Just received an inquiry for next week that I have some “red flags” regarding. It is for a new grandfather who is coming from out of town to visit his daughter and new granddaughter. His daughter lives 40 minutes from us, his granddaughter is 5 months old. His daughter will not be with him on his stay, just his 5 month old granddaughter. the last/second day of his proposed booking he will be flying out of Atlanta very early. Am I reading too much into it? Does this seem strange to anyone else?
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It sounds suspicious, but only because you stress that the daughter is 40 minutes away. Is this normal for your location? Are their available rooms closer to the daughter? If not, then it makes sense to be further away.
IDK, if my daughter said “Mom, come stay nearby and take the kid so I can rest,” I might look for this type of situation.
Is the baby staying overnight?
Yes, the baby is staying overnight, and we live in the greater Altanta area so there are literally hundreds of other Airbnb locations he will be driving by to get to ours. And as a guy, even I think that if this was grandma i would feel better about it. The flying out “very early” on the morning of his last day also concerns me. He wanted to know how far we are from the Atlanta airport, yet knew how far we are from his daughters house.
Do you have the Chrome extension to read his reviews and get his full name?
Ask for his daughter’s contact info - full name, address 40 minutes away, etc. If he supplies it and it checks out on social media, LinkedIn, whitepages, etc. then it may be OK. But an early flight with a sleepover with an infant is concerning.
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We do have the Chrome extension, but he has no reviews and just opened an account with Airbnb - probably this morning. I thought about asking for his daughter’s contact info., etc…but realized i would have no way of knowing if she was actually his daughter. I don’t know - just have a weird feeling about this one.
One of the reasons I love Instant Book is so I don’t have to think about these kinds of things. It’s not a typical booking but I don’t see the red flags per se.
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My biggest “flag” here is that grandpa probably doesn’t know Atlanta very well and may not realize that he booked something so far away from the daughter and grand-daughter. I would verify with him that he understands that your listing is 40 min away from where he says the daughter is.
Assuming that everything is legit, you still don’t want a guest arriving to find out that they are that far away, if that is not what they intended.
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I agree, nothing worse than a guest arriving only to find out they are too far from where they wanted to be…resulting in bad trip for them and bad location review for host. in this case, he is the one who told us we are 40 min. from his daughters house.
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What about saying “what is it about my listing that made you choose it?” In a positive way, not an accusatory way…LOL.
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yes, it seems very odd. Why a mother would leave her 5 month old baby with a man, be it the grandfather? I wouldn’t have trusted my dad to take care of my son when he was 5 month old! And where would she, the mother be? On vacation? Does the grandfather know how to change a diaper or bathe and feed the baby? prepare a bottle? This is the most ridiculous request I ever heard of. What if something happens to the baby and they blame you? And what happens to the baby when the grandfather leaves very early? Will the baby be picked up earlier or would he leave him at your house?
I would ask a ton of more questions, but if it were me I’d reject quite flat. If it was the grandmother I’d have accepted after pointing out there are closer locations to the daughter’s place! Let alone the 40 min apart thing.
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This is very valid. Even though there are maps on AirBnB, people don’t read…
Sounds fine to me. But I use Instant Book and also, I’m weird. 
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And even people who read can be really awful at maps, it constantly amazes me 
I don’t try to be Nancy Drew.
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Wow, what a bunch of presumptive, discriminatory attitudes. Of course many men have had plenty of experience changing diapers, bathing, and looking after babies. It’s not exactly rocket science. There’s nothing at all odd or suspicious or ridiculous about any of this. Sounds like mom wants or needs a break and grandpa (who for all anyone knows may be 40 years old, not some old geezer) wants to bond with his grandchild.
It doesn’t appear that the host even asked why this guy wanted to book a place 40 minutes away from where his daughter lives, but there may be a a quite reasonable explanation.
I can’t believe the responses to this nor do I see any red flags, just some unanswered questions.
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WTF ? Men are not capable of taking care of babies? Tell my two daughters that who are being raised by their two dads.
What a ridiculous thing to say, does he know how to change a diaper and prepare a bottle? You cannot be serious.
RR
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I know I am really slow but… what is the concern? Are you afraid that he is going to be bringing a baby that isn’t really his granddaughter? Are you worried that he doesn’t know how to care for an infant? Or, are you worried about the worst case scenario; that he may ask you to babysit.
Whatever. If it was something bizarre, even a semi-smart person would just book a Motel 6.
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As an fyi on how the forum is set up you replied to user “muddy.” You meant to reply to the original poster (OP), “Hampton.”
It’s possible he’s coming to spend a late evening bonding with his grandchild while his daughter has a night out some where near your Airbnb.
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Dear dads kudos to you. I come from another culture, Eastern Europe block and I grew up with roles well defined and assigned to genders.
I am open and I admire all of you here for really breaking up the role barrier. This is me. This is ingrained in my being, and while many of you men might be very skilled at taking care of a baby, my dad wasn’t. Actually none of my male relatives were. Not even my ex husband or my ex father in law. But you can’t generalize that because many men in America are good with this ALL men in America are good with this. There’s no such rule. So, from my cultural background and my experience and given all the facts we are given I would say NO, just because I don’t know who this guy is and if he’s good with babies and if he’s not god forbid for an accident to happen. No, I’d deny upfront. The thing is you can’t call to get a sense of who they are until they book. And it might be too late.
I invite all hosts from the former Soviet block to tell us what they would do.
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