Weekly spam bookings

[Jason2852]

To whom it may concern:

Is there a way to address spam bookings other than just selecting suspect spam? I am getting weekly booking attempts that are clearly spam. Most of the bookings are from china, want to book a month, have no profile picture, no booking history and no updates on their profile. The fact I am getting them this much is out of control. One here and there I understand but this is to much. 

Jason

[Rebecca]

Hi @Jason2852 👋

Thanks so much for sharing this with us here. I'm sorry that you're experiencing these spam messages. It sounds like you're doing the right thing by reporting it as spam. You can always report and block the guest messages too. 

I think our hosts @Guy991 also had a few messages like this - was there anything else that Jason could do? 

[Jason2852]

Rebecca

Thank you and thanks for connecting @Guy991 on this.

[Joan2709]

@Jason2852 

Yes...the scammers usually target new listings as they hope the Host is not experienced and will fall for the scam.

Usually after the "New" no longer appears on your listing(s), the scam inquiries generally go away (but not always).

[Guy991]

Hello @Jason2852 @Rebecca ,

Are they booking attempts or inquiries?

I used to get them every now and then, and I once asked how difficult it could be for the algorithm to identify these attempts that clearly follow a pattern. I’m sure you’re not the only one. I suspect it’s not even a real person but a bot.

If they’re inquiries, keep in mind that Airbnb still measures your response time, even to bots that read your reply and answer accordingly.

So the best thing to do is to reply promptly with something like: “No, because you’re spam.”

That way you satisfy Airbnb’s system by responding (it’s ridiculous, but in the age of AI you have to think like they do), and at the same time the spam bot will mark you as a waste of time.

It helps!

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I haven’t heard from them in months.

[Jason2852]

Thank you for this information. Hopefully as time progresses this goes away.