How do I tell if guests are real or trying to scam us?

[Nicolette62]

I’ve just listed some rooms in our home and have had two booking requests so far. Each of them were from people who just recently joined Airbnb in 2023 and either provided almost no details or way too many details.

The second booking request in particular has me concerned. The grammar and spelling is bad, and his English is odd to me. 

I know that sometimes there’s auto correct errors, and people don’t always use punctuation correctly,  but mentioning his annual income? I’m not sure, I don’t want to turn real people who need a place down, but how do I know if they are real?

This is the message: 

is it available I just moved here from Michigan its me my wife and my 2 infants don't worry tho I have pack and plays that Thay sleep in were in the process of finding a house in mean Tim looking for a room to rent till then have steady income I own a marketing firm in Michigan make 100k year

[Pat271 · Accepted solution]

This looks like they are using voice messaging to text you. Annoying, but quite common these days, and doesn’t necessarily mean anything nefarious.

If it were me, I would ask them more questions. Ages of children for child-proofing purposes, the city they are traveling from, etc. Just to get a better feel for them, their communication style, and their timeliness of responding, to increase the possibility of it being a good fit. This interchange, IMO, is actually more important than the actual answers to the questions.

Having said that, I agree there are some red flags here:

1) For when is the booking? If it’s soon, I would be cautious, as sometimes people get evicted and are trying to find another place quickly. 

2) For how long is the requested booking? This looks to me to be open ended “until they find a house”. If it’s longer than 28 days, definitely fill out and have them sign a state-specific rental contract, and run credit and criminal checks, just as you would a long-term tenant.