As a VRBO and AirBnB host, I will never enable instant booking. I want to hear from my potential guest first, rather than just letting someone book blindly. I don't hesitate to ask for a bit of infomation about potential guests and I am happy to tell them anything they want to know. I give my actual email and phone number (which has to be spelled out as both VRBO and AirBnB will block this within your replies
) and ask for the same from guests. And on the rare occasions where my gut told me something was off, such as claiming it is for 2 adults when really, they are bringing their 4 kids as well, it was right. I do a bit of basic googling about any potential guest and I expect they probably do the same. How does AirBnB know I really am who I say I am just because I scan an id? Oh, right, no such thing as fake or altered id or people using others' ids to circumvent the policy.