This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Booked a long-term stay but kept delaying their check-in (twice).
Never actually stayed at my place. They paid to hold the booking and left the property empty for about three weeks to “honor the original booking agreement.”
Asked for a tenant verification letter to use as proof of address for government stuff. I refused to provide it and told them it can only be issued after they check in and stay.
They also mentioned that they might want to stay long-term in my country and discussed signing a local rental contract, but I told them they should actually stay first before making any agreements.
A few days after the latest agreed check-in date, they suddenly canceled, citing a medical emergency.
I documented everything in Airbnb messages and contacted support.
Has anyone else seen something like this? Could this be some kind of scam or misuse? How would you handle it or prevent issues like this in the future?
Do you have a remote accommodation or were they supposed to stay “with you” physically in the same building or on the same property?
There is so many sketchy things happening with these guests and especially since they asked for some tenant verification my first move would have been to have them send over some ID documents in order to prepare the documents - at least. This would be only one measure to test how serious they are. Any scammers would skip at this point already.
What do you mean they cancelled? How long did they book? Were they trying to get their money back? So many details missing. Difficult to advise more precisely.
I agree that there is a lack of info here to comment specifically.
Most scammers are after one thing- money. So one has to wonder what these prospective guests would have hoped to get out of their behavior.
Even if Airbnb decided to refund them, in contravention of the cancellation policy, that doesn’t gain them any money, just returns what they already spent.
It sounds to me more like they were having issues getting visas, which is probably why they asked for the address and a tenancy agreement, that the whole process was taking longer than they anticipated, hence the altering of dates.
It also seems they were attempting to establish a residence in order to stay in the US- they basically told you this.
That they cancelled for “medical emergency” is neither here nor there- they may have thought that would get them a full refund, as opposed to just saying their plans had changed.
Like others, I think that the lack of information here prevents us from offering valuable advice.
Bear in mind though that Airbnb is not the ideal place to advertise long-term rentals.
Airbnb long-term rentals avoid the usual tenant formalities such as a credit check and therefore are a good way for people who cannot rent a place ‘normally’.
It doesn’t sound like a scam, because how did the guests profit here? But when the guests started playing around changing dates, that should have been enough for the host to realise that this wasn’t a straightforward rental.
Thanks for the reply. Let me add more details here:
Both I and my bnb are based in the UK, and this is a remote Airbnb — I hire someone locally to handle key handover and cleaning.
The family said they were traveling from US. They also claimed they have the right to live in the UK (citizens or PR, I assume) and this trip was to settle down long-term with their children attending school here.
They did not provide any ID. They only listed the names of all family members and asked me to prepare a tenant verification letter and send it to their email.
They originally booked my place for about 5 months.
They kept delaying their check-in (twice) and then eventually canceled, saying there was a medical emergency.
The guests themselves requested the cancellation via Airbnb.Because I had the Firm policy for long stays, they were charged a penalty and the rest of the rent was refunded.
They didn’t ask for a refund for the three weeks of absence or for the penalty — but I’m concerned they might later try to come back and use sympathy to ask for more refunds.
I’m also worried they might try to book my place again in the future. Honestly, I don’t feel comfortable hosting them because their behavior seems very suspicious.
Thanks for your analysis — I agree it doesn’t seem like a straightforward money scam.
Just to clarify a couple of points: I’m a UK based bnb host. And they claimed to have the right to live in the UK (possibly as citizens or PR), but they never said what they would do to support themselves if they stayed long-term here (I find it hard to believe they could just live in the UK without any income, relying solely on US-based income like rent, etc.).
Also, I checked with Airbnb support — they didn’t submit any documentation regarding the supposed medical emergency, and they didn’t request a refund for the penalty or the days they never stayed.
I’ve added some additional details in one of my replies above if you want to reference them.
Still, their behavior felt unusual, and I’m mainly trying to figure out how to handle or prevent situations like this in the future.
Thanks for your reply, Jaquo. Yes, I totally understand.
From the first time they requested a long-term booking, I began to feel suspicious — it seemed unrealistic that an overseas family with no UK credit history or employer letter could just enter into a rental agreement here.
I’ve also added more details in one of my earlier replies above for your reference.
It’s not a “penalty”- it is simply how the terms of the cancellation policy work.
Thanks for the further explanation. Of course I can’t be sure that these people weren’t up to something nefarious, but it still sounds to me like they are just a bit discombobulated. And they may very well have thought it was perfectly reasonable to ask for a tenancy agreement if they were planning on renting from you for 5 months, who knows. They may have cancelled because they found other accommodation that was enough less expensive that they could justify losing a month’ worth of rent at your place. It’s all just speculation.
In any case, I wouldn’t waste any brain cells worrying about it- even if they try to claim a further refund, you can deal with that if it happens. No sense worrying about something that might very well never come to pass.
There is no way in hell I would write any sort of resident verification or whatever they call it WITHOUT having seen any form of ID as well as the person together in the same room. That’s a joke.
