My wife and I have been hosting for over three years and just recently went against our longstanding rule and allowed someone with zero reviews to stay at our house. I had a suspicious feeling from the getgo. Their emails to us were full of typos and were incoherent. I tried not to let that bother me and politely answered each of their requests. I waived our cleaning fee, did not charge extra for the dog, and made no stink when their party size increased. Their stay over 7/4 was largely uneventful, except bizarre IMs about our A/C not working in basement (it was plugged into a surge protector that did not work - they had not bothered to plug it into wall directly, as I pointed out in my reply), and then an IM about what to do upon departure, which indicated to me they had never read the house rules I sent them. We got home to our house having a funny smell, towels left hanging and not put in laundry, our child safety gates had been removed and tampered with, etc. Then a few days after they left, they sent a money request, asking for $800, claiming property was "unclean." This is crazy, as we had cleaners come in beforehand, despite waiving their cleaning fee. After we declined, they then asked $500. We declined again. Have any other hosts been subject to scam artists like this? Is there a mechanism for flagging such people, short of leaving them a bad review? Thank you!
Lionel & Julie