Verifying a Guest with no reviews

[Jo436]

Hi Everyone,

I have had a great experience with Airbnb - However I have a Guest who has asked to stay - I have quickly responded and now have a booking for 3 nights. This Guest has been on Airbnb since 2015 and has No reviews. Her Photo shows three women (obviously friends) and I can not find any information on social media that responds to her name. I can not Cancel and yet I am very nervous.

Can I request from her a Government ID on arrival - or before arrival ?

What Can I do to ease my worried mind?

Thanks Everyone.

[Ben551]

@Jo436  do a reverse image search of her profile photo on the internet.

Save her profile image to your PC, then upload it to https://images.google.com/ - this might give you some leads on a Facebook profile or Twitter account.

[Jo436]

Kiora Ben 

Thanks - No Joy - It was a good idea though - I will try that again in the future. I didn't actually know I could do this. 

Cheers 

[Ben551]

Kia Ora @Jo436 - ah no worries, well it was worth a shot. It often does work, so yeah good trick to know.

[Kath9]

@Jo436, I wouldn't necessarily be worried about this. Just because someone has no reviews doesn't mean they will be a bad guest. She may have been a member since 2015 but never actually stayed at an Airbnb before. I suggest you add to your listing that government verified ID is required by all guests, and then ask her to upload her ID before she arrives. You are also well within your right to request to see her ID when she arrives.

[Jo436]

Thanks Kath, 

I really appreciate your advice and assurance. As you know Bondi is synonomous with Bars, Beaches and parties and all I see is a group profile picture of three young women from the Gold Coast - what could possibly go wrong??

However I will take on board your advice - we will ask for Government ID on her arrival. 

It is honestly so good having the Airbnb community to bounce ideas and get good feedback.

Many thanks 

[Tracey207]

You’re allowed to ask your guests for government ID...just as you can ask them to sign a rental agreement if you choose.

When you are messaging your guest with information about her stay, simply request that she send you a copy of her drivers license or type up a rental agreement and have her include a copy of her ID when she returns the agreement 🙂 

[Jo436]

Thanks Tracey 

I have had really good support from the Community - I appreciate hugely the advice I have recieved. 

Very many thanks - it is great to have your advice and know some useful back up strategies. I guess probably nothing will go wrong - however it is good to feel I have done what I can "should" I need to back myself up with due diligence. 

Thank you again. 

Jo

[Sarah977]

@Jo436  I have an upcoming guest who has been a member since 2016, yet didn't have any reviews. I simply asked her about that in a message. She said, yes, she joined back then, but has never actually booked anything before, just "armchair traveled". And she's been a good communicator and doesn't throw up any red flags at all.

Also just because you can't find someone on social media doesn't mean there's anything to be suspicious of. Believe it or not, not everyone participates in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. I hate social media myself, and you'd never find anything about me there if you did a search.

Of course it's good to be cautious about guests, but you can alleviate some apprehension by simply asking your guest to clarify things like why they have no reviews in spite of being a member for a few years. I find that the way people communicate can tell you a lot about them.

[Jo436]

Thank you for your assurance - I appreciate the feed back enormously. I agree - I avoid alot of media - however I have written and had no return communication - I asked when they would be wanting to check in so I can organise someone to let them in - alas nothing. 

I guess I worry because my apartmement is in a popular spot for bars, beaches and parties!

I will ask her online again for verification  and I will ask for Government ID on her arrival to confirm. 

It has been so good having the Airbnb community to help with advice.

Thanks Jo

[Sarah977]

@Jo436  I agree that not having a guest message back in a timely fashion can be worrisome, especially when check-in day is drawing close and they haven't communicated. 

Sometimes guests haven't checked the boxes on their profiles to choose how to receive alerts that they have a message in their Airbnb Inbox. So they may not even be aware that you've sent them a message if they're not receiving notifications. In that case, if you are able to text or phone them, you could do that to let them know you're awaiting their response to message you sent, and that they should be sure to turn on their notifications. You can also send them an email using that coded email Airbnb assigns to them.

But just let them know to go their Inbox, not ask them for the verifications or check-in info via text or phone- you want to keep that kind of thing on the Airbnb message board.

It has happened a couple of times that guests weren't answering my messages and they were both overseas, so my phone plan didn't cover calling them.- I contacted Airbnb and they got in touch with the guest, who then responded to me.

Also, there were a few reports on here in the last day that messages hosts sent to guests on this past Sunday disappeared and the guests never received them. So if you sent a message on Sunday, this could have happened- there might have been some message glitch.

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Hi @Jo436, I wouldn't be too worried! But I would definitely try and text them directly by phone, and let them know you've left a message on the Airbnb thread (always better to keep messages on the thread)....  As Sarah said, they may not realise you've sent them a message. 

We have taken many guests that don't have reviews.... and I'm often surprised  when some of them have been Airbnb members for several years, yet no reviews! So far, so good! 

We have Instant Book available, but only as long as they have at least one review and appropriate ID. Otherwise, they can't book instantly and need to request to stay. 

If a guest requests to book without a review, or a bad/non existent profile pic, or anything else that bothers us, we just ask them outright for more details.... who else is coming? Or to add a profile pic etc. So far, all have been very obliging with more information when asked. And happy to say that everything has run smoothly too.

Good luck 🙂