Hi has anyone had this issue. Am I over-reacting? Would you cancel this booking for tomorrow? Sorry so long...
I had a guest enquire Tuesday night for Friday. I was dealing with the grocery order that finally turned up after it took a two day tour of Britain and was conscious of the eminent lockdown so maybe my judgement was flawed? He has been a member since 2019 and doesn't have any reviews. I accepted, because his situation didn't sound any different to any of the other people with no reviews in urgent need of temporary accommodation who have contacted me, but he actually sounded more reasonable and less pushy... Due to COVID I have had 6 other guests enquire about long term stay just this month - a huge number for me. Most don't have any reviews, and all have had a ton of questions and requirements as if they are buying the place - as well as having had other irregularities like they have animals and want to stop by first to 'discuss things' (ie they want a discount on the already bargain long-stay price). As he seemed less demanding, and the lockdown was about to start, I agreed.
SO: The booking comes through and all it has is two initials for the name! Has anyone had this and thought it was okay? The full name is never anywhere except on the paid booking confirmation in all my bookings so far, so I wasn't worried that his original message just had an first initial. (He also signed off with a first name in the inox correspondence.) Up to him if he wants to remain discreet with his public profile. I honestly didn't think this was possible to carry through a booking with just initials.
I text him in a nice way putting it down to a glitch in the system and asking him to "help me out" by asking Airbnb to fix the booking with his full name. No response. I contacted Airbnb Customer Service for the second time again this morning. I get the usual friendly, canned assurances: 'rest assured Airbnb is here to help and takes your security with utmost seriousness' etc. But I still don't have a full name on the booking. How can they take our security seriously if they haven't matched a name on his profile to the government ID they checked? I am not even sure if they have a copy of the ID at this point.
Am I just being pedantic?
The first agent I spoke to yesterday phoned me back to say he couldn't give me the guests name for privacy reasons!! And something to the effect: that he couldn't just call the guest out of the blue and ask him to change his profile to include his name. What??!
After the second customer service agent got involved and phoned the guest, the guest finally responded and messaged me their name and the other guest's name. However, this name still does not match with the name on the booking confirmation, which just has two initials. I messaged Airbnb back again asking them to at least confirm that the name the guest gave me matches what is on the supposed government ID they verified. I got the same polite response that I should rest assured that they take my security seriously. However they did not confirm that the name matched. I assume this is down to more data protection!
Like many hosts I well know that I could have their full real name (and even a copy of their passport) and they could still be a terrible or dangerous guest. I just feel like if they either aren't willing to (or cannot be bothered to) give such basic information as their full name (and have to be asked and then phoned by customer service over two days) it is worrying. It is also worrying that Airbnb verified and allowed someone to book with only giving initials.
I don't need this. I work fulltime +overtime and it is a madhouse over here with the latest lockdown. I just had a guest who stayed 3 months leave, so (although they were a nice guest) there is a large amount of cleaning to do. Brand new washer not working. Spent my two days off waiting and on the phone with the grocery store, trying to find out where my grocery delivery was and then 70% of it either didn't arrive or was changed, so I had to re-order. Spent the rest of the time dealing with this.
I am conscious that being stressed maybe has caused me to be irrational. I mean it is still a big risk to rent to people regardless.
Would you cancel?
