I fear a guest is phoney

[Charlotte109]

Dear all,

I do hope you can help!

I had an instant booking for next may with a picture of a very attractice girl by a pool (instinct tells me it's been taken from the internet). I have since removed instant booking on my site. I have contacted this person several times and have had no responses. My messags to this person have always been really  helpful and friendly, but I have received no messages, nothing.

Also, please can anyone tell me a; How to contact AirBnB directly and b; how to delete this booking without being penalised.

I am new to AirBnB and so far have had 7 guests in 6 weeks and all have left amazing revieves - so I am thrilled, but although all my guests have been different, this is the first time I have smelt a rat. I really am concerned and do not want this person in my house.

Please can you help me?

Thank you,

Charlotte

[Deborah103]

Just call Airbnb, and they will cancel the reservation on behalf of the guest. You will not be penalized.   Deborah

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

Call Airbnb and talk with customer support about it. If you use the Instant Booking feature and you are not comfortable with the booking, you can cancel without penalty up to three times. Have you googled the guest's name to learn more about them? Have you tried calling them? You can ask the guest to change their photo to match their ID. You can ask your guest to fill out more in their profile too. Many guests do not look at the Airbnb message thread as often as hosts do. A phone call to them might clear this up for you.

We've had perfectly fine guests who were new to the system with a photo in their profile that was not them, such as a comic book character or tv character. Also those dressed in costume or wearing sunglasses. I just let the potential guest know we use the profile photo to verify who they are and it needs to be a clear photo of their face. We use this upon check-in too for verification. Every guest we've asked this of has complied. Once you call them and talk with them about it, you'll have more information to base you decision upon.

[David126]

Did you do a search using the photo?