@Amy1130 I've never used IB, so all my guests have always had to send me a request. I've accepted quite a few guests with no reviews. The key for me is how they communicate- if a guest sends an initial booking message like "Hi Sarah, just found your place and it looks perfect for me. I need to escape the cold for a week and am looking forward to relaxing with a couple of books I've been wanting to read and enjoying the beach. Look forward to meeting you and your doggie. Anything I can bring you from up north?" then I pretty much can tell that they've actually read the listing description, and that they are nice, communicative people. I still re-iterate a few key points, like that my place is a 20 minute walk from town, and anything else that could be an issue if a guest failed to read through everything.
If they send a request like "Will be arriving at noon", then my red flags go up and I'll send them a more detailed response, asking some questions, which usually prompts a more informative reply.
Not all the guests with no reviews have had new profiles, which can also seem weird. Like someone whose profile shows they've been a member since 2017, but don't have one review. In that case, I'll often ask-"Hi XX, thanks for your interest and request. I'm curious, it shows you've been a member for at least 2 years, but I don't see any reviews on your profile. Is there a simple explanation for that?" The 3 times that happened, it was in fact quite innocent- one had joined but never actually booked under her own account- she had always travelled with her husband, he made the bookings, and the reviews were under his account, one guest had had a couple Airbnb stays but her hosts had failed to review her (that can be a red flag, as some hosts will decline to review a bad guest, but in this case, her communication set me at ease and I did see that she had reviewed her hosts, so she wasn't lying about having used Airbnb before) and one had joined, but due to work committments had never had a chance to travel. All of these guests turned out to be lovely.
For me, it's communication that's key and I feel new users should be given a chance, as someone had to take a chance on me when my listing was brand new. But not all hosts feel that way and prefer to only accept those with some good reviews (which you can't always trust, either). I can only speak from my own experience, every host has to do whatever they feel they need to to feel okay with bookings.
