I took the Airbnb recommendation to not use other channels of communication with potential guests as serving the Airbnb interests more, than serving mine. Anyway, just recently, two separate individuals, on the same morning, tried to channel me into getting into a deal with them outside the Airbnb, via messaging to me prior any booking being made.
This meant no prior check of ID and bank account for them.
Also, they suggested paying in cash, on arrival.
I stuck to my guns, meaning that I said NO.
NO deal outside Airbnb platform.
But in retrospect, I come to think that had they not converged, both of them, during the same morning, with the same type of request, I would have folded. I read and re-read afterwards the threads of their respective messages. They are lessons into how one may grab another by another's decent human being make-up, and turn that into one's own tool for abuse.