identities are stopped before a booking. That lets Airbnb extend trust safely between strangers in every market it operates in.
countries and regions where Airbnb extends verified trust
OCR accuracy reading the name and key fields from an ID
of fraudulent identities stopped before a booking
accuracy when redacting sensitive data
A marketplace built on strangers trusting each other
Airbnb is a two-sided marketplace with hosts and guests all over the world.
Its product is trust between strangers, extended safely in every market it operates in, and Airbnb requires identity verification of hosts and guests alike.
Airbnb's product is trust between strangers, and it requires hosts and guests alike to verify who they are. Identity verification is what lets Airbnb extend that trust safely in every market where it operates.
Trust between strangers, at global scale
A guest hands over payment and personal details; a host hands over the keys to their home. Identity verification is the control that makes that trust safe to extend.
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When identity fails, the cost lands everywhere
Chargebacks and payment fraud, fake or hijacked listings, account takeover of real hosts, and, most seriously, safety incidents when someone is not who they claimed to be. Each is expensive in refunds and support, and far more so in trust.
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The document could be anything, from anywhere
The check has to read the name off an identity document across a wide range of languages and scripts. Names transliterate differently, name order varies by country, and non-Latin characters defeat naive systems.
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Required on every booking
Airbnb requires identity verification of hosts and guests on every booking, so verification has to hold at marketplace scale without slowing bookings down.
Verification at the front door is the cheapest place to stop fraud, and everything downstream rests on reading the name right.
Identify legitimate guests in every language
Incode's government-ID verification reads identity accurately across Airbnb's markets, starting with the hardest part: the name.
Read the name off the ID
Identity Verification
OCR reads the name and key fields straight from the ID with 99.9%+ accuracy, in native scripts, across a large number of countries and ID types, and returns them for Airbnb to use and map to the profile.
Accurate on both sides of a booking
The same check protects hosts and guests alike, catching identity fraud and forged documents before they reach the other party. Verification is accurate enough to trust and light enough that legitimate users finish rather than abandon a booking.
Private by design
Incode redacts sensitive data on the document with near-perfect accuracy, so Airbnb keeps only what a decision needs. It is the same principle Airbnb states publicly: it shares only limited details with the other party, like name and verification status, and keeps the ID itself private.
After a multi-year evaluation and a paid pilot, Airbnb moved Incode into production and expanded its government-ID verification within the first year.
How it works
Verify the identity, catch the fraud, protect the data
Any script, any direction
Names in Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Kanji, Hanzi, and Thai come back in their native script, right-to-left included, and map to the profile.
The name is the foundation
If the name read from the ID is wrong, nothing downstream can be trusted. Getting it right is what the rest of the identity decision rests on.
Only what a decision needs
Incode redacts sensitive fields on the document, so Airbnb keeps only what the identity decision requires.
Privacy is the architecture
Incode made privacy a founding conviction long before regulation or the market asked for it. Its AI-first identity verification reduces fraud while remaining private and compliant.
Testimonial
“Verifying a host or guest's real identity from their ID, accurately, across the many countries they come from, is what lets us extend trust everywhere Airbnb operates.”
Operations Executive · Airbnb
Frequently asked questions
Questions specific to the Airbnb story
Still have questions? Talk to an expertHow does Airbnb verify the identity of hosts and guests?
Incode's government-ID verification reads the name and key fields from the document with 99.9%+ OCR accuracy and returns them for Airbnb to map to the profile. Hosts and guests go through the same check, and Airbnb requires it on every booking.
Which languages and scripts can the ID check read?
The check reads identity documents across a wide range of languages and scripts. Names written in Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Kanji, Hanzi, or Thai return in their native script, and right-to-left documents are handled, even where name order differs by country.
How much fraud does verification stop before a booking?
99%+ of fraudulent identities are stopped before a booking is made. Stopping fraud at the front door costs less than catching it downstream, and it keeps forged documents and false identities from ever reaching a host or guest.
How does Airbnb protect the personal data on an ID?
Incode redacts sensitive fields on the document with 99.99%+ accuracy, so Airbnb keeps only what an identity decision needs. The other party sees only limited details, such as a name and verification status, while the ID itself stays private.
Why does the check start with the name?
An identity decision rests on the name read from the document, and a wrong read undermines everything downstream. Names transliterate differently across languages, vary in order by country, and can use non-Latin characters that simpler systems misread, so accuracy there matters most.
How did Airbnb roll out Incode?
Airbnb evaluated Incode over multiple years and ran a paid pilot before moving to production. Within the first year of production use, it expanded its government-ID verification.
What's next
See how Incode verifies identity across every market
Read the name off any ID, in any language, and extend trust to both sides of every booking.