BEWARE OF INSTANT BOOKINGS BY GUESTS FOR NEXT DAY

[Jeff69]

I have had to turn OFF instant booking recently because of a serier of similar incidents.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have had 2 next day instant bookings, "to visit family in town", which I did not think much about, until the second guest arrived.  He was verified through Airbnb and lived in Santa Maria California with a CA phone number.  

Yet, he had no luggage, he was in a black Escalade with totally blacked out windows, and FL plates - so you could not see the other guests, and rental companies don't provide cars like that.  I told him, the dryer was broken and I would have a service person look at it, and I would text him the wifi password.  He proceeded to give me a local phone number.  When I questioned him about the phone number, he said he used to live here, which is why he is returning to visit friends.  

While in my car, texting him the password, the back door of the Escalade opened, then immediately closed, and they remained in the car for (no exaggeration ) 10 minutes while I sat in my car watching them, after which they drove off without exiting the car.  My front door is a key pad door lock which registers each time the door opens and closes.  That evening, feeling very uncomfortable with the guests,  at 11:00pm I checked my computer app for the door history, and the door opened 77 times between 2pm and 11pm.  Absolutely, unusual for guests coming to town to visit family and friends.  

Next day, I made the excuse that I needed to see the dryer, and there were 2 different cars in the driveway.  I texted the guest, and he said NO NEED, I WON'T BE USING THE DRYER".  I told him I was just down the street, and no problem if he was not home, I had a key. I politely knocked, and heard shuffling in the house, and after knocking 2x and then getting ready to open the door, a different man answered the door, while another closed the bedroom door and another closed himself in the bathroom.  Total count - 4 men.  

So I decided to ask where was the host - JOHNNY... (who's name on Airbnb was different).  One guy said he was showering in the bathroom, never asking "who is Johnny".   

MY REAL CONCERN IS THAT PEOPLE ARE USING AIRBNB AND OTHER VACATION RENTAL SITES TO RENT HOUSES FOR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES.  Since yesterday - I have had 3 more "NEXT DAY" requests to book, and in researching the guest further, found out they have local phone numbers or IDENTICAL phone numbers.   

I reported this activity to Airbnb, who I am sure will take measures, but I think the HOST COMMUNITY needs to be aware that criminals are wising up and using alias' to rent properties for short periods of time and running illegal activities out of the house.

BE CAREFUL - BE SMART - BE SAFE.  

Jeff - Tampa Florida USA

[Maria-Lurdes0]

I had a very similar situation, including the car with local plates, blacked out windows, extra guests, booked guest "out for a walk" when I stopped by.   This wasn't an airbnb booking but it was another last minute booking on another platform.  I had a bad feeling about it, but it was a slow month and I wanted the booking.  It turned out to be the worst experience of my hosting life which included, finally, bribing the guest to leave.  

There's lots of things that in hindsight I should have done - but at the time it was a high stress situation and I knew that illegal things were going on (I'm certain that it was drugs and I think also prostitutes).  

I am super careful now, and even though I have IB, I'm not afraid to use the cancel feature if it doesn't feel right.

Sorry this happened, and thanks for the detailed info to other hosts.

[Anthony116]

I've had this issue early on when I first started hosting and now in the house manual its emphatically states "only registered guests are allowed in the property "

if they want to have visitors they must first be registered 

[Andrea9]

@Jeff69

Here's another host's horror story. Good thing he had security cameras but wasn't happy with how ABB handled it.

It's scary how quickly crooks find the cracks in any system.

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/6-400-THEFT-NO-RESPONSE-FROM-AIRBNB-AIRBNB-HOSTS-DID-SOMETHING...

[Sara2]

I read yesterday that a host was delisted and one reason was we are not supposed to have cctv ?

[Marit-Anne0]

@Sara2

In some countries cctv is illegal for private use.  

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Thanks

[Johanna53]

Hi Jeff

Many thanks for taking the time to describe your experience. This may be helpful- for my instant bookings as a safety measure I request 2 five star reviews also and then I have the benefit of the Airbnb community's experience.  I hope this is helpful

Johanna

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

bonjour,

One more reason not to accept last minute reservations, they are used by CB fraudsters and CB robbers.

The real CB holder has not enough time to cancel his stolen CB before the reservation is done and Airbnb has less time to check that CB is valid.

If you have a booking a week before, it gives time to the real holder to cancel the card and declare the fraud and for Airbnb to cancel the fraud booking before the 'guest' arrive.

[Amy38]

There is an option under our cancellation tab which asks reason. "Guest makes me uncomfortable" is accepted by Abnb with no penalty for you.  Or so I have read.

[Momi0]

@Amy38  Its 100% true.  I have used that option twice since Aug 2015.  If someone has time to write a message to request my home, then they should have adequate time to respond to my questions about their stay. If I dont' get a reply within 24 hours, I will call ABB. I have no problem doing that.  Its a red flag for me that they may not be a respectful guests....especially since my listing is very clear that I require EVERY guests to share certain things with me about themelves and  about their stay IN OUR HOME.  Most recently, I cancelled a guests IB who's FIRST and ONLY message was...."I check out of your house on 11/23 and need help from you to plan my trip."    (she never wrote back after I wrote her twice)  smh and laughing 

[Amy38]

This is off point but 20 likes will get Abnb to actually read the complaint about our listing description. Please read and like.

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/We-want-our-home-descriptions-back/idc-p/263422#M5614

@Momi0@Jeff69@AnnMarie3@Timothy25@. I dont mean to be spammy, but I think we are all distressed at this new move.

[Cristina-And-Daniel0]

@Jeff69 How did someone like this get approved by IB? I was hesitant to turn on IB but have had it now for 2 months and nothing but great success. All my guests are true and verified through IB so I imagined you overlooked your criteria. You need to check off the box that guests "must have positive reviews" in order to IB.

[Jeff69]

Thanks for the input.  I too have had great success with IB until recently. About 50% of my guests are first time Airbnb members so to require prior reviews would limit my guests.  And I don't think a few bad apples should ruin the others.  My fix was to require Names and ID of all guests.  Because of CC FRAUD I would also like to require the guest to provide the credit card by which they booked, but unfortunately that info is not shared by Airbnb.

I still instant book my primary residence, but removed IB from the rental houses.  I want / need to control who comes and goes from the locations where I do not live. Thanks for the input Jeff

[Susan285]

Hi Jeff,

since you give great and promt advise I have a question regarding IB.

I had IB switched off until ABB started ONLY showing IB properties to travellers on their map - unless they would remember to cross out the filter "IB", then they would see all ABB properties. Now I switched back to IB and request that instant bookers are reviewed/recommended by other hosts AND request (after your post) also government verified. The latter is a bit of a hassle BUT at the end I do not care so much about that document. It helps me to be back on the ABB MAP with my listings AND to have conversation with my guest again, right?! Can you confirm that "trick"?

BTW, in Italy a host has now by law to collect lots of oersonal data from ALL guests (even children) and provide the data to the Police (Questura) within 24h after check-in - like every hotel does. So we take a photo of the ID or passport, because it would take too long to write all down. I am really happy that this is officially requested and I do not have to appologize for that. I feel much safer since we do that.

Thank you

susan

[Denice8]

my guy's fake profile had positive reviews.  There is fake everything these days, even phone numbers.