I'm a new host. Questions on suspicious bookings

I'm a new host. Questions on suspicious bookings

There has been 2 bookings and they both have canceled without payment coming through.

After booking, one asked where the lodging is and if I could leave the key for her to get in once she arrives. I told her that once I see the payment come through, that I would make sure to send her info. Also, I asked her to finish her profile with a picture and proper IDs. Not surprised, she canceled.

The other booked all the way through, I was just waiting for him to finish procesing his booking. Somehow he found out more or less where my place is, and even mentioned a store reference overlooking my place. Then he asked if he could add one more person. I said yes, to make sure he finishes processing the payment. He asked if I could send him the booking rules. I had to update it, and I put that there is video surveilance and a doorman at the place 24 hours, and he too canceled. This one was spookier since he knew where the place is at. What do I do with this? I updated to strict booking, but what else do I need to do? How do I find out if this two are legitimate persons and not scammers?

1 Reply 1
Rowena29
Level 10
Australia

Hi @Sussi3 

Welcome to the community boards.

A couple of things.

Airbnb collects the payment from guests. After the guest has checked in, - usually around 2 pm the day of check in, airbnb releases the money to your account. It can then take several days to arrive depending on your bank etc.  This is the process regardless of whether the guest made payment 2  months in advance or 2 minutes in advance. So if you're waiting for payment to "come through" before you accept a guest, you will not get any guests!    I'm also not sure what you mean when you say a guest booked all the way through, but you were waiting for him to finish processing it? ( again if you are waiting for payment to come through that won't happen until after checkin)

I think you have IB activated?

If so, under booking requirements you might want to select that you require government verification (which is not the same thing as the profile photo and name, so won't get access to that information, but only guests who have gone through this step will be able to instant book). You can also select that you only want guests with positive reviews from other hosts.  OR you could turn IB off until you get a little more familiar with how the platform operates

For your location you seem to have selected the option to have a specific location shown - you can change this to a more general location if it makes you uncomfortable by going to your listing settings, edit listing - location - and change it there - then a circle is shown on the map indicating the general area, rather than a house icon with a more precise location.

Quite possibly you have had a lucky break with the cancellation of the 2nd guest once he realised there was a doorman ad surveillance - guests who knowingly plan to do the wrong thing often look for listings with self check in and no surveillance. I would't be worried he cancelled - I would be relieved!

I don't know your area, but if you do indeed have to go through a doorman to get into your property, does it really matter that the guest has your address?  any guests who eventually stay will also have it. You're up on the 10th floor so I can't imagine people are planning anything ominous, it would be far too much hard work I would think. To me it sounds like the guests have just chosen to go elsewhere.

You can certainly ask guests to update their profile picture and fill in some information, but be aware that airbnb does not require this, and definitely does not ensure that the photo the guest puts in their profile ( or indeed even the name they use on their profile) matches the government ID that they have provided.  Once a guest has gone through verification, they can change their profile name to Donald Duck and have a profile photo of George Clooney if they wish. 

Since you seem to have grave concerns about security and since  you have a doorman, whey don't you make it a house rule that all guests need to provide their full legal name at the time of booking and also provide photographic ID in order to gain entry? then you can be sure of the actual identity of your guests.

these are just my opinions.

I'm sure other more experienced hosts will be along to offer further ideas and strategies.

For what it's worth I found it invaluable to study the listings of others in my area, as well as the listings of experienced hosts to see how they worded house rules, their descriptions etc.

One more piece of advice - I most definitely would not communicate via What's app - I would keep ALL communication via the platform so if there is a problem Customer Service can easily view all the communication that has occurred.  You can download the airbnb app to your phone

Good luck