New accounts

Rosey10
Level 2
Clovis, CA

New accounts

Hi everyone! Is anyone experiencing reservation request for a long duration with guest that just recently created their accounts in the same month? Not sure if I’m a target or this is common and nothing to worry about. Last person who requested a three month stay wanted me to respond to him through what’sapp. I feel uneasy about accepting the request.

6 Replies 6
Mike-And-Jane0
Top Contributor
England, United Kingdom

@Rosey10 anything via WhatsApp is likely to be trouble. Also any stay over a month will create a tenancy in many US states so you will have to use the courts to evict based, if you use Airbnb, on no rental agreement whatsoever.

Gillian166
Level 10
Hay Valley, Australia

@Rosey10  yes your instincts are correct, this is dodgy. You're very new, they target new hosts usually.  and although in some countries whatsapp is a pretty common way of communicating, esp for travellers, I think requesting to communicate this way straight away is another red flag. Decline!

@Gillian166 Thank you for your feedback. Would you have any suggestions on how to decline this reservation without being dinged? Is there something I can request from the guest or say that may get them to remove their request?

Mike-And-Jane0
Top Contributor
England, United Kingdom

@Rosey10 was it a request or an inquiry. The former need you to accept or decline. The latter just requires you to respond (perhaps saying only contact needs to be via Airbnb) - Don't decline or accept inquiries.

It’s an inquiry. This guest has not requested me to contact them through any other resources at the moment but I was concerned since the stay request is around the same timeframe as that other WhatsApp request. Thank you for the information about longer stays. I think I will need to limit it less than a month to avoid that if possible. 

Gwen386
Level 10
Lusby, MD

@Rosey10 since you are new and have only 3 reviews, now is not the time to accept LTRs. You want to build up the number of positive reviews quickly.