newbiest to Airbnb flooding me with the strangest questions!

[Karina-Каринa0]

I think there must lots of new travellers this summer who are using Airbnb for the first time. I get all kinds of new hassle and misunderstandings.

They reserve only one day for one person and then happily announce they are a family of five! My maximum is two persons.

Many have not noticed  what they are reserving (a roomshare, not the whole apt). And then hassle and requests for cancellation because THEY have chosen a non-refundable option to get a discount.

They ask if they need to bring their own sheets and blankets and do I have hot water!

Some think the daily price is from 0:00 till 24:00, and ask if they can still book in at 9 PM. Since when hast hotel industry sold rooms from midnight till midnight?

I have had guests  ask about the pillow menu in a roomshare....

Oh dear.
But I still LOVE hosting with Airbnb and use only BnB.

But the avalanche of new guests is not easy..

[Emiel1]

@Karina-Каринa0 

And al those new profiles do not bring even the most basic information to a host. I receive also a lot of requests/inquiries from newbies recently, but without ID verified i do not accept them anyway.

Several of them assume i am located in Amsterdam (it's 120 km distance...), others  ask if i am close to the city centre (My listings titles are like: room near city centre). Some of them mean : the city centre of Groningen (which is next bigger city on a 50 km distance). 90% of the questions are answerred in the listing itself. But why read it ? One of my listings is a rather small room with a 190 cm bed. It clearly states the measures and warns it is not a comfortable room for a very large person. And yes, then the 2.10 meter tall guy shows up....

Oh dear !

best regards,

Emiel

[Ann72]

@Karina-Каринa0 @Emiel1  Thanks for the laughs!  Opposite to a pillow menu in a roomshare - my most recent guest asked if I had a coffee maker - in a whole house with a fully equipped kitchen...  "No, we have every single thing you would expect to find in a fully equipped kitchen - EXCEPT a coffee maker.  We had to draw the line somewhere and that's where we drew it."

[Marie82]

@Karina-Каринa0   A host who wanted to book my place ask me yesterday, if she could have a picture of the bed linen on the bed at the moment, I could not be fast enough to decline her request.

And this was a host with multiple reviews from the US

[Kira32]

Hi @Karina-Каринa0 

Pillow menu? These people have too much time on their watch😂.

One of my guests really needed a coffee maker and then he bought some instant Coffee (for the coffee maker?)

Sometimes I really think it's just a way to have a conversation about something so I don't mind anymore. 

It's all good....

Kira♡

[Claire475]

Yes you never quite know what the next strange question will be. I had a guest ask for two pillows each for him and his wife, and sheets and blankets rather than a duvet. I happily obliged, but there was a part of me that thought, people want to pay a fraction of the price of a hotel, but want everything and more than a hotel offers. 

Turned out to be lovely people, I just think that some people totally misunderstand the concept of Abnb. 

[Marie82]

@Claire475  i think ur guests must be US/Australian/N Zeland, as guests those from those countries prefer flat sheet and blanket than Duvet.

In some guests mind, it happened to me few time they think we don't change the duvet cover. I am European so mainly use Duvet home, I had US guests telling me my bed linen was not clean as I did not offer a flat sheet between a duvet and fitted sheet. I had to explain to her that this is not because it works this way to the US that the rest of the world needs to do the same.  Now I offer same way a duvet but place on side of the bed a flat sheet so guests who feel more comfortable for that setting they still get it.

[Norma90]

Karina, i have had the exact same problems that you have had from guest. Most of them book for one and then they want to bring their family and when you inform them that they had to pay for family they want to cancelled. Ultimately, its always an hassle. I had a guest who booked and brought his friend and their girl friends , when he learned that he had to pay for them he cancelled and wanted all his money back even though he checked in already.. I had more problems with local black people than anyone else.

[Susan1188]

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@Norma90 wrote:

Most of them book for one and then they want to bring their family and when you inform them that they had to pay for family they want to cancelled. Ultimately, its always an hassle. I had a guest who booked and brought his friend and their girl friends , when he learned that he had to pay for them he cancelled and wanted all his money back even though he checked in already..

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I have also had this frequently from newbies, booking for one and it's a family of 5.

And lots of times they get very aggressive and demanding to know why it is that they have to pay more for a larger group!

How to handle this without feeling/sounding defensive?

In my experience customer support has been good about cancelling these bookings when this issue arises.  You have to catch it early though preferably right after booking.  If I see a booking for 1 person I always check if this is accurate.

[Cheryl389]

I just assume that people don't actually read my listing. It is very bad, however, if they don't even notice that it's listed as a roomshare rather than a private space, since it's right near your title.