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!
I received a booking request late last night from a person who is coming to town for work. Communication seemed good and the booking starts a week from now, so I accepted it. This morning, hours after accepting the reservation, I got a message asking me to modify the reservation to start today. Doesn’t it seem strange that his plans suddenly changed overnight and now he has no place to stay tonight or for the rest of the week? Am I reading too much into this? Could he trying to get tenant rights by gradually adding more days? He’s an international guest—could he trying to gain residency by using my address?
I’ve gotten a lot of locals who are in between apartments or using AirBnB when they move to town while they find a permanent place to rent. I find that they often stay in the house all day and don’t seem to leave much to go look for an apartment.
Maybe I’m too much of a planner, but it seems irresponsible or flaky to book a week from now and then change his mind hours later and not even have a place to stay the same day. I require one day notice so would have to let him show up tomorrow, but am just wondering if this communication is anything to be concerned about. If the original request had been for all the days, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. It’s just odd now that there’s a request to modify.
Yes, I think I’m probably over-worrying. I know guests don’t plan ahead and I’m used to bookings with only a few days notice. Total booking would be 16 days, so he’d need to extend another 12 days to get tenants rights.
It could be the place they planned to stay suddenly pales in comparison to yours, or they were going to move somewhere else tonight and decided to not pack and move twice.
Agree with Brian - just ask why the change of plans.
I too was puzzled about this - why didn’t you ask the guest? Also, I couldn’t understand how they could book dates before their stay - weren’t there any other guests in at all between the first date he booked and the second? Those are the only two things that sound odd - everything else seems fine.
Ok, turns out the AirBnB he’s at right now is a shared room which he didn’t know. So my hypotheses were wrong, but it looks like he just doesn’t read the listings. Hopefully he read mine.
But you also said he is international so that could be part of the issue. Look at how many times English speakers on this forum don’t understand other English speakers’ posts.
Glad to hear he has responded to your query; sounds positive. I was thinking that perhaps he was asked to start whatever work he’s doing earlier than first arranged. This has happened to Mr Joan on occasion, including his day trip from London to Toronto for a two hour meeting!
