Block locals

[Jamaal1]

Is there a way other than removing direct booking to block locals? This far my experience with locals has been bad. Some trow gatherings, some bring domestic disputes, and even a few caught in affairs at my SHARED SPACE! Other than house maintenance issues, I see no reason for locals to use my service and would rather block them. 

[Emiel1]

@Jamaal1 

The answer is: No, you can not block locals (or people from whatever destination)  from booking.

Just decline booking requests or if IB: no other option to cancel with option "feeling uncomfortable".

[M199]

@Jamaal1

Maybe turn off Instabook,  hopefully you can politely decline, if warranted  with a reasonably valid safety concern.  Just my opinion,  better to vet the booking requests so as not to decline a "help needed booking" such as a domestic situation.  Rational for my comment - step daughter was in a domestic fight with her common-law (+100 miles away @ 2am).  There were no public resources available, she spent the night at a local transit hub.  No, she was not raised that way.  Point of the story, ask and understand your guests intentions and needs. 

Just my opinion.

[Nanxing0]

@M199 It's absolutely true that there are rare cases local residents need accommodations like your step daughter's unfortunate situation, but my experience is that this is incredibly rare and a fairly large number of the local requests we are receiving these days are from some trash/disrespectful guests. I've had several no-smoking rule violations in the past few months all from local reservations so I'm now having very strong skepticism on those.

[Sarah977]

@M199  So sorry to hear your daughter found herself in this situation and that there weren't any public resources available to her. And I can see why you would now feel that hosts should open themselves to housing for such cases.

But I don't think hosts should necessarily open their doors to someone in such a situation, because it can often be  dangerous with someone unknown to you. This is why "safe houses" for women and children escaping domestic abuse- their location is quite secret, there is trained staff,  they have security precautions in place, coordinate with local police they can call on if necessary. 

While it may not have been a risk with your daughter, as I'm sure you are aware, many abused women leave and then go back to their abusers, are "addicted" to the relationship, or too afraid to cut ties or refuse to communicate their whereabouts to the abuser. In other words, the woman will answer the phone when he calls, tell him where she is (or he somehow manages to find out) or call a friend and say where she is and then the abuser manages to intimidate the friend into giving info, and then a really dangerous situation could arise for the host, who isn't trained to deal with such things.

You said there were no public resources available, but most areas have a crisis line people can call, and I know that at least where I lived in Canada, the person on the other end of the phone can send the police to retreive the woman if she wants that, and take her to a safe house designed for that purpose. 

[M199]

@Sarah977 

All you stated is unequivocally correct. There were no women's shelters, hostels, crisis lines available in the GTA.  However, when each and every resource is exhausted, would not a compassionate host for a day or two make a difference.  Yes, the abusee would likely go back, as in the situation I described.  However, being that each situation is unique, what is the potential value of having a positive influence? If even for 24 hours. Personally, I would take the high road to help another.

[Sarah977]

@M199  Of course most of us would try to help others, I should hope. And whether the abused goes back to the abuser isn't the issue. I was talking about the risk involved in the abuser showing up at the Airbnb and being violent. Your average host isn't trained to deal with situations like that.

[Jamaal1]

This is my exact point and the reason for my

post. I had 2 domestic issues. One an attempted suicide, the other a spouse destroyed many things in my home, even threw my dishes at the person! Bringing the drama to another persons house can make the issue worse! And I screen my visitors, they didn’t say I’m tryin to escape my crazy partner! 

[Sarah977]

@Jamaal1  It's hard to fathom people who would book a home share listing, only to inflict their emotional drama on others.

I see you've hosted tons of guests and I guess it's inevitable that at some point one or two of these would manage to evade your honed screening. 

As a home share host myself, I have never used Instant Book and never had a bad guest. If I can't tell right away that this is a nice, sane person from the initial message they send, I'll communicate further until I get a sense of whether I can feel at ease with the booking.

But my location eliminates a lot of the need to be super vigilant- people come here to enjoy a beach holiday, it's not like hosting in an American city where people could be booking an Airbnb for all sorts of reasons.

I suppose you could state in your listing that you don't accept locals, I know some hosts do that, but that won't stop someone from lying about where they live.

.

[M199]

@Sarah977 

So true, we could discuss this topic in depth.  My point in this conversation is just to provide an experience/perspective for hosts to consider when to accept or not accept local bookings.  That's all.

[Sarah977]

@M199  There are certainly all sorts of legitimate reasons for a local to book an Airbnb. Their own home could be undergoing extensive renos, maybe their mom and sister are coming to visit from out of town but the booker has a living situation that is too tiny for visitors and want a place they can all stay together. The problem is being able to verify that what the guest is telling you is true.

[Nanxing0]

Technically you need to turn off instant booking to gain full control on bookings. But I don't think you really need a valid "safety concern" to reject a booking. I'm currently rejecting most of the local requests because Philadelphia city has "safer at home" order, and I consider those local reservations increase the risk of spreading COVID unnecessarily. Well you can consider this a "safety concern" though.

While I'm rejecting most of them, not all. There are still a small number of reservations that are essential (like the situation @M199 described) and I would love to kindly accommodate for those. But I would say over 80% of the local requests are unnecessary or don't have a reason at all. Those should be rejected.

[M199]

@Jamaal1 , @Nanxing0 

You are so correct as well.  My post was to provide another point of view and experience for hosts who may not have had encountered such situations. Again, just an open thought. Thank you for contributing to the discussion.😊

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Our last two guests in our shared space had been locals: A couple who lost their home, and a student looking for a temporary room.

[Jamaal1]

Now I have another local guest giving me problems. This one booked instantly at 9pm and never showed up. Now wants his money back, even though I waited up all night for home to come, and knows where I live which brings safety concerns.