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Hi,
I received a booking request from a couple wanting to stay for 9 days with minimal details. They don’t have profile pic, written profile about themselves, reviews by other hosts or verified ID beyond email and phone number. They joined in July 2016 so relatively new. I wrote back asking for a bit more info about themselves and they didn’t reply in 24 hours. Consequently I had to pre-approve or decline not to lose my response rate. I pre-approved (by mistake in fact) but rather than withdrawing it I changed my reservation requirements to ‘require ID verification’ - is this something that would be applied to this couple before they booked, given that I have already pre-approved the booking?
Any advice here from people in similar situations?
ask for profile pic and ID verification - if they refuse you can always cancel reservation. I would probably cancel if they refused the basic info especially if staying in my house (room rental).
Even if your pre-approval wasn’t an accident, you should always be allowed to ask for additional info. It’s your home and you have every right to feel safe with those you allow access.
If these guests ignore your request to provide additional info, call up AirBnB and explain the situation. They’ll likely let you out of it without penalty. They’ve always been reasonable with me in these types of situations. If the first rep you get doesn’t seem to be on your side, talk to another.
I think you must mean “inquiry” rather than “booking”, seeing as pre-approve was an option. And if it is a inquiry, all you are required to do is respond. You don’t have to pre-approve or decline. So, in this case, the correct thing to do, if the guest doesn’t respond, is simply wait.
If the guest has made a booking request, then indeed you have to accept or decline. But if I understand you correctly, this isn’t the case here.
Since the guests haven’t actually booked yet, it should apply to any future booking. But Airbnb doesn’t always follow the path of common sense. In doubt, I would ask them.
IMO, the ‘require ID verification’ is fairly useless (it’s done by a machine), but it’s still worth having, because it may scare off bad people.
We had a guest from hell who booked under a fake name and his (real) father’s credit card (he is an undischarged bankrupt). You can always ask for proof of identity on arrival. Ask Airbnb for help now. Our case is notorious, Airbnb paid to change locks and for deep cleaning. We require good review & gov’t ID for instant book and are skeptical of anyone else without verified gov’t ID. Though we’ve been lucky since.
Thanks for all your replies - really helpful to get everyone’s advice. Correct faheem it was an inquiry but even though I responded by message asking them for more details the airbnb 24hr countdown still was ticking to to answer pre-approve or decline. Anyway they didn’t respond when I asked them for more details about themselves and they didn’t respond to my pre-approval. Probably because they also asked for a discount and I pre-approved @ full price. Another warning sign I guess! Thanks for sharing your experience Chelsea, sorry to hear how that went! Well, the place is available again…
Hmm. That sounds like a bug. It shouldn’t happen. I don’t see anything like this here, and I regularly get inquiries which I rarely either pre-approve or decline. In fact, I never see a timer for inquiries, period.
But I think there have been reports of such a thing happening before - on this forum. I think it would be hard to find; the information here isn’t exactly organized. Next time this happens, try (a) refreshing the page (b) logging out and back in again (c) using a different browser.
You could report it to Airbnb. Not that they’ll care.
As a general rule, you definitely want to converse with your guests (via the messaging system) before taking further action. Do some basic sanity checking. Ask them to confirm they’ve read the listing, and that they are comfortable with the house rules. That kind of thing. There’s a school of thought that says wackjobs are inherently unpredictable, but imo they can/may give warning signs in advance. But you need to pay attention.
Also, I usually ask the guest whether they want me to pre-approve beore doing so. Because there’s no point if they don’t. But that’s just me.
Hi, I wanted to add to this thread because I came looking for an answer to a similar question because this has happened to me twice now. I had an ENQUIRY today where the potential guest simply asked me a question. I have IB on for guests who are verified with government-issued ID.
I answered the guest’s questions about 4 hours ago. I have now received TWO automated emails from ABB reminding me to either pre-approve this guest or decline them. When I click on the guest, the only information they have verified with ABB is their phone number and email. So no, I am not going to send a pre-approval, which appears very forward to me anyway since all they did was ask a simple question. There is a ticking clock that is visible for this guest.
As mentioned, this happened one other time. After the guest asked his question, and I answered, he replied that he ended up booking something else and thanked me. We were finished our back and forth. Then I got a THIRD email telling me I had to either pre-approve or decline the guest. I had hours left to do so. Not wanting to know what would happen if I simply let the clock wind down, I clicked “pre-approve” and then sent the man an apology telling him I had to do this and to simply disregard it.
So, what do I do with these enquiries? Why the ticking clock to a simple question? Why do I have to pre-approve someone who isn’t fully verified and I certainly don’t want to decline them unnecessarily either. So what do I do?
Just came searching as well, as today I received an inquiry with flower profile pic, Alexa no Last Name, same city as me, no reviews, and no ID verification which I do require for IB. No message showed on my phone, but online there is a long explanation about this being someone else coming to visit Alexa. So I wrote and asked for ID verification, profile pic, and last name as well as suggested the guest make the reservation.
My question here is, if I decline, what is bad about that for me or Alexa? There is a ticking clock and I have until 5:20 tomorrow to choose one or the other.
I have allowed people to make reservations for others, especially before I knew it was against the policy. The most recent time, the person cancelled because their guest found their own place. The first time, my very first guests, they had not seen the profile so they got confused and it took forever to get over those 4 stars that came out of their confusion. (Although it caused me to make quite a few signs which was useful)
This is a complication I aim to understand better as it is basically risk management.
Thank you for all you share here! It is so helpful.
Sheila
If I understand you correctly, this is a third party booking so you can decline, but we (hosts) seem to be grappling with new parameters on “declines”. I think in these circumstances I would call Air, tell them this is a third party booking, poor communication, with dodgy ID etc, and ask them to cancel.
I went ahead and declined. After asking Alexa (who is entirely anonymous and trying to rent for another different anonymous person) to conform to ID requirements all around, Alexa wrote me back that Alexa has paid so could I please approve, and said Alexa would reveal identities after the reservation is booked. This feels preposterous although I suppose a newby could be as nervous as a crook about revealing identity?
This is my first decline so we will see. I will let you know if anything regarding new parameters comes to pass.
This sounds remarkably like a booked guest in March + her 3. mates. Her photo was a small dog, very cagey about ID, then wanted to bring her cat, then disclosed by accident three hours after she was due to check-in that she was not coming, but her mates were; they were on the train, nearly here, about to get in a taxi, she’d sent them my address and phone number. Whilst Mr Joan dealt with her messages so I could call Aibnb, her mate calls me and pretends to be the original guest. It was one of the funniest conversations I’ve had in a while, with Airbnb CS listening in. Cancelled amidst much laughter our end, outrage her end at being foiled. We did wonder what the motivation might have been.
@SheilaS - in the future, if it just an inquiry, you do NOT have to pre-approve or decline. You can just tell the guest “no” in the message, or ask them for clarification, etc.
For inquiries you do not have to preapprove or decline. Acceptance is not an option for inquiries. You need to be clear whether it is an inquiry or a booking request. These are two very different things. The second means the guest contacting you is serious about booking; the first means very little - it’s essentially just a text message. Airbnb tries to get hosts to preapprove inquiries because (I suppose) they think that makes a booking more likely, and that is their top priority. However, you rarely want to preapprove. You want to vet the guest first.
I have this copy in the profile and as an email, part of it kindly provided by an AirBnB rep. If the potential guest’s question is simple, like ‘can we check in at 2am and not pay for that night’ I answer the question at this stage. I found I had to decline, or keep checking for the ID to get verified by the guest which was work I did not want to take on.
If you have unverified IDs, kindly verify them first, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions or approve your reservation after your ID’s have been verified.
For now I will decline this request. Please reserve once you have verified Gov ID. Thank you! Sheila
