Guest with no reviews and no ID verification

[Anonymous]

 Hello,

I'm worried about the several bookind of a future guest with no reviews (although he's been a member for 2 years) and no ID verification. He wants to books about 10 days per month between now and March but I'm not sure I can trust him. I looked for him on Google and I found a LinkedIn profile and no Facebook o other profile. What do you advise me to do?

Thank you in advance,

Magui

[Steve143]

Hello @Anonymous,

You can message him and ask him to go through the ID verification process.

You can also ask general questions like what brings him to the area, why the repeated stays etc.

You can then get a better feeling about him from if he responds, the tone of his responses etc.

As you have instant book turned on for your listing you can also set the requirement for guests to be ID verified and have recommendations from other hosts. If you set the ID requirement you'll have to be ID verified yourself.

If you have these requirements then only people with those can instant book. Otherwise they have to send a reservation request which you can accept or delcine after messaging them for more information.

Steve.

[Letti0]

@Anonymous  In addition to @Steve143 good advice. I would possibly suggest to him that we test one 10 day booking before booking the rest to make sure the property is a good fit, so if not he's not paying  all those service fee's if it's not a good fit after all. Also change your cancellation policy to at least Moderate before he books or you will get cancelled on a whim by flaky people as there is no penalty for them to do so at the last minute.  

[Anonymous]

Merci Letti!

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

If the first 10 day period is very soon you could also offer to block the other 10 day periods for him until a few days into his first stay.  That way if his stays are mutually agreeable he will be sure that the dates are going to be available when you agree that you will accept him.  You would unblock them when he is ready to book them, after you meet him.  If you don't want him back but you are on Instant Book you could then leave one day blocked in the middle of each of the 10 days and he won't be able to book his desired dates.  If the first 10 period is a ways off then you may not want to block your calendar for him but if he makes the first reservation then you can call and have a phone conversation and exchange more information.

[Emilia42]

In my personal opinion, I think Airbnb profiles do/show very little. I have had guests with no pictures and limited verification who have been excellent guests. I have had guests who have 10 pictures and 6 glowing reviews and have been not so great. I base my judgment on the conversation/communication I have with them when they book (I use instant book.) From this conversation I can usually determine trust or not. If you have bad feeling don’t do it but I wouldn’t base it off the Airbnb profile.