Pattern of sketchy activity

[Yvette401]

I've recently become a co-host helping a busy professional improve his results on AirBnB. I've quickly noticed a disturbing pattern and I don't know how to change it. 

We have received several instant bookings from groups of men or single men who book on the day of or only one day before. They either have no profile picture and few to no reviews or only a few, yet favorable reviews. After the first couple of times it happened, I changed the setting to require a profile picture, but other strange similarities occur. If it happened only once, I'd chalk it up to being too suspicious on my part but again it seems to be a repeating pattern. Here is the pattern of concerning issues:
Instant booking for day of or next day
No to few reviews
No profile pic (fixed that) OR
the guest who shows up looks nothing like the guest who booked
They book for only one person but often show up with two or more additional guests
They are from the local area or have only rented AirBnBs in the local area
They arrive but leave the unit repeatedly around midnight and don't return until the early morning hours
They exhibit varied suspicious behavior (too many small strange things to explain here)

When booking, they give some random story that seems made up and doesn't pan out when they arrive. Latest example: guy wants to book and says his wife fell in love with our place, then when he shows up, there is no wife. 
There's no one thing I can put my finger on to say, "aha, something's rotten in Denmark," but it has happened enough now to make me very leery. My mind keeps wondering if these groups of men are somehow connecting and passing our listing around to each other as a place to hang and do whatever sketchy thing it is they are up to. 

Has anyone else had this experience?

[Patricia2526]

Hi @Yvette401 

Yeah, we get this a lot too bookings that show just 1 guest, even though our place can host up to 7 people. As soon as the booking comes in, we message right away to double-check if it’s really just for one or if there are more staying. We let them know that we need a guest authorization form with all the names listed (it’s already mentioned in our description, “Things to Note,” and House Rules). If it turns out they’re bringing more people, they just update their booking to match.

For us it’s a bit easier to manage since everyone has to pass through our building security before getting in, so the actual headcount is always verified anyway.

[Yvette401]

Patricia,
thanks for your reply. You mentioned an authorization form, is that something you created yourself or is this something you get from AirBnB?

[Joan2709]

@Yvette401 

My suggestion is to turn OFF Instant Book and don't accept same day bookings. That should reduce a lot of the issues you are mentioning.

The only way to totally eliminate the issues is to let the booking guest know that a photo ID that matches the profile photo of the person booking will be required to be shown at check-in. This only works if the Host lives on property, or nearby, or for remote Hosts if they employ someone to do this on their behalf. You can also require that all guests staying must be listed on the reservation by name (have an Airbnb profile).