References...

[Jerry9]

How do you request a reference?  Thank you.

[Mike-and-Vicki0 · Accepted solution]

Same here - I would like to request references from other Airbnb accounts since I do not have a FB account.  Why restrict to just FaceBook?  Please offer other ways to get references.

[William168]

I will never link my airbnb to facebook and i think it is irresponsibe of airbnb to suggest this.  I have had five inquiries in the last 48 hours with only one of them with a reference.  One of the inquiries comes from some parents wanting to rent my place for their daughter and her boyfriend.  That reservation is pending as I have asked for the ages of the daughter for liability reasons.  How can I make it so that i get to see profiles and references at the time of the requests?  I understand that hotels do not require this but I am not running a hotel this is my home.  

[Mary269]

As many know, there is a difference between references and reviews. References do hardly nothing for guest or host. In trying to give a reference for my sister and receive one from her, the facebook connection did not allow us to post. It is technically broken. Airbnb told me they are looking into it. That was a month ago.

Reviews on the other hand are what I think some hosts may be referring to on this discussion. There are so many new people using Airbnb that many do not have reviews yet. I have had mostly first time guests, and they have all been great. - If they do not have reviews I ask more questions. Make clear rules (I now post that no one can enter my home who is not a booked guest) - ask questions- who will be coming- why- have you been to this town before- do you have a car- are you late night people or settle in by midnight- do you go out at 10 and return by 3. Best for both parties to know ahead of time. 

So in my short experience with all this, I have found out that Airbnb does an excellent job collecting data on someone and verifying certain things.  I have realized that my questions before booking are my assurance that all will go well for both parties, and all the people I had asked were glad I asked. I ask for the full name of each person staying here. There profile may only have a nickname. I want direct communication with the person staying here and not the one booking.  I often will look them up on Linked In. 

If a mother is booking for a daughter than I want the daughter to make a profile. Guest profiles do get hacked into, and it is important that you know the person booking is the one who is verified and you have a photo of. It happened to me- the real guest got my questions, but had not booked anything. I was lucky he caught it and messaged me to not book with the ficticious person. Stay safe. I have the best guests. People are really good to one another - but it is good to ask questions.

[Jerry9]

Mary, thank you for the excellent feedback.

[Katya7]

i TOTALLY empathize.    I am getting 60-70% airbnb newbies..  it seems VRBO has raised their rates, and airbnb is simply growing by leaps and bounds.

What to do?

if they are ' newbies"  I have several emails before I make a decision: I do not let my desire to have $  make me anxious. Interestingly enough, by making them 'qualify' somewhat, it seems to increase their desire,  not the opposite.

it is more important to have a good guest.   I am chatty, and friendly.  I ask who/what/when.  why they are coming and ask them if they have any experience with a similar to an  airbnb situation.  Through these contacts I can tell their level of ' respect, patience, courtesy and ease of communication.

I have usually given in, and have had stellar experienes, ...but mind you, I am only talking about 6 guests so far. I would follow my gut if I felt they were jerks.

Now I am hedging about a TWO MONTH rental  without referenes.  this is a totally different scenario...

[Bob240]

This is discouraging!  I'm a new host, it's nearly August 2018, and this problem still exists.  

The problem is, there are 3 pages that refer to "References, but none tell how to request one, nor provide a means to do so.  

The first, https://www.airbnb.com/users/references, link via "Learn how to get References" to ...

The second, https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/173/what-are-references-on-airbnb but this page only describes what a reference is, and that an Airbnb account with a picture is required to provide one, but DOES NOT DESCRIBE HOW TO REQUEST A REFERENCE.  The "View or request' references button on this page LINKS BACK TO THE FIRST PAGE.  It's circularly, and never answers the question.

The third page, https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/334/why-isn-t-a-reference-appearing-on-my-profile is similar.  It only describes what a reference is and how to handle one, but still no help to request or provide one.

What is the solution, pray tell?  This problem is an old one that has frustrated many other hosts in the community.

[Alma19]

Hi guys,

I want to write a reference for a dear friend that sent a request to me but I am not able, used to be but now the link takes me to reviews but does not allow me to write references?!

Thanks

Alma

[Iwona6]

hmmm so no solution 😞 Facebook or nothing, and not even working if you want to request a reference.

[Gilberto3]

i gave up sometime ago

It is clear that references are a valid tool and as such need to be legitimate

yet references are on teh property not on the AirBnB platform

so legitimacy of the evaluation should focus on making certain the traveler writing the evalaution actually stayed in the property

and not on whether he booked through AirBnB or whether theOwner has a facebook acct

it would be easy for AirBnB to verify if if the traveler actually booked through another platform - if push come to shove by asking the Owner to send prrof of payment or something

[Taylor-and-Jason0]

Curious if this has been resolved? I am only able to connect it via Facebook messenger, and the reference link doesn’t work? Am I losing something wrong? 

[Gilberto3]

Nope

not resolved 

and the privacy issues of the access privileges given to our data proceeding with these login procedures are now in the first page of newspapers

[Simone384]

Hi!

I have a question according to references.. I have the problem that I had horrible guests, they used my room mate's scarf and a towel without asking! Then they parked their car in the city and gave me the fault that I didn't tell them that they need to pay to park there. Which is to be honest not my guilt! They didn't ask me about it, we didn't even talk about it! but I heard that they complained a lot about it.

So I guess they gave me a bad reference. I would really like to write a reference about them, cos I thought their behaviour was horrible and other Airbnb hosts should know about it but  I don't want to destroy my good rating. So what can you do in this case?

Thanks for your help in advance! 🙂

Simone

[Tracey134]

I am a new host and have had no guests yet. I'd like friends and colleagues with airbnb profiles to write referrences to post on my profile saying I am trustworthy/reliable etc but can't find out how to do this.  I go onto frquent host questions"view and request referrences" but it only redirects me to my profile page to edit and goes no further.  Also, I do NOT want to link my profile to Facebook nor require others to use FB to send their referrences. Help!

[Clare-And-Carlo0]

I agree and it appears that it is facebook or nothing which after the testimony of mr zuckerbeg in the usa recently i would think that an alternative solution be proposed by airbnb - if you have an airbnb account you should be able to leave someone a reference and AIRBNB you should allow us to get a link from our host page to send to people to request that reference (without facebook), thank you

[Gilberto3]

I agree w Clare 

this catch-22 AirBnB generates is somewhat self destructive: you do not get bookings because you have no reviews

you can get reviews only if you get bookings

textbook catch-22 in logica 1.01 !

I do extremely well with AirBnB major competitor whose name is blanked out if I write it!

i wish I could do the same with my patients if they were to mention the name of a competitor !

plenty of absurdities - the information content of the internet and its potential to lead to a distributed economy are being burned in real-time for the benefit of very few in a very short time span 

a shame!