@Dee9
I have had two that wanted to arrive within the hour Diane and both of them turned out to be great guests.
You must assess the situation when the request comes in.
The first one, in a similar time frame to you....It was 9pm and this Instant Book request came through, there had been some trouble with their car and they were never going to get as far as they had planned and wanted a closer alternative so I said I would be pleased to help them, got my skates on and within 45 minutes I was showing them the 'digs' for the night!
The second one was a booking request that said "We are driving through from Melbourne and are just passing Murray Bridge (1 hour away) and have just seen your listing and we would like to stay for 3 nights"... I sat and looked at that request for a couple of minutes though and I did have a thought in my mind..'Who just sets off on a trip and tries to book three nights somewhere or other on an hours notice?' But, there was a good photo of them, and it did look ok and they turned out to be really nice guests.
In both these instances Diane there was a legitimate reason why the notice was short so I accepted, and I wasn't disappointed but, if I had been faced with your situation with no photo and little else I could verify on short notice, I probably would have done the same as you and refused the request.
But I would not just state that I don't take people without photos or some other blunt one or two day rule! I would handle it a bit more subtlely and just say "Unfortunately the timeframe is just too short and I have committments for the remainder of the day that will preclude my listing being available! I would be pleased to accommodate a booking request with a bit more notice and some positive identification...like hotels do!"
That way you make the guest aware of the unreasonable nature of their request and if they are half reasonable, logical people they would accept that without criticising you.
Just my thoughts Di.
Cheers....Rob