Uncomfortable about last minute reservattion request

[Joanne38]

Yesterday i had a last minute, two night, two people reservation request from a young male, verified member for two years, but only had a basic selfie photo.  Last year, via a different provider, I received a similar booking and it turned out to be the reservation from hell.

A young couple stayed 2 nights, ruined furniture and left a 5 hour cleaning task after a simple 2 night stay.  I suspected from the damage and mess that they were on a drug binge.

This new reservation presented much the same - two people, two nights, coming from the city 2 hours away with no prior accommodation plans.  I could not find anything in the gents profile to indicate he had had a Air BnB reservation before.

In these quiet times I would have liked to of taken the booking, but my gut feeling was that this could have ended badly.

All my other Air BnB customer enquiries tend to have photos of the customer enjoying some activity and their requests indicate why they are coming to town, eg: need accomm due to work, coming for a wedding or sporting event.  This booking didnt indicate anything like that, just said R n R (relaxing and recreation).

I am interested to know if other guests have a system they follow to weed out potential problem reservations or like me do you just follow your gut feeling??  I have been a short stay provider for 17 years and have had very few bad experiences.

Is there a way for the host to see other hosts comments re the guest.

Any comments and ideas would be greatfully received.  Thank you.

[Joanne38]

Sorry... this paragraph should have said HOSTS, not guests.

I am interested to know if other guests (HOSTS) have a system they follow to weed out potential problem reservations or like me do you just follow your gut feeling??

[Gerry-And-Rashid0 · Accepted solution]

Gut feeling wins hands down. It may mean you say no to some great guests but if you don't feel comfortable then you will be on edge and stressed out during their stay.

[Joanne38]

Thanks, you right.  Follow the head not the heart !!

[Rachael-Nothemba0]

I recently received a last minute request to change reservation. I honored the change  and I suspect because of my strict cancellation policy it made more sense for them to check in on the day that they requested to cancel. However, the guest did not communicate that they had changed their minds.They pitched my doorstep on the day that they were supposed to have cancelled. Their excuse is that they had cancelled the request but did not communicate this with me the host. I am very upset as I had to spend money on fuel and take off an hour from work to prepare for them. I really feel like guests need to communicate better. I know when I travel I keep in communication with the host especially if there are going to last minute changes.

[Allie22]

I had two similar experiences, but I'm new to Airbnb, so I wasn't sure if this was normal! Both incidents were last minute inquiries, literally around 1:00 am the day of the requested arrival.

The last guest who booked completely trashed the home, and it was particularly unfortunate because the rental is an old historical brownstone in the downtown area of where I live, with original hardwood floors, antiques around the home, etc. It was posted as a non smoking home online and literally posted in frames in at least 3 areas around the home. There were cigarettes (used and unused) all over the floors, outside on the balcony there were cigarette burns actually on the walls, vomit all throughout the home, alcohol spills all over an antique table, the list goes on! We were able to submit a claim and get some of the money for damages, but it was a horrible scene to walk into!

The earlier incident was caught by the online listing company (not Airbnb); they called me immediately after I booked and told me the guest was using a stolen credit card. 

I'm suggesting everyone go with their gut. When I received the inquiry the horrible beforementioned guests, I almost didn't book it, but thought the owner would be happy with the extra (last minute) money as it was over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday. Always go with your gut! 

[Joanne38]

Thanks for sharing your experiences Allie and Rachael,

It does seem that last minute bookings do raise our levels of suspicion - since my experience I just dont take them unless they communicate a story that is credible and can be confirmed (example - one couple who made a last minute booking to visit a friend who had been involved in an accident).

My new strategy is no booking is better than a bad booking - and I absolutely follow my gut feeling now.

When I talk to other providers - it seems we have all been caught by this same type of bad guest on at least one occassion - lets call it a learning experience!

[Neil528]

After 5 months only 2 same day inquiries. I took both.  I set a 2 day advance auto booking and now look very carefully for a reason to deny. Last minute in my part of the USA is someone bringing problems that I don’t need. I have enough of my own. 

[Catherine2817]

I enrolled onto Airbnb this year and i have been waiting for my 1st guest: 

so this week i received a booking for someone coming in on Sunday and i must say preparations have been in high gear! 

so yesterday i received a very quick request from a different guest wanting to stay for one night, even before i checked to approve or decline the invite, the guest had already confirmed the booking. while I am still wondering how they have confirmed the guest quickly called me to say they have confirmed their reservation and they are on their way to my place! this is 8am and they were to check in at 9am!

Now being a new host so many questions run into my mind, but the sticking one was how can i be given time for confirmation/preparation before a person dashes to my place on such short notice.

This guest was male, on call he informed me that he was going to have a "few" friends joining him during the day for a meeting if its ok with me!! I thought it was ok until I was informed while i was at work that the guest was joined by 8 other people all young males! 

This made me very uncomfortable because I also had a child who was unwell at home and a female caretaker. I constantly called home to find out how they are, things seemed to be fairly ok.

when I got home i realized that the many "guests of my guest" were just having fun in the living room including taking alcohol, and expecting that the booking for one guest can be shared by 3 more people apparently sharing rooms.

when I clarified that the booking only covers one guest, the booked guest suggested to swap his place for two of his friends to which i declined.  In the end they all had to leave.

It was not such a good experience for me because i felt like the guest abused my hospitality, his friends who had visited made unnecessary demands from the caretaker while i was away, whereas i had offered tea and drinking water as a way of hospitality, it turned out that tea /water had to be served to 9 people not previously on budget, one of them even requested my caretaker to wash a pair of clothes for them! , went to the kitchen and requested for fruits etc!

Please advise what measures i can put in place to avoid such guests in future and how i can report this to Airbnb.

thanks,

Catherine