How should I respond to this inquiry?

Agreed. Lots of people want an early check in and late checkout. But that’s not usually the totality of their query.

Ah. Well, that’s no mystery. He wants to check in early and check out late. :slight_smile:

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He asked you a straightforward question and you blatantly ignored it and asked your own, then got irritated when he ignored your question? Tell him the times and take it from there.

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I would first answer his question in as few words as possible, and then add,

“Since you are a new user with no reviews, I would need more information about you and the purpose of your trip before I can approve you.”

That sends a message to him that you have to approve him, too. He is not the only one who has to be OK with the reservation. It also reminds him that hosts consider reviews when deciding whether to allow a guest to stay with them.

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I took this fellow as being an efficient, on the go, kind of guy, nothing more. This promises to not be a cultural enriching experience, though one never knows. One of those that if one needs the money and nothing else is happening, why not.

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Yep me too.
“give me the info I need so that I can move on to the next place if it doesn’t suit me”
No time for reading listings/House Rules or taking links to learn more about the trust based sharing community that is airbnb :smile:

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Solid advice @Garden1Gnome!

And by total weird coincidence I just got a request from some guy with a ‘Spiderman’ outfit as his picture. I am going to accept it, this one promises to be ‘interesting’. What is the worse that could happen? LoL

Well when he climbs your walls it could be messy!

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I also agree with Mearns that he is being straightforward rather than deliberately obtuse. It’s very common for Chinese guests to write very short requests particularly when their English is not fluent. He may have interpreted your question as asking for information about his travel plans not about him personally.

When I get enquiries like this, I write this: "I see that you are new to Airbnb (welcome!) as you have no reviews and no information in your profile. Please tell me a little about yourself and the purpose of your visit. I’m sure you can understand that it’s important for me to know about the people who will be staying in my home."
They mostly write back something like ‘Ha ha, sorry my English is not so good :slight_smile: !! I am student coming to see city… etc. etc.’ This guy sound a bit more no-nonsense but I don’t see any reason to be suspicious.

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This is what

My listing shows you the exact times for check-in and check-out…

Since you are a new user with no reviews, I would like more information about you and the purpose of your trip before I approve you.

He sounds a bit more ‘normal’ than my guy with the ‘Spiderman’ outfit who as @magwitch correctly pointed out, I am guaranteed to have to at least have to clean all the walls after he leaves. It is all relative.

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You could ask him to only climb the trees. :wink:

Although Australia is being a bit snarky here, this is a good point. As dcmooney has pointed out, it can be quite time consuming to wade through dozens of listings and especially if you are using the app and have limited wifi access. If I just want to make a reservation and someone wants me to tell them about myself I might just move on to the next listing.

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I picture @faheem’s guy as ‘Superman’, quick telephone-booth change, and onward on his crusade. No time for interviews. My ‘Spiderman’ is a whole different story, he is booking 2 years ahead!

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Two years? By then, he may have moved on to a WonderWoman costume.

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Hahaha. Good one. I hope by then he has made a total transition and I don’t have to have one of those new ‘trans-something’ bathrooms.

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Thanks for the extensive feedback, everyone.

Maybe I was just wasting everyone’s time here. Anyway, I’ve decided to pass on this gentleman - but at this point, he’s probably booked another room somewhere. Call it a gut instinct thing. But poor communicators are among my least favorite people in this business. And in my limited experience, people who are initially poor communicators continue to be so.

So, a couple of other points people have brought up.

If he wants to be “business-like”, then he should look for a hotel. And I expect people to at least give lip service level interest in staying at my place. Maybe it’s hypocrisy, but on balance I think makes for a smoother experience. And plenty of other people have contacted me and managed to squeeze out a couple of sentences about why they would like to stay at my place. And I don’t usually get people ignoring requests for more information.

I’m actually a little surprised that people are so casual about this.

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I can picture Spider-Man of comic book fame but he’s never appealed to me (spooky blank eyes) so I don’t know what his qualities are. (Superman was more my speed.)

Can’t imagine what type of residue he leaves on walls.

But I’m not going to guess.

Well I am more interested in Super Woman myself and maybe throw in Spider-Woman to the mix. :sunglasses: