Booked our first BnB...

Well, I've organized our first night's accommodation, using AirBnB.com and let me tell you the sailing wasn't all that smooth!

I've never used AirBnB before, so I had to sign up. (Of course. You have to sign up to take a leak, these days!) Anyway, after sign-up, I went looking to book my first BnB. We knew we were going to the LMA rally at RAF Cosford,

so what ever else we did with our itinerary, we would need somewhere to stay in that area. And I found what looked like a good place, close to the event and not too expensive. So I tried to book.

That's when AirBnB decided that as a first-time customer, I had to be verified. Or validated. Or something. So, it demanded that I:

• Allow access to my Google+ profile photo.
• Give them my telephone number.
• Send a scan of the photo page of my passport (which also includes massive amounts of personal data).
• Send scans of both sides of my Driving License, with a third photo, and any remaining personal info the passport didn't provide.
• Take a selfie with my phone and send it as well (the fourth photo they demanded).
• Respond to an SMS with a code, by typing the code into the browser.
• Download an Android App which consistently crashes whenever I try to run it.
• Give my full credit card details.

If this info got loose in the wild, it would be an identity thief's wet dream! And I can't see why all that is necessary. I mean, I buy things all the time with just CC info. And all I'm doing is buying a night's accommodation. Which the landlord doesn't have to provide if the CC isn't good for the money! So why all of that?

Anyway, in the long run, I did manage to reserve the BnB I was looking at. I certainly hope that now I've been validated/verified, I don't have to go through all that again, every time I want to rent a bed for the night!