New accounts

[Rosey10]

Hi everyone! Is anyone experiencing reservation request for a long duration with guest that just recently created their accounts in the same month? Not sure if I’m a target or this is common and nothing to worry about. Last person who requested a three month stay wanted me to respond to him through what’sapp. I feel uneasy about accepting the request.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Rosey10 anything via WhatsApp is likely to be trouble. Also any stay over a month will create a tenancy in many US states so you will have to use the courts to evict based, if you use Airbnb, on no rental agreement whatsoever.

[Gillian166]

@Rosey10  yes your instincts are correct, this is dodgy. You're very new, they target new hosts usually.  and although in some countries whatsapp is a pretty common way of communicating, esp for travellers, I think requesting to communicate this way straight away is another red flag. Decline!

[Rosey10]

@Gillian166 Thank you for your feedback. Would you have any suggestions on how to decline this reservation without being dinged? Is there something I can request from the guest or say that may get them to remove their request?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Rosey10 was it a request or an inquiry. The former need you to accept or decline. The latter just requires you to respond (perhaps saying only contact needs to be via Airbnb) - Don't decline or accept inquiries.

[Rosey10]

It’s an inquiry. This guest has not requested me to contact them through any other resources at the moment but I was concerned since the stay request is around the same timeframe as that other WhatsApp request. Thank you for the information about longer stays. I think I will need to limit it less than a month to avoid that if possible. 

[Gwen386]

@Rosey10 since you are new and have only 3 reviews, now is not the time to accept LTRs. You want to build up the number of positive reviews quickly.