Guest Wants Address to "check out the neighborhood" before booking.

Diane440
Level 6
Staunton, IL

Guest Wants Address to "check out the neighborhood" before booking.

Lately I've had a few inquiries that are making specific requests before booking that make me a bit uncomfortable. Recenty, I had a couple requesting to book for a month or so, while visiting their son, who lives in the area. However, they asked specifically for our address in order to see the neighborhood and talk it over with the son to see how familiar he was with the area. We live in a small town of 4,500 in a rural area along a major interstate. What's not to know? I describe the area very well on our profile and am very honest about what's around us, including a bike trail and a restaurant within walking distance. We also have a solid 5-star review rating after a year of fairly steady bookings (as much as we can handle at the moment, actually) 

 

So, is this an unreasonable request? Am I being paranoid in not wanting to hand over our specific address (when the entire town is easily found on Google Earth) and considering I don't know anything more about this guest than a first name and zero reviews with a new member date of 2019. If this were some unsavory character and they choose not to book, they'd have easy access to my house and I could not prove or disprove anything that happened, because this idle inquiry would be the only record. Maybe I watch too much CSI, but trust works both ways here.  Thoughts on the best way to respond, other than to say we aren't available for extended bookings? 

20 Replies 20
Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Diane440 I tell these types that they can give me their address and I will give them an exact measurement to their house. 

 

Otherwise the the listing has enough detail and they can figure it out from there. 

Rowena29
Level 10
Australia

Hi@Diane440, I pretty much agree with what Sarah suggested - I would not give out my specific address. HOWEVER, given that these people appear to be new to the platfrom and also have explained why they are coming, I'd be inclined to err on the side of beign super friendly in response.  I remember when I was first a guest, I really had veyr little idea of how the platform worked, and airbnb weren't really all that good at making it clear. I found it very hard to look at a map and understand how things were going to be for me practically - even with good descriptions - my mind just doesn't work that way - i have very poor spatial orientation, so I have a bit of empathy ( potentially) for this guest who sounds like she may be older??  Also most hotels give very specific information re location. I KNOW we are not hotels, that it's all completley different, but a lot of guests just aren't coming from that perspective, they're not thinking like that at all.  It's exasperating as a host, but a lot of the time not really teh guests fault I dont' believe, as the plaform doesn't REALLY  educate them. So I'd just point out really kindly that she is probably not aware, but unfortunately  it's against airbnb rules to provide a specific address prior to booking ,  prompt her to look at the reviews, which you hope she finds reassuring and informative,  the guidebook etc etc - what eveyrone else has said.  She may be beign demandng and unreasonable OR she may just be naive and clueless - from what you've said I'm suspecting the latter. Just my opinion. Maybe I'm a soft touch.  

Cheers

Those are good points. And likely this is an older couple, as they are visiting an adult son. If that is indeed who they are. Forgive me for being cynical, but I've just had two requests that sounded quite legit with specific details about who and why they were traveling and it turned out to both be scams. The names even sounded unusually plausible. This was on a different platform than Airbnb and I knew it was a scam because they offered to pay by "company check" if I would send them the exact amount with taxes and fees. This is a common scam that I've encountered in a few other professional and business dealings and I knew how to handle this. So, again, this could be a new person who is navigating their way through, or it could be some other reason they want my address. Likely it's an innocent request but I responded with a nice enough note saying we usually prefer bookings of a week or less but we do take longer stay requests into consideration and may require a short term lease agreement in that case  (I'm not waiting on them hand and foot for an entire month, mind you) So we'd have to discuss laundry, housekeeping, food service options, etc.  I also indicated the location issues with the caveat: 

 

"Our location is very specific in the listing and the neighborhood, in a town of our size , easily found on Google Maps. If your son knows the area and surrounding towns well at all, including the small farming communities in between, there should be no concern as to the safety, quietude and convenience of our location." 

Hi @Diane440

Hope you didn't think I was implying you were being too cynical - absolutley wasn't - I tend to be rather cynical myself, that's WHY I keep trying to remember what i was like as a  first time guest. I certainly didn't put much time into thinking about things from the hosts perspective - was far too stressed trying to find a place that met my needs that I could afford - and I think that overall I'm reaosnably considerate  I guess what I try to do is be on high alert, but not sound as if I'm suspicious. I personally LOVE longer stay guests - especially as I tend to only have weekends let out, when I get anything over 5 days I'm practically doing cartwheels down the hall... but I live 1.5 hours away from my listing. Also I've removed the cleaning fee from my listing and added it into the daily rate - so for me the longer they stay, the more I"m on top. ( though I do add weekly discounts to offset this for the guest).   Good luck with it - will be interested to see if they follow through - have a suspicion they won't!

Pete69
Level 10
Los Angeles, CA

If they want to know your exact location then Airbnb is not for them. Sometimes in life you have to take a leap of fate. All of your reviews are all of the validation that you need. If that's not good enough then they should stay at a hotel.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

I would never give out my full address before a booking and I also have the setting checked to not give it out until after the 48 hour period.

 

Sure, the guest may be totally legit and just really want to know exactly where they will be staying location wise, but I state that I am a five minute walk (0.3 miles) from XYZ station, so that's really a small enough radius as far as I'm concerned. What more do they need to know? 

 

There are too many scammers out there. It's not just break ins etc. that you have to worry about, although this I think should be a particular concern to remote hosts, but also fraud. I was once the victim of a large identity fraud (not via Airbnb) and it amazed me how little information the fraudsters needed but yes, they did need my full address.

 

Another time I reported an Airbnb user because I found his request for my address suspect, especially when I got a request from another user (this time female) the same morning for the same listing and exact same dates, asking for my address again. Airbnb CS were very thankful and immediately suspended these accounts. Turns out this person was a scammer and had messaged over 1,000 hosts with the same request, but I was the only one to report it!! I wonder how many of them gave him the address. I'm guessing a few.