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

[Katerina297]

Dear Nick,

thnak you for your thoughtfulness and kind wishes.

It was a day to remember. Celebration the start of the Greek Revolution. A symbol of freedom, which 200 years later we are ironically deprived of.

We extend our warmhearted thoughts to everyone and we pray that this pandemic will soon be over.

This will be a time to celebrate and commemorate all the people around the globe that fought against this common threat!

P.S. We do encourage recycling, indeed!

[Xanthi3]

Thank you, guys! This seems a good alternative for handling such a situation.

Happy anniversary of 1821 !

Xanthi

[Trude0]

I always go "by the book":

- Never accept communicating via WhatsApp, email or text, all written communication is via Airbnb, even after the booking is confirmed/the guest has checked in. I simply mention that this is what Airbnb recommends, so that this is how I prefer to work.

- Hardly ever agree to discount prices - and I hardly ever am asked to, either, so it is no big issue. I'm not dependent on the income, so I am not interested in lowering my prices beyone a certain point. I think I've allowed for a small discount for 2 bookings out of around 50 - and always via Airbnb, of course.

- Never accept someone booking for someone else. I've had a couple of guests try to book like this. One guy wanted to book for "his workers", but from a private account. I informed him it was against Airbnb's policy and that Airbnb discourages it (he seemed to not be aware of this), so that I was not able to accept the booking. 

Then there are of course the obvious scam attempts, but the ones I've gotten have been very to detect. 

[Liv]

Those are great tips, @Trude0! Thanks for sharing 😊

[Louise0]

There are two things Airbnb could do right now to reduce the incidence of fraud, increase the level of assurance for hosts and make it easier to pursue claims for damages.

Firstly, each time a guest books Airbnb should verify the phone number associated with their profile.    I've had several guests recently with old, inactive phone numbers linked to their bookings and this has created problems for me.

Secondly, every 2 years all users should be required to reverify all the contact information on their profile and send a current, clear headshot of passport quality.  The guest's full legal name and this headshot should be supplied to hosts at least 24 hours prior to arrival.  We need to know that the person coming through our front door is the person on the booking.

[Laurelle3]

Hi Quincy, I agree with @Louise0 with guest having to update their credentials every 2 years is a good idea. As, I am new at hosting since November 2020 I find that when our guest identification is Sydney NSW. Sydney is a large area and with Covid and suburbs being shut down, this made it difficult when bookings were instant bookings.

I also think that a current photo or within the 2 years is a good idea. As, l feel that you are "flying blind" meeting your guest for the first time which l do before giving them the key to the cottage that is situated behind the main residence where we live.

From the suggestions above  l  found  asking the age of the children and infants is a good idea as well asking the name of the other guest wouldbe helpful. Because after reading a previous review I have nearly said the wrong name of their male partner. 

I enjoyed reading all the suggestions for a "newby" in hosting. Thank you

[Sandra4257]

Hi Quincy, 

We joined Air BnB on 14th February 2020, had our first quests on 17th, followed by the rest of the month filling up, March also.  Then Covid 19 .....  

I agree with you regarding this subject.  We never know, unless I ask the guest who is booking, who the others in their party are.  It is useful to know if additional guests are male or female with regard to selection of duvets etc., we have some lovely floral covers which are not suitable really for males, but ladies love them.  What toiletries to supply etc.  I do insist however that guests with children let me know their ages, so I have to pre accept their booking.  I would say regarding this that I have lost a couple of bookings, one person pre-booked last week, but they sent their request at 12.24am, we were in bed so missed it until the morning. Despite sending an apology email, had no reply.

[Sarah977]

@Sandra4257  You  say one person "pre-booked" What do you mean by that? 

A guest can send either an Inquiry or a Request. Many guests send inquiries, the host answers their questions, and you never hear from them again. It has nothing to do with anything you didn't do correctly or necessarily that they didn't like the answers, or that they had to wait for a reply- they may have sent out inquiries to 20 places.

Not hearing back from an inquirer is quite common. Happens more often than not.

Don't concern yourself about it. A guest who expects an answer in the middle of the night  is probably a guest you don't want anyway. Hosts need to sleep, work, eat,  we have lives, you can't be expected to be a slave to answering every message immediately.

Other topic- hosts should really furnish in a gender-neutral way. I'm female, and I'm not partial to floral prints at all. They might be quite lovely, but not all women like flowery things or pink.

Same goes for toiletries. Just provide unisex type toiletries. You can have additional things like men's shaving cream, some emergency tampons and such for the women, and guests will avail themselves of it if they need it. I don't know any hosts who set the space up with a guest's gender in mind and some guests might find it invasive to inquire as to their gender or gender orientation. And not everyone identifies with being either male or female- there are all sorts of variations on that theme.

Asking a guest their gender could get you accused of discrimination, just as if you asked them their race.

The only circumstance where asking the gender question is acceptable is for home share hosts who specify in their listing that they only accept guests of their same gender. Some single female hosts, for instance, only accept female guests.

[Bhushan7]

Hello

Good morning

We should stay away from those tourist who ask bargains offline because they might damage or misuse your property 

[Angela569]

I did have a guest who asked on the Airbnb email for my own web site so that he could come direct to me.

I did notify Airbnb and sent this request back to Airbnb as suspicious, I was surprised  that it didn't get blocked by Airbnb.

I heard nothing more from this guest

[Christine1]

@Angela569 , 

Hi you raise a good point for discussion. 

From the description you have given the guest was enquiring about another public listing that you may have concurrent with your Airbnb listing. 

Because Airbnb understands that many hosts legitimately list on more than one booking platform, it may be that the specifics of the enquiry did not make their request eligible for sanctions. 

Airbnb are trying to secure guest bookings for hosts and make their webservice the preferred go-to platform for travellers. 

 From time to time, guests may seek to interact with Hosts in alternate ways, when this happens, Airbnb's primary concern is that we as Hosts maintain our service agreement with the company. 

If you as a Host deflect the enquiry, and continue the conversation and transactions on the Airbnb platform, that meets their expectation. 

Airbnb's hope would be for Hosts to win over guests to this platform and continue to strengthen the brand for the benefit of all. Banishing a guest for making this specific type of  enquiry would not achieve the growth they are aiming for.

I hope my reply is polite and helpful to you and others.

[Angela569]

@Christine1 

Hello Good morning,

Your reply is very helpful so thank you for that. I will know in the future how to reply and maintain my service agreement without cutting them off.

You are obviously very knowledgeable and very polite in the way you answered. 

Thank you 

[Christine1]

@Angela569 

What a sweet reply.

Thank you for taking the time to write to me, and let me know your response. 

Best Regards,

Christine 

[Elaine701]

You all should sign up for booking.com, where there is no guest vetting, no pre-booking dialogue. You are obliged to accept any booking from anyone. And there is no guest reviews. So if you think Airbnb host support is dismal, there simply is none on booking.com. 

But I know lots and lots of people who will only use booking.com.  They're extremely popular, mainly because it's so easy and literally anyone can book anything, without even verified identity. 

And without any history, any new listing gets tossed to the bottom of search results. Plus, they continually hound you to offer deep discounts to improve your search position. 

Needless to say, we long ago cancelled our listing on booking.com. 

[Pam100]

Quincy, I have given good reviews for some guests after they’ve left, only to discover later that they have damaged something or broken a house rule. So this person has 5-star reviews and can instant book with me again. If they do book again and I cancel them, I’m penalized. Is there any way to prevent an individual guest from instant booking? Other than turning instant booking off for everyone?