Guest request to "See Place" before booking

My experience is that a guest cannot send a Request to Book until they have fulfilled my three requirements. They CAN Inquire, but cannot Request to Book.

I’m fairly certain that’s how it should work, and does for me. I’ve been a host for 4 years, with several hundred guests. This has been my experience. Guests are unable to Request To Book if they don’t have verified ID.

@muddy I am on IB with the strictest possible settings. When someone is not ID verified, or is a new user, it comes to me as ‘request to book’.

I then make sure they’ve read my rules and say so in writing, give the required trip info, confirm the number/ages/species in the party and accept, unless not ID verified. If not ID verified I tell them I will approve them when they get that done.

Edit: Screenshot of a request to book from a brand new guest who had just created the profile in order to book, therefore could not IB. It came through as a RtB, they always do. Inquiries look totally different…and never have turned into bookings for me.

Thank you all for taking time to offer advice and suggestions about my concern, its been very helpful. Another six months of hosting, learning and an occasional stumble I should master this or maybe not lol.

Much appreciated!

LD

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I was referring to AirBnB covering anything.

@LDVH, keep in mind that you can and should use Airbnb as the heavy if that works for you in situations like this. People like Paul/Scott will sometimes keep badgering for their third-party booking or their pre-visit tour if they think it is just you saying no. “I’m afraid Airbnb doesn’t allow that” or “Airbnb is not set up for that” is my go-to. I’ve had a lot of it in the last week.

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I have a random question that you might know the answer to. If I am on IB but a guest sends and inquiry but they don’t meet my criteria for IB (govt. Id) and I pre-approve them does this override my Govt. ID request or are they still required to have that as part of their verification? (I don’t pre-approve guest without it because I wasn’t sure.)

Yes, if you approve them anyway without the ID, then you have waived that requirement for that particular reservation. I have never had any problem telling the guest that I will approve the reservation once they complete ID verification with Air (and I send them a help link from Airbnb support, to try to make it as easy as I can for them). They always want to stay, so they just do it.

I did have one disappear on me on VRBO once I asked for the ID. Evidently he didn’t read my rules and didn’t want to ID himself (and in which case, I didn’t want him in my house). The only one who ever ghosted.

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