guests without reviews

[Kris2875]

With the push to encourage Airbnb hosts to offer longer term stays, I have run into problems with newly joined guest who do not have any reviews and are wanting to book one to three month stays in the apartment, which is part of our house. When we have rented this apartment through regular means we have always asked for two references that we call and check them out. Airbnb makes it impossible to exchange phone numbers or email addresses before the guest has booked. We recently had numerous requests for longer term stays here in the Northwest due to smoke and fire, many from people newly joined to Airbnb and with no reviews. I feel that if I was hosting for a few days or two weeks, this would not be as much of a concern, but longer stays are different. We need a way to check references for people without reviews who are asking for long term stays.

[Emiel1]

@Kris2875 

You can ask them questions via de message system.

I sometimes provide a "trial period", so then can book for 1 or 2 weeks, with option to extend if things go well. For me it works. It is also mutual, when they don't like the place, they are not stuck into the  "long term cancellation" policy.

Disadvantage for the guests is: Airbnb Guest Service fee is signifant lower for "long term stay", but if  "short term stay" is extended into "long term stay", guests are not switched to the lower percentage.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Jon2761]

@Kris2875 

We're too new at hosting on Airbnb for me to offer any useful advice, but I can certainly commiserate. Our house is in the Berkshires, and seasonal rentals are normal there, for summer and ski season. Today we accepted a reservation for January and February after exchanging messages with the prospective guest. He had no reviews, which makes us uncomfortable, but he and his wife and three children are planning to use the house mostly on weekends, with the occasional long weekend or holiday week, and they won't be living there full time. He seemed all right in his written messages and we decided to take a chance. But once we confirmed and were able to see his profile picture, we saw a very cute picture of his three children and a dog. We have a firm no-pets policy. We wrote back to him right away to make sure he had been aware of this policy before he booked, but haven't heard back from him yet with an assurance that he won't be bringing a pet. Because he hasn't replied to us, now we feel even more uncomfortable renting to him because not only might he bring the dog in spite of the rules, but also he might be difficult to communicate with once he's in the house. We'd like to cancel his reservation, which is three months from now and gives him plenty of notice, but then January and February will be blocked by Airbnb and we won't be able to rent those months at all. It seems quite unfair that we have so little control and flexibility over who stays in our home, in which we've invested so much time and money. Hosts should have a limited window of time to change their mind, if they find out new information after the fact that indicates the guest will be incompatible.

All this was to say that I definitely agree with you!

[Yiwei3]

Yes, I just had someone who stayed for 1 month, and left the place a terrible mess!  It looks worse in person than in pictures.  It took more than 6 hours of cleaning to get this place back to normal.  They did not clean at all and everything was so dirty!  I can't imagine someone living such unsanitary conditions.  Since we have cleaners, we need to pay extra as well.  

[Katherine648]

I was recently in this same situation and ended up with over $800 in repairs, no deposit, and air Bnb failed to support my claim. To add insult to injury trying to reach air Bnb is a nightmare. You have to follow links as if you are a guest just to talk with anyone. The lesson I learned is that air Bnb is not here to support hosts and the insurance policy they list is never going to help you so don’t count on air Bnb.