On a phone so can’t link
Have a look at Rosslyn in Grafton NSW.
I think you will understand
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Wow! Just wow! What an awesome place! I guess from now on I will see that as your place.
Mine is the humble “jamjerrupsunset” by comparison.
@faheem
I am in the midst of a similar problem, but since we are IB, the guest had already booked. He is new as of Jan 2018 with no reviews and his picture was borderline inappropriate - looked like a boudoir shot of him hovering over a girl for an impassioned kiss - WTH are some people thinking? He also ignored the booking request for arrival time, reason for being in the area, and name of the other person on the reservation. I wrote back that he needed to change his picture so we could recognize him upon arrival and that he needed to provide the other missing information in order for us to honor his booking. He uploaded an acceptable picture but never responded to the other info. His one night visit is in 13 days. I figure I’ll ask him one more time and if he doesn’t respond I’ll call AirBnB to ask them to cancel as I’m not comfortable having someone staying in my home who won’t comply with simple booking requests. Not sure how AirBnB will respond, though. Would this count against me as a cancellation?
Maybe the bed was too soft 
.
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Don’t accept this guy. You’re 'personal alarm" went off with non-responses, and other things. Listen to that inner alarm. Don’t accept this person.
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I think Airbnb will probably require some evidence that the guest behaving inappropriately. Does ignoring requests for basic information qualify? I’d be interested to see how they respond. Please keep us posted.
Hi @KenH,
Thanks for your concern. But, it’s too late, because I already accepted his request.
And he did eventually respond to all my questions, even though in a very piecemeal manner. Except he didn’t tell me what work he does (or did). Just that he’s retired and a pensioner. But that doesn’t really qualify as necessary information, just something I ask for when I’m on the fence. But he’s not the first person to not answer that question.
My guess is that he’s harmless, just (perhaps) old and confused. One of his later messages was as follows:
Please do let me know what else I should do to get everything done and to confirm my booking. I am still new with working with the mobile phone and laptop so please excuse me if I do not reply in time. I really need to get my booking done so that I can hand in my visa. I would really appreciate all the assistance you can give me.
It’s just hard to make decisions about someone on the other side of the world with a deadline in hand. He was quite slow to respond to my initial response, and the 24 hour deadline ran out just now. And I’m reluctant to reject people without any actual reason, and in this case there wasn’t really a solid one. Unfortunately I don’t have supernatural powers of intuition about people, otherwise I suppose I would be very rich.
Let’s just hope he won’t be a lot of work.
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Frankly, he sounds fine to me, just a bit inexperienced.
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No one does, the just think they do. I believe it’s called confirmation bias. Jam has offered explanations about phones and “Africa” and it bears keeping in mind that Africa is a continent, not a country and its populations and cultures are varied. It seems like 99% of the time when I fret and speculate in advance about my guests it’s a waste of time because they are fine. The other 1% of the time I couldn’t have really done anything about it despite the “red flags” or “intuition.”
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He’s definitely subpar at comprehending plain English text and responding appropriately. How much of an issue that will be in the context of hosting is not clear. A not insignificant proportion of my guests aren’t particularly great at responding sensibly to stuff. Though maybe my expectations are too high.
We all have high expectations but are often affected by reality.
I had a guest recently who had no photo at any point in the process.
Yes, all my problem guests have caught me unawares. But that’s typical - much of the time, bad things (including some really bad things) have caught me completely by surprise - I never saw them coming. Though in some cases, in hindsight, maybe I should.
Should what? Fret about things not under your control?
It is a Japanese bed so a bit hard. Maybe he got splinters doing it on the floor instead!!!
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What is it they say: “Expect the best and prepare for the worst”.
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Have you considered doing stand up comedy as a side job?
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No - should have seen (some) bad things coming. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.
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I’ve not read the entire thread but this made me laugh so much. I have been having similar thoughts recently. I have posted many times on here about how I gave up screening guests and trying to “be comfortable” with their reasons for staying at my place. It’s really none of our business why guests want to stay, don’t you think? It’s nice if they tell us but surely all we want is polite, clean guests who follow house rules. And no matter what they say in their messages, it is no guarantee of anything at all. Sometimes the monosyllabic messaging guests turn out to be great.
edit while catching up I also think it’s none of our business what somebody does for a living. Nice if they tell us but it could all be a big fat lie anyway! Plus I don’t like to define someone by their job.
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Hmmmm … the working girl who rented my house… what do you think the response to her attempting to rent a house?