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I just received an instant booking of a person with 4 previous stays and no reviews. I am set up for instant booking but mistakenly thought that requiring they have a good track record meant they had previous reviews. It just means no bad reviews. Am I overreacting to asume no reviews means he's probably a bad risk? It also appears that he did not read my welcome message.
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After speaking with customer support I sent him another neutral message to which he responded. I will try giving him a chance by tactfully reminding him of key house rules, i.e. no smoking and hopefully all goes well and he can get a good first review from me.
Not having any reviews doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad risk, although it mildly suggests that previous hosts didn't write a review for some reason - and that's a small hint of a red flag. I wish Airbnb wouldn't allow a no reviews guest for instant book, but they do.
About all you can do is treat it like any other booking. Don't give them any indication otherwise, or you could set the expectation that you're going to give them a bad review, and they may start planning their retaliation early on. And they can hurt you with that.
Even if they cause you some minor pain (show up with more people, leave it messy, ruin some towels & bedsheets or break some glasses, etc), don't even mention it to them. Just thank them, wish them a pleasant journey home, and then quietly write it in your review of the guest. They will most likely write you a glowing review, even if it's out of guilt.
If for any reason this is not a good guest (again, there's nothing that says they will be a bad guest) This is really the only recourse you have without the risk of severe problems. And it's the ONE thing you wish previous hosts would have done. It would have prevented them from booking without asking first!
Good luck and happy hosting!
Hi @Kendall125 😊,
Thank you for asking this here!
What do you think of Elaine’s point of view?
Don’t hesitate to let me know if you still need more help with it.
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@Elisa I think it was a good point of view. However, because the guest is still not responding to any of my messages (2) I did contact customer support and will be waiting another 48 hours but then we'll probably go ahead and cancel the guest. I just have a very bad feeling when someone doesn't have any reviews after four stays and I can't get any responses from them when I send them messages. I will most likely stop using instant confirmation knowing that the algorithm does.not protect me from "no reviews" only from bad reviews. I still feel like most hosts would at least leave some type of review unless there was a conflict and they just decided to agree on no reviews.
Just for clarification the two messages I have sent him were 1. Welcome and 2. Request for clarification on arrival time since that was in my original booking requirement and he did not originally tell me that. It's very neutral and I don't believe it could be interpreted negatively so we will just see if he even reads the message and.possibly even responds.
After speaking with customer support I sent him another neutral message to which he responded. I will try giving him a chance by tactfully reminding him of key house rules, i.e. no smoking and hopefully all goes well and he can get a good first review from me.
Out of curiosity, did you continue with the booking and if so, how was the guest during this stay?
I did let him book but got lucky when he cancelled. I don't think it would have turned out well.