Verifying Your Identity Before Your First Booking

A One-Time Check Before Your First Booking

While identity checks are switched on, every guest verifies their ID once, before their first booking anywhere on Kabora, and is not asked again at any host. The exceptions are a change of legal name, and a check that expires or is questioned.

You are not asked to verify when you sign up, browse, message a host, or join a trip someone else booked. Only the person booking verifies; the people traveling with them do not.

When Identity Checks Are Off

Kabora can switch identity checks off. While they are off:

• No guest is asked to verify.
• The Identity verification row does not appear in your account settings.
• Nothing about the check appears on a listing.

A check already running when they were switched off still has its result recorded.

What You See When Checks Are On

• On every listing: Until you verify, a notice appears above the booking button, before you fill anything in: Kabora checks every guest's ID once.
• Booking without verifying: It is refused, and told where to start the check. Your dates are kept for when you return.
• In the Kabora app: Pressing Request booking before you have verified opens a short sheet, Verify your identity to get started. Verify my identity starts the check, and Not now closes the sheet. Your dates are kept either way.
• The host's setting: Hosts can also tick Only verified guests can book on a listing. While every guest is checked, it changes nothing; it is the rule that applies if the check itself cannot run.

What the Check Involves

You photograph a government ID, such as a passport, driving license or national ID card, then take a short selfie. Software checks that the document is genuine and that the face matches. It takes about two minutes.

Who Sees Your Photos

The consent screen names the company that runs the check: Didit, an identity-verification company working under a data-processing agreement. The screen also states:

• Your photos: Your ID photos and your selfie go to Didit.
• Kabora's copy: Kabora never receives or stores them.
• Your account: It keeps only the outcome, verified or not, and when.

Didit's retention schedule, not Kabora's, governs how long the photos are kept after that. The outcome is deleted with your account.

Starting the Check

Start from Account settings → Identity verification; in the Kabora app, it is Profile → Account settings → Identity verification. A consent screen sets out the facts above, and you agree by pressing Agree and verify.

One Kabora account books stays and runs listings, so one check covers both. Listing a place of your own requires the same check:

• Drafts: While checks are on, you can set up a listing in full before you verify; it waits as a draft.
• Going live: It goes live, or can be booked by its link, once you have verified and set up your payouts.
• Imports: Importing from Hospitable works the same way; every place arrives as a draft.

While Your Check Is in Progress

Most checks are completed within a few minutes. Some need a person at Didit to review them, which can take longer. You do not need to start again, and the identity page shows where your check stands:

• Not finished yet: Continue your check returns you to where you left off, without starting a new check.
• Being reviewed: Nothing needs pressing. You are told the result by email.
• Taking longer than usual: The page says so, and that there is nothing you need to do. If the delay is caused by a technical problem on Kabora's side, the page says that too, so you know it is not your documents.
• Declined: The page reads That check did not go through, and Try again starts a new check.
• Expired or abandoned: A check that was left unfinished for too long ends, and Try again starts a new one.
• Verified: The page reads You are verified.

The Emails Kabora Sends

Kabora emails you once at each step of a check: when you submit it, and when it is approved, declined or expires. If you were booking a stay when the check began, the approval email names the place and the dates, with a Book now link that returns you to it.

If Kabora has not heard the result within a few minutes, it asks Didit directly, every hour and whenever you open the identity page, so a result is not lost because a message failed to arrive.

If You Change Your Legal Name

A check confirms the name it saw, so a new legal name requires a new check. Kabora emails you what is paused, with one link to verify. Every confirmed booking remains as it is. If you host, your listed places leave search until the check is complete, and return once it is.

If You Are Asked to Verify Again

A check can also stop counting without a name change:

• Expiry: Didit tells Kabora that a check has expired.
• Failed review: A later review at Didit fails to confirm it.
• Identity report: Someone reports that an account is using another person's identity.

Each is handled like a new legal name, including your bookings and listed places. Kabora emails you the reason, with one link to verify, and your Identity verification row reads Verify your identity again. Your next booking asks for the check first. A report never reveals who made it.

A Host's Request to Check Your ID

A host can also mark a booking request as needing ID. That is the host's own request, not this check, and it applies whether identity checks are on or off. Your trip page then reads "Your host needs to check who you are" until the host confirms they are satisfied.

Paying does not resolve it: the payment is real, but the stay remains where the host left it.

Kabora sends you nothing when this happens: no email, no message, and no prompt telling you what to send. The host asks in your message thread, and you answer there. If that heading appears and your thread is empty, ask the host what they need to see.