Can you require guests have at least one review?

[Pete69]

Can you require that in order to book, guests must have at least one review, and no negative reviews?

[Kath9]

@Pete69, yes, for instant book you can set it up so that only guests with previous reviews, recommended by other hosts and no negative reviews can book. Go into your listing > Booking settings > How guests can book > Edit guest requirements.

For booking requests, of course you can have a look and decide whether to accept.

[Pete69]

:facepalm: For instant book only?!!! So it's catch 22.

I don't understand how Airbnb would even be able to identify a negative review unless a real human is subjectively reading reviews.

[Sarah977]

@Pete69  I think what is meant by no negative reviews would relate to low star levels, maybe? Or that if a guest were to IB and a host read their reviews and found negative ones they could call Airbnb and present that as a valid reason for cancelling without penalty?

Even if a guest only had one review and it wasn't negative, I wouldn't consider that much to go on. We all know there's a lot of hosts out there who don't leave honest reviews, as well as off-site hosts or property managers who never even meet the guests. As long as the house wasn't trashed, they get a "Nice guests." review.

While I do definitely read guest reviews and have zero qualms about accepting a guest whose good reviews I can tell are honest (home-share hosts who actually write quite a bit about how great the guests were), I've accpeted quite a few guests with no reviews. I go on their communication style, which tells me a lot. They've all turned out to be fine guests. 

[Pete69]

On a side note, anyone have any good language to use to discourage the haphazardly guests?

For example:

"This is an Airbnb home -- Not a hotel"

or

"This is a really quiet neighborhood"