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

[Yakup5]

hi Quincy i am a new host. Before my first reservation, a guest texted me asking for a discount. Then he asked for my number and then he wanted to see the house. I couldn't understand its purpose. I wrote to the Airbnb support team. came to see the guest house and offered me cash payment. I did not accept. but I wanted to share this with you. thanks.

[Stephen1142]

Yes in fact I just had one last week. The questions the from guy from Nigeria asked clearly told me that he didn't read my description of what I offer. I went ahead and answered his questions anyway and never heard back from him. I even clicked on the part where you give them the option to book and 24 hours later it expired without any reply which is fine, so I wasn't preventing him from booking just clearing up his confusion. 

And I've also took a booking from someone who booked for someone else which turned out to be the most problematic guest but she left without incidents. I had another request for that and I said why don't you just create your own account and she did, she is the one that's here now. Lastly I had a guest try to convince me that he wanted to stay long time but off of Airbnb platform, I previously had read that that's not a good idea and why I'll just use the term squatters and I never had an issue he left never to be heard from again and I will never let somebody stay here off of the platform. 

[Wendy-And-Lisa0]

We state in our house rules "No third party bookings, the person booking must be the person staying". Note - airbnb DOES NOT support 3rd party bookings. We also ask the person booking to tell us about themselves and anyone joining them as well as their ETA. and, we ask them to confirm that they have read all our house rules, and require that they have a complete profile including a close up head shot. All this is in our house rules.  We meet them for check in, that has made all the difference. something else we've found useful is to have back and forth 'conversation' with the guest via the platform to make sure the communication is clear and complete and timely.

[Emmanuel711]

38 seconds ago

I allowed anyone that Airbnb deemed to be a guest. And if someone booked for someone else, it is because they trusted the other person not to destroy their Airbnb reputation.

some people have no credit card or bank account to be an Airbnb member themselves, I don’t see the problem with that if someone else booked for them.

[Marie8425]

The potential problem is if John Doe books the room on Airbnb for Jane Doe.  If Airbnb do not validate Jane Doe's identity or any criminal information then Airbnb can not offer you any support they don't know who is in your house.  Your temporary rental agreement is with John Jane didn't acknowledge the agreement o depending on your state laws if she doesn't check out, you may have to follow eviction laws to remove a non paying tenant.  Also since Aircover insurance was purchased for John Doe not Jane (they don't know about her) any damages are not insured.

That is why Airbnb says we don't support 3rd party bookings

[Emmanuel711]

Some of the guests never replied and do not want to be disturbed. They have a 24 hours window to respond. You have been blessed with quick responses from your guests. I hardly met with my guests unless they asked me to, it because they have issues with what that have already instructed in the platform. I never have a clue who stayed on my listing.

[Flo2119]

In your response, are you saying that, for example, an adult cannot book your place on behalf of a visiting parent? I’ve had that happen several times and I’m wondering if there’s something not wise about doing that. Would you respond to the person booking that (in this case) their parent has to register with airbnb?

[Emmanuel711]

I allowed anyone that Airbnb deemed to be a guest. And if someone booked for someone else, it is because they trusted the other person not to destroy their Airbnb reputation.

some people have no credit card or bank account to be an Airbnb member themselves, I don’t see the problem with that if someone else booked for them.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Flo2119 you may lose Aircover protection but we allow bookings for parents as there is no way my mother could set up her own account and verify it.

[Emmanuel711]

I never met my guests. It is not a requirement to babysit the listing physically. How can you verify these on platforms? 

[Flo2119]

thank you for replying. Do you mean to say that if someone verified by airbnb books my place for their parents (and they tell me that up front), I am losing protection if anything happens to my property while they are here?

[Marie8425]

Yes you are assuming the risk of believing it really is the parents from someone you don't know on the internet.  I fully understand request might be true  

I instruct the child book the room for themselves with the parent as their guest.  Airbnb will require an ID for the guest.  The child can submit that it isn't hard.  Airbnb does not require a bank account or credit card for a guest just a valid ID  My price is the same for two people the Airbnb charges are maybe $10 higher because insurance for two guests.  Since it is the guests situation to handle then if they aren't welling to pay $10 no I am not willing to risk paying a few thousand spending months evicting someone who never agreed to pay me anything.

[Ricki19]

how do I clarify questions I have without being charged.

[Jessica134]

When booking?

[Margaret418]

There have been a few occasions when I have felt uneasy, which I have  dealt have given me a little unease.

By asking the  enquirer/airbnb member how many people are in his/her party, and  the ages of all  the party who will be in my cottage, I can usually  suss out the wheat from the chaff!

If they show reluctance  in giving this information, then i  inform that is a condition of the Site Management Team that I  know who is in i the Cottage as  they will not be allowed on site.  This often  is very effective in  the  enquirer/airbnb member's compliance.

If I still feel uneasy I then refuse to accept the booking by stating that i felt uneasy.  it does not  happen very often, but when it does, i would prefer in future to  explain why I felt uneasy  about  the  enquiry in order to  have record as to why.

[Emmanuel711]

The platform can be hard sometimes in their reviews. Hopefully you did not get the review effect because of that and most of the time the guests are unfairly give the worst possible reviews 

[Xanthi3]

I once had an enquiry from a lady  with a common American last name. She said my apartment looked wonderful and asked if she could stay for a certain period of time (I believe a bit longer than a week, if I can remember well). First of all, I can never understand why they ask you if they can stay for certain dates, if those dates are available. Why don't they just go ahead and book instantly then? Suspicion number one.

When she arrived for check-in, she looked  a gorgeous lady - sth in the air gave away that he was a transgender guy from Taiwan somewhere. Suspicion number two (too late now), but hey, it's a free country and I don't have a problem with any kind of people.

When I signed her in and asked for her ID or passport, (I always do), she gave a passport with another name. Sign number three. But an absolutely gentle and polite person.

Half an hour after showing this lady around the house and leaving, I received a 'spamming' message on my mobile, from her number, informing that anyone interested in a different kind of sex can contact her, this cost per hour, that cost  for-I can't remember what. 

Obviously she came to town for business. I freaked out! I contacted Airbnb immediately but it took a few hours for them to deal with this unusual situation, so the time had passed and it was clear that without guidance from Airbnb I couldn't get her out and she would spend that night in my property.

So while waiting for Airbnb to contact me, I decided to play detective. I found a place to sit where I could have a clear sight of my property's entrance without been seen . Sat there for a couple of hours wondering if what I'm doing is comical or really tragic.....Saw no one coming in or out, till I felt fed up and tired as it was around midnight, and left for home. By that time, Airbnb had contacted me and I could officially deal with the situation. She was informed that she should leave for these certain reasons (I had sent a screenshot of the message from her where her mobile was clear, and unfortunately for her, she had used the same mobile she had uploaded on Airbnb platform!)

Next day she packed and I checked her out. I made no fuss, she accepted the situation and left politely, didn't even demand any money back.

When I went to clean the apartment, ( I do this myself), I found a condom on the floor, which proved all suspicions right!

That was a hell of a booking! And I ask this....How can I trust the guests profiles, if everything submitted by them that Airbnb says is required for authentication  can be actually fake? What protection do we have, in the end? I mean, why is it allowed for someone to use another name than the one written on their ID or passport, for example? I'm sure this person has now an account with another profile and  another name.

Anyway, I don't want anyone to get me wrong, Airbnb handled the situation perfectly, but since the check in was in the evening, and there had to be an investigation from them first, plus time difference, didn't allow me to get the guest out before spending the night. Wanted to prevent giving the idea to any local that my grandma's renovated house was used by me as a brothel. It's a small town. Well, I think I saved it.

[Huma0]

@Quincy 

Yes, absolutely, although it used to be very occasional. Lately, I have seen this on the rise. I am getting so many dodgy enquiries and reservation requests, ranging from guests asking to book off platform/come round for a viewing to very obvious outright scams.

I have also noticed an increase (at leat in terms of guests contacting me) of people having multiple profiles on Airbnb, some with fake names. I do report these, but Airbnb seems to do nothing about removing these bogus profiles, even in cases when CS themselves have told me to report/block the guest. There seems to be no follow through on removing these shady types from the platform.

[Miriam619]

I have only had 2 experiences that were problems 

1 is a lady booked and had a story. She was preapproved and as soon as she checked in she messaged me that she was having an allergic reaction to my rental.  I quickly told her I would refund her money and to leave.  She did.  I called Airbnb support and they didn’t charge her… she hadn’t really been at the rental very long.  I was just glad to get her gone!!! 

2 was a girl who had good reviews and I was like ok.  Needless to say she messaged me the next morning ( I had driven 2 hours away to spend the weekend with family) I woke up to her message that while they went out the rental was broken into and her wallet and the TV, Alexa were gone!  I messaged her and she wanted to resolve this matter quickly.   I asked who was with her and she just said her husband.  Well I freaked out and tried to call her.  She wouldn’t answer the phone.  Our home is next to the rental so I didn’t know if our house was broken into or vandalized as well as the rental.  I drove home very fast and called the sheriffs department to go there and do a house check.  They did just before I got home and the girl said it was a misunderstanding…. I got home took pictures of their vehicle but did not go into the rental.  My home was fine and I messaged them to go ahead and check out but no answer.  I was so upset.  I called the deputy who said he would come back out and I ask him to come assist me while I go into the rental to access the situation…when I walked in nothing was out of place and there were 4 girls in there and they were sleeping.  The girl who rented slept while the other 3 got up and said she drank too much. It was a joke !!!!  I was not ok and told them to get their stuff and go.  They were freaking out due to the deputy there. I told them their friend needed to stop drinking.  I was paid and I posted I would not host her again.  She had the nerve to message me saying “what’s up, that didn’t happen”. I told her to go one with her life and she had no idea what she had done and the situation she caused … 

so you can’t predict the situation but preapproval work as well as can be expected….

[Shandor0]

I stick to informing the guest of the facts. Airbnb policies and house rules. I suggest to other hosts not to call a group of guests a "party" The language we use translates to the guest.