VERIFIED GUEST WITH NO REVIEWS

[Robin1670]

I have a request to stay at my home from a verified guest with no profile and no reviews.  I replied immediately letting her know that we have strict occupancy and vehicle limits.  She is traveling with her siblings a group of 4 and she also stated that she has booked with Airbnb several times (she was verified in 2018).  My concern now is if she has booked several times and has no reviews.  My question for the community is the following:  Does a guest with bad reviews eliminate them from instant reservation?  If a guest makes a request to stay why can't I see any reviews ?  Can I just say no and not be penalized?

[Helen3]

Hi @Robin1670 

Do have a look at the Airbnb Help website it will answer many of your questions about how Airbnb works 

1. Some hosts are lazy and don't leave reviews - it's not necessarily an indicator of a bad guest 

2. if a guests requests to stay you don't have to accept the booking. 

3. if you cancel a confirmed booking which isn't breaking your house rules you will receive penalties (see Airbnb Help website )

4. a guest can't remove bad reviews 

[Robin1670]

Thank you I am only 1 year into hosting and my gut was telling me something was off with the request. Not knowing what the guest sees on their end when they are booking but cannot use instant booking make it difficult and of course the request to book is not going to say I had a bad review or I broke house rules.  I declined the request 

[Tara0]

@Robin1670 As @Helen3 says, not all hosts leave a review. But the reason might also be that she wasn't the booking guest on previous trips - possibly booked by one of her siblings before, therefore she wouldn't have host reviews, only the booking guest would be reviewed. 

(If she booked herself and had been a terrible guest, it's likely at least one host would have left a bad review). 

"Does a guest with bad reviews eliminate them from instant reservation? " - if you have the setting for 'only guests with good reviews' switched on for Instant Book, it doesn't mean what you think. So long as the guest has ONE good review (never mind any bad ones), they can IB. Guests with zero reviews cannot IB if you have this setting on, because no reviews=no good reviews. If you don't have this setting on, anyone can IB. 

"If a guest makes a request to stay why can't I see any reviews ?" You can, if they have any reviews.

"Can I just say no and not be penalized?" You can refuse a request to book. It might affect the search algorithms, but no actual penalty. (But serious penalties if you cancel a confirmed booking).