I got a request from a guest who, it looks like, just joined airbnb a few days ago. She doesn’t have any reviews and has only phone & email verified. I can’t find much about her online either based on her first/last name. I would like to ask for some more background info (other than the stated purpose of her stay: road trip) so I feel more comfortable hosting her. How would you approach this?
I would just let them stay. But I just see it as everyone that comes is a stranger. Even with good reviews they could turn out to be something different.
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why not just ask?
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I could ask, but not sure how to phrase it. What I’m trying to find out is: will she be respectful of the place and quiet. Usually, I can tell by looking at people’s FB profiles (or reading other reviews) if they’d be a good fit for our place…
amen to that, bro - sometimes the people I connect with the most ahead of time are the ones I’m most happy to see checking-out. Now always, but, you just don’t know until they walk through your door - like a blind date, right? Your friend can tell you all about how lovely a guy he is, but when he shows up, all that pre-date info matters not at all.
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“Since you’re new to AIRBNB and don’t have any reviews yet, could you tell me a little more about yourself and your road trip?”
I think it’s a good educational opportunity. Let her know reviews matter and future hosts may judge her based on them.
If she balks, that’s probably a bad sign. It means she doesn’t understand that AIRBNB is a two-way street.
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You’re over-thinking, @rain. Just say what you want to say - this is a hugely important quality for a successful host.
"Hi guest! Thanks for asking about my property! We look forward to meeting you!
Since we will be sharing our home with you, we’d like to know a bit more about you before you arrive. You can check our airbnb profile and see the kind of information that is helpful for hosts to have. Please write back and tell us a bit about who you are and more about the purpose of your trip. Who’s traveling with you? etc"
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Newbies sometimes forget that they are also under the microscope and their actions will be reviewed as well. Good to let them know when they inquire; they can realize early on that you’re not a hotel…
Some of the questions I ask: Could you tell me a little about yourselves; have you ever been to this locale; ever stayed in a VR; have friends or family in the area…stuff like that.
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Are you renting out a whole space or will she will staying with you? How many are on the reservation and does she say it will only be her?
Thanks for your help. I asked her the basic info as suggested by @dcmooney and @Garden1Gnome. She replied back with a very friendly message. She was actually one of our best guests so far!
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This has happened soooo many times - I get bothered and anxious because of some lack of communication or other quirk, then the guest comes through splendidly.
Happy ti worked out for you!!
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I realize this is an old posting, but we just ran into this very issue and it did not go well. I’ll leave it at that for now. This occurred on January 2nd and her account was established in January 2019. After her stay and a less than stellar review she deleted her photo and changed the name of the account. That prompted me to ask AirBnB if there is any preventive measures in place to prevent new guests from opening new accounts, always appearing to be new guests and freed from poor reviews. I was shocked that the representative said that there is nothing to prevent this. Is that true? If so, I would be very skeptical of new guests; particularly less than a month old.
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I don’t know if that’s true. Apparently they did it so I guess it is. Airbnb doesn’t care about that anyway. They got their money and it’s not their property at risk.
However, I’ve had many guests who just joined and have no reviews (probably 200 at this point) and haven’t had issues. All my issues, minor issues at that, have been with guests that have prior okay reviews.
I always ask for verification.