@Lisa278,
Reviews aren't of much help: these days, more and more guests are new to Airbnb and have no reviews, and don't fill out their profile with extra info either. it all points towards Airbnb facilitating easy booking for people, and we hosts have to adjust. I have seen it numerous times actually that some hosts complain here in the forum about certain guests, but then turn around and leave positive reviews for that guest. So I don't pay much attention to all of that, I judge for myself how easy a guest is to communiucate with, how forthcoming they are with informationm, etc. So before they arrive I have a fairly good idea, and that gives me peace of mind.
You have high security deposits in place, that seems as good a protection as you can get!
two more suggestions:
1.) Not sure you are there personally in Panama City to welcome your guests. If not, I would think it's vitally important to have a manager or trusted friend there to keep tabs on everything. Maybe also have a print out of the rules posted at each place, highly visible: People will just not read all the details in the booking package they get, certainly all the extra people they will be bringing in know nothing about that, and chances are, they won't care, they are on vacation....
2.) It worries me a bit that both of your places are advertised as for 16+ people. That could easily invite trouble. people who want to party might want to do that for just $256.00 a night, and have 20 people over there before you know it!
My gut feeling tells me I would limit it to 8 guests, and have each guest listed with name - if any potential guest wants to bring in more people, they can contact you and discuss it with you, beforehand. I bet you won't lose any bookings over narrowing it down, but you'll save yourself headaches down the road.
And now, good luck, your places look great!
