Yesterday I had a 4-day reservation request—essentially filling up the remaining days on my calendar—from a guest who’d been a member for 2 years, but who has no reviews.
After accepting, I got the dreaded “awaiting payment” message. The person’s ID showed s/he was local, which set off some alarm bells, when I didn’t hear back promptly. Today, with the arrival hour approaching, still nothing.
I contacted Airbnb, and the customer rep. said he’d attempt to contact the guest and would be back in touch. Less than 10 minutes later, he got back to me and said that he’d been unable to reach “her”—I could not have determined gender myself, given the person’s name was “Angel”—because even the telephone number was disconnected. He, of course, re-opened my calendar, but if I’d waited, I’d have lost more than today’s booking.
Not sure what this sort of Airbnb sabotage is about, but it does seem that there are some people engaged in something like sabotage, who have a keen understanding about how to exploit Airbnb’s guest-centric system.
Sounds a bit like a Monkey Wrench Gang!
