My previous experience in renting our home has been in corporate housing; always a background check, damage deposit, etc. I have decided to try Airbnb for shorter-term guests as well as a few other reasons.
I am brand new to this, and have two confirmed reservations from people that have some history and reviews on Airbnb and I am comfortable with them coming into our home.
But I have a new reservation request who does not have any history on Airbnb becaue he is also new to the community. I declined his request due to lack of background and the fact he wants to book it for his wife's family coming from another country, which is even more unknown.
He just wrote again, wanting to furnish me with his phone, address, etc (all which Airbnb blocked) in (what seems sincere) an effort to tell me more about himself...he and his wife are international students at a community college here...and he would like to stay in the home with his wife's family and their new baby son. He seems nice enough, but I have this nagging discomfort due to the foreign nature of the family he is booking for. I have no idea how I would go about recovering property if there was damage or theft from people I have no record of, and who will be leaving the country right after they depart. I also have concerns about introducing bedbugs since the family is coming from a very crowded city, Arabic is his family lanuguage.
And yet, another part of me understands that not everyone HAS a lot of history for me to review, because they are not from this country.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated - this may be one of those times where I just need to follow my instincts but I would like to know how people handle this kind of uncertainty.
