I just discovered a potential guest has a huge criminal record

[Rick27]

I had someone email me last night requesting to stay at my house, also that he be able to bend a couple of the house rules. 

Something seemed odd about him, so with a little research, I discoverd he has a record for DUI, assault, and burglary, he has also been in prison a few times.  I found several mug shots, public records of court cases, and even an article about this person. 

I turned him down, as I was not comfortable with his staying in my home. 

I have 2 questions:

1> shouldn't we be made aware if a potential guest has been convicted of a violent or property crime?  I understand that these individuals may have been rehabilitated, but we are talking about allowing individuals into our homes and potentially interacting withour families.  

2>Does the fact that I declined this specific request hurt my listings rankings? 

3> I know air bnb does some sort of background checks, but if someone that has been convicted of multiple felonies is allowed to book, no questions asked, exactly what are the parameters for refusal of membership?

[Giovanni103]

You'd be a fool to think AirBnb takes the time to run background checks on all the guests. . .They don't have a clue as long as they bring in more revenue they are welcome to come stay at your place.  Requiring for a photo ID is the only guarantee and check performed by them.

Rejecting this one request will not affect you as host, but if you continue rejecting they will block your listing.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Yes, Airbnb does some background checks to see if a guest can continue to be a user.  As explained in this article, there are gaps and some decisions about who can continue to be a user even with a criminal background. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1308/does-airbnb-perform-background-checks-on-members

You should go to the member's profile and flag it - provide links to the information you found about the guest. 

It is a little curious that you were able to do a search for someone without their last name.  That information is typically not provided until a reservation is made, which in this case, it was not. 

[Rick27]

The last name was included in the request

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Last name should not have been in the request, it is only sent when there is an actual booking.  

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/363/what-does-each-reservation-status-mean

[Scott80]

If he was suspected of a crime, was given due process, found guilty, fully served his sentence and had his civil rights restored. Does he not have the same rights and privileges as the rest of us? Isn't that the whole point of corrections and rehabilitation?  

Another thing to keep in mind is how do you know that the prospective renter is the same person as the ex-convict? Do they have the same name? There are thousands of people with the same name. Same name and date of birth? Now you probably narrowed it down to about ten different people. So you'd unfairly punish nine innocent people with the same name and date of birth just because you feel that one who has already been punished, and has been rehabilitated deserves more punishment?

[Larry43]

I very much agree with what Scott stated. If you are simply running the person's name with a "probable" city they may reside on using those online free criminal databases, you may be passing up an honest, good paying guest simply because someone else in their same town shares their same name. You have to be very careful as you may be in breach of the Fair Credit Report Act. Having said that, if you are able to establish their true identity and wisely invest $20 on a criminal background check, you will get a comprehensive history of that applicant's criminal past, if they have any. From there on, you can decide for yourself whether they have recent tendencies to defraud, vandalize or commit acts of violence. By the way, believe or not -- people change and just because someone did something stupid 10-15 years ago, does not mean that they will do it again, specially if they paid their debt to society and learned their lesson.

[Conrad1]

I'd rather forego the revenue.  Safety first, Airbnb just cares about the $.  Look up the cases where damages were caused and how they drag their feet to help.  And I like Airbnb...

[Dawn151]

It' 12/8/17 and I'm replying on every board I can find about potentially dangerous guests. I am a Superhost, have never cancelled a reservation, and have always issued a full refund - even at the last minute. I even issued a full refund for the aggressive/potentially violent guests I'm about to describe. I have a 98% 5 star-rating, which is extremely high even for Superhost status. I welcome newbies - we've never had a bad experience - but this one  permanently changed my mind. They were difficult from the beginning. I had to patiently explain that checking in at 5AM on their 1st day and leaving at 10PM their last night were two days of bookings. (I.e. you can't rent the room the night before because people would need to leave by 3am to accomodate a 5AM arrival and it's difficult to get a guest at 10PM at night). I accomodated the very early check-in, but not the late check-out, and then gave full, detailed instructions, including being quiet because we sleep until 6:30AM and then go to work. Their phone calls started at 5AM the day of and woke us up. They claimed they lost check-in info and their phone. I said enough was enough and that I would cancel and issue a full refund because they clearly don't understand the platform. They proceeded to call and text DOZENS of times, and then drive to my home. Odd that they knew this info if they lost their phone and check-in instructions. They blocked my driveway so my husband and I couldn't go to work. They said we "stole their money" and that we were part of a credit card scam. Again, patiently explained that we don't have their financial info, Airbnb does, and they were being issued a full refund. They were aggressive, blocked our driveway,  and engaged in a foul language in our quiet, nice neighborhood. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, this is EXACTLY how all of this went down. They were CRAZY. Had to call the police. When I cancelled their reservation with Airbnb and explained they were potentially violent and I had to call the police I was told - wait for it - that they assisted these weirdos with different Airbnb accomdations. I said my biggest concern was other hosts. Nothing. These people are at someone else's house as I write this. We've blocked our listings and are probably going to remove them. Airbnb made hundreds of dollars a month on my property. They don't make this off the freaks like this that account for, like .001% of their sales. I mean, maybe they book twice a year. Why keep these crazies on the platform?? I mean, every other guest has been fine. My story is an exception, not the rule. They booked these awful, potentially violent people, in SOMEONE ELSE'S HOME.

[Ct2]

WARNING From Atlanta host-GUEST calling themselves PAUL has mutiple criminal arrests.   A woman starting messaging me about needing my place for 30 days while she handled her mothers funeral and estate in Atlanta.  She gave me her name as Marlana  McMillen and wanted to pay me in cash by the week and not go through air bnb.  She claimed she just got married to Paul Adams who was handling all her financial stuff for air bnb. She did not want to register to pay through air bnb.  I suspected scam, etc so googled her name- it was actually Marlena McMillen and she had mutilple arrests for theft and fraudulent gift cards. I looked for a place to post this so everyone could see but cannot find a place to do this.  Air BNB really should have a TOPIC board about High RISK guests. Whew!! Glad I did my own homework. 

[Pilar525]

I hosted a 37 years old black man through Booking.com, though I am not using booking anymore, I want to advise other host in my city.
He was living in my studio for more than 2 months. One day his car broke down and I allowed him to use my car, but he left and took my car. I called the police and the officer came and make a report, but he told me that since I allow him to use my car, it is not a criminal offense, but a court dispute.
When I check the guy records I found he is a criminal with multiple grand theft, fraud cases and sex offends.
Don't suppose to be checked the guests through the app before alllow them to rent?
His name is Daryl Jason Burrows from Valrico Florida.

[Sarah977]

@Pilar525  You cannot post personal information like names and phone numbers here- the moderators will remove it. And why is the guest's race relevant?

The place to warn.other hosts of a bad guest is in your review of them, not on an international forum where 99.99% of hosts would never get a booking request from this guest, anyway.

Sorry this happened to you. though. It's highly irresponsible of Airbnb not to put guest ID through a criminal record check.

[Pilar525]

Since I cannot post a picture, we usually described the individual saying the race, age and high. I am black too and I dont care people call me black coz it is true.

I just wanna help or advise other hosts with my story to avoid issues like this.

[Sarah977]

@Pilar525  Okay, I get that, and hosts should certainly have each other's backs.

But maybe check to see if there is a Facebook hosting group for your area, as if this guy ever tries to book anything again, he's not likely to book my place in Mexico, or a place in Croatia, or Australia, or any of the other places worldwide that hosts on this forum are from. Maybe one or two hosts from the Tampa area might run across your post here, so it would be more effective to try to spread the word locally.