Has anyone else seen this? Our only booking requests are same-day from sketchy-looking guests.

[Erin443]

Ever since the Cancellation Day From Hell, the only booking requests we've gotten are same-day, from sketchy-looking guests who have never booked an Airbnb before. The requests have come as late as 10pm and they all seem to be local. As desperate as we are for bookings, I've turned them all down, we can't afford another nightmare like the homeless couple that trashed our place on Christmas Eve. Has anyone else seen a weird surge of these kinds of booking attempts? Thanks for your input.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Erin443 

We had a next day request for 1 person in a 3 bed apartment. Having checked that just one person was coming we accepted the reservation and it was fine with the guest clearly isolating for 7 days.

I guess my advice is to ask a few questions but I agree the risk is definitely there

[Erin443]

That's interesting! So they just wanted a safe space to isolate - that's great. I can see why you double-checked,  given the one person for three-bedroom space question. I'm glad you're keeping safe and healthy.

[David-And-Cristina0]

Yeah from here on out for a while, the majority will be local. Always run the gauntlet with locals. Especially with 0 reviews. Have to get some kind of revenue. Good luck.

[Erin443]

Thanks for the advice... you're right, it's balancing risk vs. empty apartment from a while. Good luck to you, too, @David-And-Cristina0 

[Elena87]

@Erin443 

Maybe there aren't so many nearby listings to you that accept ultra last minute even up to 10 pm bookings.

You can search yourself to see what the marketplace offers at that late evening time.

I'd be inclined to prune back the deadline for check-in unless your market specifically caters exclusively in on the road drive-thru one nighter type guests.

I personally find there is too much drama with last minute bookings.

[Jared87]

So yeah we just had someone stay last minute that replaced a canceled booking.  Their account said they were from salt lake but that they were now living in southern Utah with a friend and just come up to visit friends here in salt lake for the weekends. They had only 2 reviews at the time from the same host that was local and they were ok but now they have 5 reviews and 1 of them seemed to be out same experience.  They didn’t communicate,  he had illegal drug use from things they left behind , they took some supplies .   From what we could tell is they probably just smoke cigarettes, and were covering it up with strong incense and we have a closet in the space with food storage and they did open up a can gallon sized can  of dry spaghetti??  So during their stay things were ok but we just had a feeling something wasn’t  right .    So we have tried to adjust things to promote a longer term stay to get us through this no traveling period .  But really not sure what else to do because we don’t want more guests like that .