Christine, Letitia,
I understand it is entirely different for me being a male....although sometimes Ade refers to me as a mouse!! :-))
But we all had to start from somewhere. There was a time when every traveller who uses Airbnb did not have a previous review....and you are right to always stay on the side of caution but, although I have posted this before it is worth repeating here.
How would you girls react to a booking request from a guest with this profile.....
Unfortunately the system appears to be removing screenshots now so just text will have to suffice
That was it, no reviews, no verifications other than the email and phone.
Well I accepted that request and she turned out to be one of the nicest respectful guests one would ever hope to host...
She now has a great review on her profile and hopefully this will get her over that hurdle where future hosts are concerned.
I did give this request a bit of thought and even got Ade's thoughts on it before I accepted, but the thing that swayed me was the complimentary and passive way she had worded her request. There was nothing aggresive or arrogant about it. She was so excited about being a new user and fortunately had not done the rounds of the knock-backs before she found our listing.
I have learned over the past couple of years to analyse every word of that reservation request, or booking message. If they want to ask lots of questions they are not for me. If they want to query the availability of things that are quite cleary stated in the listing description they are not for me. They either love what I offer and want to book, or I will find a reason not to host them, and whether they have a stellar past history or none at all has nothing (or very little) to do with it. As I said we were all 'cleanskins' once upon a time.
Cheers......Rob.
