Local guest with no reviews wants to stay 19 nights. Red flag?

Josh1413
Level 2
Huntersville, NC

Local guest with no reviews wants to stay 19 nights. Red flag?

I recently put my first listing up as a first-time host and got a booking less than 2 days after.

 

I got a booking that starts tomorrow for 19 nights because their "previously booked place canceled on them and they live in the same town and are having their floors refinished".  The guest does not have a profile picture and created their account in 2021.

 

This is a property that will get much fewer guests during the cold season so I was initially happy to see a booking, but I'm definitely concerned about it. Seems too good to be true and high risk.  Instant booking was turned on, so it was already approved/paid (and they got a pretty large 20% discount from my promotion, which is a bummer because of how many nights it is and I don't expect most bookings during the winter to be more than 2/3 nights)

 

There are red flags. Do you have any suggested questions I should ask the guest?  I'm considering canceling, which would hurt financially, but the risk feels high.

15 Replies 15
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Josh1413 

Josh, how did this booking come to you? I understand it was an Instant Book but, in their initial message to you did they explain fully why they wanted to book your property, or did you have to coax this information about floor finishing out of them.

1/.....I would not see a 19 night booking as a red flag if they are having house renovations done. I have just recently had the same thing here with a 3 week booking, it worked wonderfully.

2/.....Sure they are local but, this simply would become their home while their property was unavailable, it would suit both your purposes. The last thing they are going to do is have a party and risk getting kicked out!

3/.....The fact that they have only recently joined Airbnb is logical. They may have not needed to use an STR platform before, but with this renovation in mind they decided to join, we all started from somewhere with a reason for joining Josh.

 

I put guest enquiries into one of two categories.

A.......They like my listing, explain why they are coming and just want to stay. They are going to be good guests.

B/......They ask a lot of questions and are more interested in what they can get rather than what I provide. I stay away from them Josh, and suggest that my listing might not be a good fit for them.

 

As you go along you will learn what those red flags are, now granted I do not know the contents of your message stream with these guests, but I would see this as a genuine stay and good on you for snaring it.

 

What I would do though Josh (I have done it in the past with good results) is get onto Airbnb and explain to CS what you have explained to us. They will ask if you want to cancel the reservation. Tell them, NO, but you want it on file that this stay could possibly have issues and you would like a ticket number in case anything you can't handle crops up. That way you have got in the first punch and if something does go wrong you will considerably improve your chances of getting proper support! Some support reps won't do that because they don't like open tickets but most will do it if they can see you are genuine and are ticking boxes and are prepared to ask for help rather than demand it! 

All the best.

Cheers........Rob