No reviews

[Rose375]

I am concerned about accepting a reservation from someone whose profile states that he/she joined Airbnb as a guest back in 2017 and uses this for all vacations, yet this person has NO ONE REVIEWS. I asked the potential guest why he/she had no reviews or if the reviews were under another account? Was I wrong to request this? I have had no horror stories or bad reviews as of yet and don't want any.  In the past, I have accepted new-comers but this is different. Any comments?

[Emiel1]

@Rose375 

I sometimes ask the same question(s), if i feel it is nessecary.

Some explanation:

The guest travelled in the past as part of a group or with a relative or friend, who made the booking.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Robin4]

@Rose375 

Rose, we all had to start out from somewhere and it is generally those  in life who offer an olive branch will reap the rewards.

Can I relate two stories to you?

I received a booking request from this profile, a male traveling by himself......

His profile had no information on it. He had joined Airbnb in 2016, and although verified had no reviews, the only thing on his profile page was 1 wish-list item, and that was to stay here in our listing. He was to fly in from the West coast of the US, stay a week here and then fly back out to America again......who on earth does that???

I accepted that request, for all I knew he might have been a mystery shopper, a company mole, come to check us out, but there was something nice and gentle about the wording of his request, it was complimentary and  I didn't sense any aggressiveness about it.

Lee arrived and we had a nice week here with him but, he wasn't a mystery shopper, he was just a farmer from the Black Hills of Dakota.

His wife was an ultra-marathon runner and a few years previously she was out training, was struck by a vehicle and never came home, so each year Lee goes to a destination he thinks his wife would have loved....and in 2018 it was ours!

Second story, would you Rose accept a reservation request from a profile like this......

She had only just joined Airbnb and had absolutely no history, and although we should not be judgmental her profile photo did not fill me with confidence!

But her message did, and I accepted her booking. This was the review I was able to give her and I hope I was able to get her Airbnb career off to a good start!

Rose, the fact that there are no reviews attached to this request does not automatically indicate there will be problems with the guest. If it were me I would be studying the wording of the request......was it complimentary to you, or did it come with questions and requirements. 

As I have said before guests fall into two categories....

Passive/complimentary......they like what they see and just want to stay!

Aggressive/ demanding......they have a list of things they require of you before booking!

Learn how to pick between the two, Rose, and don't worry so much about the review history.

Some of my worst guests have come with the best past reviews, and you can see my experience at the other end of the spectrum. All the best.

Cheers........Rob 

[Ann72]

@Robin4  Thank you for the marvelous stories, Rob.  Not only are they warm and touching (especially your farmer from South Dakota ❤️!), they perfectly illustrate your excellent advice about the two kinds of requests.

[Rose375]

Thanks for all the advice and true-life experiences. I wish the guest in question had given a little bit of a reply to my query - but I got nothing. No, I did not need the guest to beg to stay here. Only a bit of an explanation, like: ' I've always traveled with a group, etc.' I have been uneasy with guests asking me to pay outside of Airbnb or repeatedly asking for a further discount - but through calm communication, gotten through it and had a memorable experience. So - I'll keep trying.

[Sarah977]

@Rose375  I've had this happen 3 times. Guests had been Airbnb members for a few years, no reviews.  No, there is nothing at all improper about asking them to clarify, which is exactly what I did. I just say I'm curious as to why they don't have reviews when they've been members for awhile.

In one case, she said she'd always travelled with her husband and the bookings were done under his account. But she said she liked to armchair travel and just fantasize about staying at one of the places she saw.

Second case said she'd had 2 Airbnb stays but the hosts hadn't bothered to leave reviews.

Third said he'd joined planning to travel, but couldn't due to work commitments.

In all of these cases, those guests had sent a nice, articulate, informative message along with their initial booking request, which tells me a lot about the kind of person they are. They answered the review question right away. And they all turned out to be lovely guests. 

But a guest who ignores your questions I would be wary of.

[Jon2761]

@Sarah977 

Thank you for this, I came here in search of some good wording to reply to a potential guest with no reviews, and as always, you supplied it.

[Pete69]

Last year about 30% of my guests had no reviews.

[Sarah977]

@Pete69  This isn't about no reviews, which would always be the case with new users. This is about no reviews when the guest's profile shows they've had Airbnb accounts for a few years, which is a bit different. 

As we know, some hosts are loathe to leave a bad review and simply don't leave any review unless they have something nice to say. So that is a possibility in the cases we are talking about. 

[Fred13]

I get these all the time, either they just joined or they have used Airbnb with someone else being on the account. Then I go by how they express themselves, specially in tone, the only thing left to go by really.  I have never received an inquiry that has no review and has nothing to say, since that would be a very unnatural approach by someone interested in booking a place.