How do you deal with questionable enquiries?‌‌

[Quincy]

Hello all,

Today, I would like to share one of the most reported cases on communication and fraud. There are sometimes guests who make enquiries to negotiate "off platform prices" or try to book a space for someone other than themselves. I’ve noticed that there’s an increase of said requests especially during the holiday and festive periods. 

Do you have experience with such enquiries? If so, do you have any advice for responding to such messages?

I look forward to hearing your answers. 

Quincy

[Lorri7]

@Quincy @ Celita4. I agree with all guests being registered.  I'd like to see the option become mandatory.  I am currently moving to that requirement as part of my booking process.  It is a bit more time consuming but I want equal responsibility amongst my guests, or at least the appearance of equal responsibility.  It's also important to note that this requirement seems to be necessary for my larger properties and not so necessary for the studios.  I have a hard time reconciling how a family get together consistently has 13 to 16 adults for the minimum 3 night stay on holiday weekends.  I prefer the guest makeup consist of 2 to 6 adults with 4 to 7 children.  Most of my efforts are trying to appeal to that type booking.  

All said, it would be much easier to accomplish the guest registrations for the entire party if there was an option to require it on the platform.  As it stands, my guests have to provide me with government issued ID's outside of the app and hopefully prior to the 24 hour deadline.  And as there can be no exchange of email addresses or phone numbers prior to acceptance of guest, the task is difficult.

[Lorri7]

@Celita4 I now require it for most parties of 8+ adults.  I actually require copies of all adult guest's government issued ID's and try to get the documents prior to accepting the reservation.  This is for a 5B 5B home on an island is South Carolina where I find guests who are renting for 3 days for a party celebrating just about anything.  In most of these cases that got by me I found the guests didn't care about the home at all.   They were almost exclusively locals from the nearby mainland and they obviously have gotten away with it before with no repercussions.  I'm hoping the change in my registration process will stop the insanity and the damages left in their wake.  Good Luck!

[Kunle5]

This is so true! It will be so nice if Airbnb can enable a feature during the booking process such that all guest(s) can be registered on their portal (app/website). I think Airbnb already has a tool such that multiple people can be included in a booking, but this is separate from that, in that it can focus more on the guest checking-in kind of like you will see at a hotel. Just my thought

[Nancy1437]

100% agree! Every guest's name needs to be on the reservation. I also learned early on that the most problematic guests ask for the most before they even arrive or book.  Red flags for sure. The price is cut and dry and the booking are done through Airbnb. Period.

[Deborah1021]

Where do you enter the additional guests names?

[Laura3217]

Good question- would like to see all names in the party more on all reservations. 

[Terri263]

It would be great to see names and ages, especially if it is children. Our home is on the river, its hard not be concerned when young children come to stay.

[Jen260]

I recall years ago that when I booked on Airbnb for my sisters and me, I was required to add all of their names. But since I have been a host myself, I have not seen an option to add all the guest's names. I have even asked "support" if this is an option but so far it is not. If I get a guest that lists more than themselves as guests I ask that they forward a picture of a valid government ID before arrival date. I have not had anyone refuse.

[Kristine-Mae0]

Hi, Jen.

We also do this for in our property.  Once the booking is confirmed, we asks our guests to submit photos of their valid IDs, like all guests who'll be staying in the unit, will have to do this. Most often than not, this is not a big deal. However, there are guests who'd say they've already submitted their IDs to Airbnb for verification. We politely tell them that we, as hosts, don't have access to that information, and we only need this for security and identity-purposes. 

[Deborah1021]

How do they submit the photo of their ID? Do they attach as a photo in the text thread for their reservation?

[Lorri7]

@Deborah1021 

I have them submitted to my email address and they are sent as attachments.  It's quite difficult to do prior to accepting the booking as exchange of info is sanitized but there are ways to get them your email.  I need their info prior to accepting the booking so I don't get gigged if it needs to be cancelled because of the group make-up or poor reviews for the other guests.

AIRBNB needs to have this exchange of information go through the platform but....

[Daniela1190]

You can request the guest to share the reservation with the group.  After they accept you will be able to see in the guest tab their names and profile.

[Michelle2532]

How do you do that?

I've had people book, they tell me their name, and it might be a couple. Then when the booking is confirmed there's a family. I don't mind that, however, why isn't it stipulated when they book?

[Deborah1021]

So does this give me access then to read reviews for the other guests if they have their own profile?

[Daniela1190]

@Deborah1021

I used this option once and none of the group had reviews since they were all new to the platform.  But once you click in the name you see exactly the same information as you see from the person who is booking. (Profile)

It was helpful because I could see that the whole group were young students that wanted to party and I was able to reject the reservation as it was against my rules.