On occasions bookings are made by Companies on behalf of their staff/representatives/agents, etc;

also booking are made by the potential guests Relatives.

Question:  Do the ACTUAL GUEST get to know the rules?

On several occasions I have encountered instances where it is obvious the guest does not know the rules.

I have had guests asking if they can smoke and do laundry, etc when the listing clearly states 'No'.

Obviously long term guests are allowed laundry facilities, but not those booking short trips.

I think it's also important for Airbnb to stress to newbies that they need to completely fill out their profiles since this is all based on mutual trust.  The more hosts know, the more likely we are to feel comfortable having them in our homes.

Thanks, Lizzie. This is a great idea. I'd love if the message also included a request for guests to install the Airbnb app on their phone (if possible) with notifications turned on. I try to use the Airbnb platform exclusively for communication, but if a guest doesn't have the app on their phone they may not receive my messages during their stay. I then have to resort to texting or calling them directly which is not ideal. I find this to be more common with new-to Airbnb guests.

Thanks!

Melissa

I applause this great initiative, we desperately needed it!, I receive a lot of newbies and they are a lottery 50/50 chances to be good or bad. So, definitely, this will help, however, a couple of consideration:
- Are you validating that they read ALL the house's rules before to book, or just those one that Airbnb bullets?
- Millennials don't like to read, can you make a video that they HAVE to watch about house's etiquette. Maybe some funny sketches of people behaving inappropriately in other people houses.
- Expectations and reviews: We used to say at home that some of the newbies want "Champagne service with a beer budget", We rent a bedroom in our home and I'm super proud of being a Super Host with 5 stars average, from our 105 reviews, 6 of them have been 4 stars, most of them have been from newbies and all millennials. The worst was a young man who was coming from another city (same country) to my city to take a very important test. Well, he didn't know how to use Airbnb and, before to pay he insisted that I give him my phone number to text me his questions, I spend almost 2 hours trying to educate him how Airbnb works and why I wasn't able to send him my phone number.
During his stayed I explained to him how to go from home to his test location by public transportation (very far away, but he had the location address before to book); The day of the test, he fell asleep and we had to wake him up, also, the last day was his birthday, so we had for him a small birthday cake and we made a special breakfast. As soon as he arrived at his home, he texts me to my cell phone telling me how great was his experience and he wishes to come back to our place, he was with some friends just telling them how amazing we were with him.... However, he gave us 4 stars in every category (except cleaning) and 4 stars overall as well. His review says that when he arrived at home he felt awkward (we have lock box because we work full time), but he closes his review like this; "On the 21st, day of my check out I received a birthday card and a cupcake on the breakfast table. My heart just melted. I'm sure I'm gonna be back here if in the future I have to revisit Calgary again. This place is awesome!!!!"
I asked him, why the low rating; his answer: 4 in communication because I didn't give him my phone number since the beginning so it was really hard for him to finish the booking process. 4 in location, because our place was too far away to his test and in overall, it was great but not 5 stars.
I told him that he wasn't welcome anymore to come back to my place and I wished him good luck finding a 5 stars Airbnb, under his criteria with his budget... The worst part was that he not just he affected my overall rating for months but that he really made me upset after I take so much care of him.
The moral of this story is; most of the newbies, especially the youngest, need education and sensibilization, they don't understand the cost of a house (and that some cities are more expensive than others) and the effort that you put to have everything perfect for them, and accepting the house rules will help but just a little.