spam inquiries

[Joe16]

We have been getting repetitive inquiries for our listings that feel like spam or phishing;  about 20 in the last three months or so.  Typically they are not hard to spot;  it's a new person every time but coming from the same country.  They have a verified identity, but are always brand new to airbnb, have no reviews, and provide no profile information.  They tend to apply for our various listings with  inquires about solid periods, like one month or two months.  Usually they ask a single one-line question, like "can I use the kitchen?" or "can I book the date that I choose?".  At first we engaged with them and found that they seemed to have a hard time understanding us but wanted us to send more pictures and videos of the property.  We began to routinely say that we could not rent to them, and later on we'd often see that their message had been "hidden" by airbnb because "the sender no longer has access to airbnb".  Now we find them trying a little harder.  We're getting requests with more Americanized names and with profile information provided.  Still no substantive history but sometimes they keep asking after we've said no,  so that we have to use an inquiry denial.  We're on the alert but it's concerning because we are required to respond to every inquiry promptly, of course, and we would rather not have to develop a record of denials for these attempts.  Is anyone else having this kind of experience?

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Hi @Joe16,

These are definitely scams.  I wrote about these which you can read here: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help-with-your-business/SCAM-ALERT-Host-s-Beware-Common-Scam-Tar...

Happy hosting!

[Joe16]

Thank you, this is very helpful.

[Joelle43]

Hello @Joe16 

So many hosts experiencing this problem at the moment😡 but if you receive these requests through an inquiry, you do not actually have to hit the deny button.  Your only obligation is to reply within 24 hours and only the first response is taken into account by Airbnb to maintain your response time.  You'll get reminders to pre-approve, accept or refuse but you can ignore these in fact.  Not so if it's a request to book however.    

If you want to read more on the subject, there's a guide on the subject;

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Guides/GUIDE-Handling-Enquiries-and-Bookings/td-p/1895...

All the best
Joëlle

[Trude0]

@Joelle43 I think you can also report the guest to Airbnb - after responding to the first message, of course (to keep your response rate high)?

I think I’ve done this once or twice over my 5-6 years of hosting, when the «guest» did not give up after my first response. Nowadays I never get scam enquiries, though. I guess scammers focus on new hosts (expecting them to be inexperienced) and hosts that have not been booked in a long time (expecting them to be desperate).

 

[Joelle43]

Yes absolutely @Trude0 - always a good idea to report these profils to Airbnb. Hopefully they get banned too!! But there does seem to be a worrying trend here and I would have hoped that with AI - hosts would receive less rather than more of these type of enquiries. 

Horrible that they generally target new and vulnerable hosts. I know I was targeted when I first came on the platform too

[Anthony1460]

I've had a couple of these in the last few months, and one in the last 24 hours.  Exactly the tell-tale signs which you list, and when I ask for even a little more basic info, rude replies.  Time-confusing, frustrating, and lends an unnecessary tinge of suspicion which inevitably spills over into the genuine enquiries.  I wonder then how this impacts first-time users of Airbnb, where they have no review history.  

But thanks for sharing, awareness is vital.