Should you host a non-verified guest?

[Donté0]

Hello Community, 

I have listed my place for the upcoming holiday and I have two guest that are interested in my place. One guest that has been verified and has great reviews and another who just joined Airbnb, has no reviews and is not verified. The guest who is verified just reached out to confirm booking, but the non verified guest had already booked and I accepted -- as I did not hear back from the verified guest. 

Should I (can I) cancel the booking of the non-verified guest and accept the reservation of the verified guest? Additionally, I did send e message to the non-verified guest asking why he has not been verified currently? Please advise as I would like to resolve this sooner rather than later. 

Thank you!

[Susie5]

@Donté0, whatever you do, don't cancel on the one guest you have accepted! that is the #1 rule of Airbnb - hosts must never cancel! Air will penalize you fairly heavily for canceling, including blocking off the relevant dates so you couldn't rebook the other guest through Air in any case.

I have often accepted unverified new Airbnb guests and it has worked out fine. It would be good to have some discussion via chat with them - who are they, where are they and why are they coming to your town, make sure they read the description and the house rules, etc.  Some people embed a "secret word" in their house rules which guests must reply with in order for their booking to go forward - you might do that if you feel insecure about new guests.  Also make sure they know you will be around, no monkey business on your property, you'll be checking in to make sure they are OK etc.  Hope that helps!  Susie

[Emiel1]

Hi,

You allready accepted the not-verified guest (NVG), so if you cancel the reservation you will be penalized, like

the booked data will be blocked by AIRBNB and the VG can not make a reservation on same dates.

Requesting verification is done before the booking, read more: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/272/can-i-require-guests-to-be-verified-before-booking

The NVG will have some verification in his profile, but you are probaly concerned about missing ID-verification.

I hosted many guest without ID verfication, but accept there booking only after some more communication and/or Internet search. If not a good feeling or in doubt, i decline.

Best regards,

Emiel