Respond or ignore?

[Inna22]

I just got the following email:

My name is ..... I am part of the party that will be staying at your residence in Wrigglyvile this coming Friday.

First of all, thank you so much for hosting.  It really has made the entire trip. Second, I want to know how do you want my guests and I to submit copies of our IDs?

Please let me know as soon as possible so I can communicate it with the remaining group.  Thank you! 

I have actually never received an email from a guest but it looks like it came from what could be an airbnb email.

Here are my issues: my properties are not in Wrigleyville. I do not have a guest with that name checking in this Friday. I hope the person confused neighborhoods and is not the actual booker but one of the guests and there is no malicious intent.

Should I just ignore and continue communicating with upcoming guests as I normally would or respond and let them know that I do not have a property in Wrigleyville or a guest with their name and whoever booked should communicate with me? I assume that when I reply they have access to my email so I am opening myself up to some sort of scam?

[Annie1372]

@Inna22 

We never receive email from AirBNB guest.

the communication is always through the chat.

therefore, it is a SCAM. Delete that email and do not worry about it

[Olivia-and-Olivier0]

Sounds very likely to be a scam meant to intrigue you to divulge personal info. I would call airbnb directly and ask for an email where you can forward the potential fraudster’s message. Many times they intentionally make facts not match so you can write back and tell them more. Do not.

if an actual booking guest made a mistake, if they get no reply they will most likely call the host and/or Airbnb. 🙂

[Mark116]

@Inna22  I think that if you look at the reservation you will see that Airbnb still gives an airbnb email, so you can check it against that.  You also have an 'airbnb email' but I don't if your actual email would be visible if you reply.  I have assumed its like craigslist, where the system gives both sides an anonymous email.

I wouldn't think there is any malicious intent, since the guest is offering to send you his information.  I would just clarify, 'you are talking about the reservation made by XX for YY dates, correct?  and also clarify that the house isn't in Wriglyville, but ZZ.

It seems harmless to me unless the person starts asking about some of your own details.

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  Are you talking about an actual email to your personal email address? (A lot of hosts seem to refer to Airbnb messages as emails,  which of course they aren't) If so, how would they get that email address? 

I don't know what you mean by "looks like it came from a Airbnb address"- does it have a string of numbers like the coded email addresses Airbnb assigns?

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 yes, it was an email to my personal email address that seem to have been encrypted sort of like eBay or craigslist does it. Like there’s an email option through Airbnb but they don’t give out my actual email. It’s the first time I’ve gotten some thing like this. It was not a message through messaging system

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  Having experience using the coded emails with guests,  yes, that is how hosts receive those emails. It comes to your personal email inbox, but just as the guest's email address appears as a string of numbers, so does yours to them.

So there's nothing amiss with that. But the question is how that person obtained that coded email address, if that's what happened, if they weren't a guest and sent such clueless questions.

I would report this to Airbnb, making it clear to the clueless CS rep that this is a Trust and Safety Dept. Issue. 

I have actually gotten emails from Trust and Safety reps after reporting something similar.

[Inna22]

I am now further convinced it’s a scam. After doing further research, I do not have any guests with this name, I do not even have anybody checking in on the date. The neighborhood is wrong and misspelled.  I googled the person and they live in Chicago. Somebody from Chicago would not both confuse completely different neighborhoods and misspell them. Fellow hosts, please be aware.

[Helen744]

@Inna 21, Guests are now being asked to 'join the booking " and email has been an option for some time . Airbnb must realise that people are using personal mobiles for this purpose but often one person may book and others may join the booking separately . Older people prefer email , also I now realise that many people simply turn their phones off for the entirety of their bookings so that they can'spend time with the family 'without devices. I tell them as of now that if they do not answer messages I will be obliged to 'pop in ' H