How do I know which guests to accept?

[Robin4]

I posted a thread a couple of years ago entitled ‘How to handle those difficult reviews’ which, funnily enough, is still popping up and is continuing to get likes!

That thread dealt with how to handle the review situation once the guest had left….

This one revolves around how to handle the situation before the guest arrives.

My experience has seen guest inquiries fall into two distinct camps. I used to think there was a grey area where guests could be pleasant and demure when booking, but become aggressive and demanding once they arrived. But when I looked back over those booking requests the signs were there that the guest would be difficult….and overly long request message….. a tale about themselves and their history…an innocent question or two.

Guests fall into two camps…… passive/complimentary, or aggressive/demanding!

1/. By far the best reservation message will be that which will simply say…..”Your property looks lovely and we can’t wait to stay”! It’s generally an IB (Instant Book) it is short, simple and complimentary, and whether it comes as a reservation request or an IB message, it tells me all I need to know, and I know this guest will be wonderful to host. This guest falls into the passive/complimentary camp. They don’t want to ask a heap of questions. They have studied what is on offer, have no further comment and simply want to pull out the credit card, and stay. I don’t even bother to look at their profile, they have told me, I am in for a nice experience.

2/. Where I start to have an issue is where the guest leads off their request with a question! “We are coming to Mt Barker for a wedding at 'Bird in Hand' winery, the wedding is at 4.00 pm, what time can we check-in?” Now, already they are ‘pushing the choke’ ….my house rules say, check-in is from 2.00pm, but they feel maybe, this is a time that is open to negotiation! It is….. but not before we have exchanged pleasantries. I will check a guest in at any time they want, within limits, I don’t want to have it thrust on me as an opening line! It’s the way the request is formed! By opening up the conversation like this I know that a series of questions are going to follow….off street parking…..WiFi allowance…..cooking…….a friend or two over for a drink…and all the time my personal hosting island is shrinking and their personal guest island is expanding! All of these questions could have been answered if they had not just been seduced by the pictures but, actually took the time to read the listing description.  

I want to do a lot more digging around before I accept a request or an IB like that……I want to see what their history with other hosts has been like.

Guests questions are a form of haggling, and we all know what hagglers are like. How often have you been stuck behind one in the supermarket express lane while they haggle with the check-out chick over some item in a catalogue that William Caxton possibly ran off with the first printing press!!  Hagglers are not like a fine bottle of red, they do not improve as they go along. Their demands become more strident until you will do anything just to get them out of your life. Questions and hagglers I have learned, are one in the same!

When a reservation request comes in, study every word because the decision you make at this point could be one of the best, or one of the worst you ever make.

3/. Look for hidden meanings behind the request. ……

A/……”Myself and my partner are looking for a quiet night away and your place looks perfect, we will self check-in about 6.30pm and leave early the next morning”! In other words they do not want any personal contact, it’s an after work hours arrival, her profile lists her as relatively local…well, in the same town, and there is a strong probability that this is a clandestine work affair. When someone is not prepared to list their significant other by name or title….I smell a rat!  

B/….. The request is for a Friday night and is worded along the lines of…..”I am coming to town to catch up with a couple of family members; your place is fairly central and looks ideal for us to get together for a quiet catch up!”……really, Friday night, a get together…this has got party written all over it.

Guests talk in riddles, and you have to probe behind the words.

Once again I am not putting myself out there as an authority but, I felt, once I passed 300 hostings I had built up a reasonably sound profile to sort out the good guests from the poor guests….and it has only let me down twice.

I hope this can help someone!

Cheers.....Rob

[Jeanette37]

Hi Kira.  That guest did sound a bit dodgy.  That bit about him being a man and you a woman was unnecessary and a bit creepy!  It made it sound like he was going to try and ravage you!  It could be of course that he objected to your questions, is a very private person and just wanted to be allowed to stay and left home as much as possible!

[J-Renato0]

Great points @Robin4

On the whole everything you said makes sense.

Although rare, I have notice that, there is also the "passive/agressive" type.

This one is almost unpredictable.

Anyway there are some yellow flags. I have notice that they are not good at communicating. 

They do not address us by our name. Some lack of pleasantries may be among their behaviour.
During the stay they say everything is normal or fine. No complains. But in the end they write an stupid and somewhat agressive review. Something that let us astonished. Something that comes out of the blue.
Have you ever notice this kind of behaviour ? I think I have came across this type of person twice.
Being an articulated man as you are, it can be a subject to think about and write another post! You know on how to do it! 🙂
Cheers!

[Ben551]

Great post @Robin4 - that’s some fantastic insight for people to have in their minds. It can feel like roulette with guests sometimes, so the more we share experiences the better we will get at identifying problematic guests!

I’ve had a couple of weird communication instances, but one took the cake. The guest asked a total of 15 questions about the property, the blinds, the stairs, the kitchen, the location, what about bedding, how does the checkin work, is there noise, I’m a light sleeper, how many doors between the bedroom and the living space.... it was a barrage, but not all at once. It would also go quiet for a week or two, then another string of questions would appear. They were all polite and reasonable in appearance, so we let it go on...

In the end though Airbnb cancelled it, because the guest was bringing an infant and our insurance and Airbnb said "no dice” (our property doesn’t have child proofing.... hazards like choking, tripping, falling ). The infant wasn’t included in the guest list, so game over. But based on those questions... if I apply Rob’s logic, she would have been trouble anyway....

[Zacharias0]

You're so correct: guests talk in riddles and ive become many of us have become very good at deciphering how what is stated means for the guest as a whole. First impressions are everything.