House party planners are getting more sophisticated

[Inna22]

It is my understanding that when "bad guys" plan an airbnb after party, they charge $20 per person without alcohol and $40 with. So even with 25 percent Chicago airbnb tax and cleaning fee, if they get a place for $300 and end up with 50 people, it is lucrative business for them. I think we have all figured out that a local last minute weekend reservation from someone with no reviews spells trouble. And now I think they now know that we know :). A few days ago I got a reservation for one night, no reviews but about a week out and guest is registered in another state. I have started to ask questions because her reason for stay made no sense. Her answers felt almost scripted. After much back and forth, I think she ran out of answers provided to her and got confused in her lie. I also found a local facebook profile for her. She cancelled eventually. I know some will say I should have cancelled. I would have done that if I had to, but I of course wanted her to cancel if at all possible. I did not want to right away make assumptions about her stay and felt terrible about profiling so I was careful in my language at first. This was exhausting and frustrating process.

Here is my takeaway:

~airbnb does not verify if registered location matches ID. Guests can put down anything they want. We should not trust blindly what it says

~in my experience, most party bookers mention a family celebration, usually a cousin or daughters. "LIttle cousin is flying to LA so we are going to hand out". "Girls night with my daughters" etc. I guess they think it looks like a legitimate reason. In reality, I have actually never had a real reservation with that purpose.

~they do not care if you tell them "no parties". Their job is to book and to pacify a host, they most likely have a script. They will keep saying it is not a party. I have a feeling they are paid for someone else to book.

They only way I found to fight back is to make them add every single guest on their reservation through airbnb with full name and full registration and tell them this is the group will need to be there with IDs. 

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  Would your bookings suffer a lot if you only allowed a 2-night minimum stay? Seems like this would discourage the party crowd. I've also never understood when hosts say not to accept bookings from locals- how do you know if they're local? If they have something nefarious in mind, they're likely going to lie about that anyway.  And I know that Airbnb doesn't actually check on whether the guest is from where they say they are- I've had guests whose profiles said they were from somewhere they no longer lived- luckily they had just neglected to update their profiles when they moved, rather than them being purposefully misleading.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 this is my first time when they were sophisticated enough to lie about the location. In the past they were registered locally. Most are brand new accounts so perhaps they think airbnb will check? As for one night... I do get a great amount of perfectly legitimate one night reservations. They have a lot of benefits: fill the odd days in my schedule and also keep my cleaners busy as I am able to give them more work so they stay with me. I already have a two night minimum on the weekends for this very reason so Sundays are my only vulnerable days. I also do not take same day reservations for this reason as well. With the business being slower lately, I am not sure I can afford to restrict my schedule even further just to fight off these people.

[Ann72]

@Inna22 good on you.  That sounds exhausting, but I'm kind of dying to know what you said and what she said and how she confused her lies.  🙂  

I agree with @Sarah977 about setting a two-night minimum.  I haven't had parties but have had groups of 10 grad students for one night who were thrilled to stay in a nice place that they could afford after dividing it 10 ways.  They were sweet and left good reviews, but after a few of those (one of which ruined a coffee table), I switched to a two-night minimum to discourage such gatherings.

[Inna22]

@Ann72 the discussion itself could be part of a book. Here are a few better extracts (I am taking chunks of pleasantries out to make this short, I was not this abrupt with her):

her: I Have 6 Daughters 2 Adults & The Other 4 Are Children

me: Is everyone flying in from Albuquerque? No school on Monday?

her: Some Of Them Actually Stays In Chicago The Older Ones . And Yes Teachers Are Going On Strike So The School Days Are Getting Cut .

me: You know already that 10 days from now teachers in Albuquerque will go on strike? I do not see anything in the news. I also noticed that you actually live in Chicago yourself.

her: I Use To Live In Chicago When I Was Staying With My Peoples .

yada yada

her: My Husband Lives in Chicago I’m With Him From Time To Time Because I Have My Kids And Yes I Have Kids Who Stays In Chicago .

yada

blah

blah

her: My husbands coming to me we’ll be ina city couple days before the stay

me: He is coming to you in New Mexico?

her: No He’s Coming To Frm New Mexico!

me: I thought you lived in New Mexico?

her: I do I’m just not with my husband right now

It is pretty funny to read it now. 

[Ann72]

@Inna22  I’m dying over this 😂  The circular story, the grammar and capitalizations, your seemingly ingenuous  questions are all the stuff of high comedy.  I almost feel for her the way you feel for an innocent mouse walking right into the jaws of a lion.

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  You could probably find a way to make some money that would cover the shortfall in lost one night bookings with all the spare time you'd have if you no longer had to investigate and fend off these scammer partiers 🙂

It amazes me that people think you wouldn't be suspicious that they'd book a house that sleeps, what, 10? 16? for a "quiet little get together, just me and my cousin."

Guests mind: Airbnb= Party House  Host= Naive Fool.

[Sean433]

@Inna22 

A lot of the times, these guests are messaging you after they have been declined by one or several hosts and they change their script as they go out of desperation to book a place.

I have a friend who operates an airbnb nearby. We got a message from a girl who said there would only be 15 guests and 10 will sleep over. I declined. Hours later, she messaged my friend saying there would be 13 guests and 8 sleep over. Lol. I am sure as she went along, the amount of guests magically lowered.

But there are some ways you can troll the guests back if you ever get an instant book and feel they will be up to no good. Eventually, they will just cancel on their own without you having to. I had a guest who instant booked our 4 bedroom home for only 3 guests. Normally this is not suspicious on its own but she was a local guest and very young. Her first message to me was very short. I asked who will be coming and why only 3 guests. She said it will be her and her mother. When I asked why they need a local airbnb for just 2 days, her answer didn't sit right with me. I then told her that in instances of local bookings, I do not provide self check-in. That she would have to meet me at the house with her mother and sister and present ID's. The next day she cancelled on her own.

[Inna22]

@Sean433 I like that- no self check in for local guests

[Hello6]

We have a house rule that says we do not accept bookings from locals who live in the city or island (Las Palmas, Gran Canaria).  We do still get bookings from locals and they for the most part tell us when they Instant Book they are locals.  We can't legally stop them from booking or staying.  Despite the house rule nothing in law can allow us to discriminate against the guest so we accept the bookings as we have too.  Our experience is the rule has opened conversation to the guests and has made them be aware that we are biased towards local guests for safety and security reasons.  The bias stems from local problems have a way of returning to your doorstep.  So far our local guests have been nothing but polite and respectful.  The best rules of extra security and that we can enforce are: No one permitted entry who is not a guest, Guests are not to answer or open the door for anyone who is not a guest and Guest who books must arrive and stay for the time of booking and person booking can not book for others unless they stay as well. Absolutely no parties, Quiet times and another 3 pages of rules outlining common sense that is forgotten in Shared living situations such as hostels.   As well we have all guests complete the Spanish legally required check in document and sign it.  The document allows us to contact the police should we have any major problems and need have a guest removed.  Without the document there is little the police in Spain can or will do to remove someone from your home.  Airbnb has been great for us and the liability insurance and knowing it is there is an extra blanket of less stress.  Also the option of being able to write your own specific house rules is nice and needed.  Highly recommend a good 3 page or so list of house rules having a legal checkin document from your country to have guests fill out even if your not a fully "legal" business entity and always engage and use the message system to ask the basics of any guest coming to stay like what brings you to our island?  Good luck.  Also, we always on the look out for better ways to politely write rules that don't sound offensive or abrasive so any examples of a good way to write rules always welcome.  🙂

[Inna22]

@Hello6 yes, I agree, it is hard to make the rules sound like I am serious about enforcing them while at the same time remain polite and not sound like I assume everyone is out to break them

[Kira32]

@Sean433 👍

[Kira32]

Good job @Inna22!

The more questions you ask, the less courageous guests become. Especially when you charge extra for these types of guests👍

[Cathie19]

Hi @Inna22. I agree with @Ann72 , @Kira32  & @Sarah977 & @Hello6 on matters of two night minimum stay, and adding some extra rules plus photo IDs of all, on check in tends to be the deal breaker. 

However, I do have instant book which has not proved any problem, as well as a two night min. stay and this has not stopped someone wanting to run a party from my premises... and I live on site... something they probably didn’t read! Lol... BUT this type of guest can still book for the two nights, then aim to cancel the second, or just cover that expense in their charges to the others.... 

Also with end of year school parties beginning in Australia, choose to alter or block dates across weekends.... be savvy and alert. Locals need to clear tick all the boxes, clear the hurdles and finally pass the gut instinct to get onto the property.

Have the house and no self check in rules, switch on your gut instinct  > and communicate.....