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I am quite new to hosting on Airbnb. I have a request from a potential guest who has not yet been reviewed, although I understand that one needs to have a first booking in order to be reviewed to begin with, I am not comfortable with renting my place to a guest who has not been reviewed.
That being the case, is there a setting on the platform which allows me to exclude my place from users that have not had reviews in order to avoid requests that I would then be declining anyways?
I used to do this too. There is no setting, I just used to have a line on my listing saying we don’t accept requests from those without reviews. I did still get some requests I had to decline, as we all know most don’t bother to read! But declining was a lot easier then as I could just hit the button and forget about it… now they make us explain to the guest, which I hate doing
Most of my guests have never been reviewed. If I excluded them, I would have half the business! And most of them have been great guests. I message with the guest a little bit and get a sense for whether I think they’ll be conscientious and a good fit.
I have Instant Book active on my listing and I have those settings to allow only guests recommended by other hosts.
How would you feel if guests set a setting to exclude any host with no reviews, or even say less than 25 or 50 reviews?
What is your qualm with first-timer guests?
Many other hosts here will endorse me when I say that first-timers are often the best guests. Guests who’ve done Airbnb for a while can start comparing you with their previous experiences and rate you down, among other issues.
You have other factors to judge a new guest’s suitability by - how nicely they introduce themselves to you (or not), how well they’ve set up their profile, including verifications etc.
I don’t have a qualm with potential guests with no reviews, its just that I would be renting my entire flat out for a whole week while I’m not in the country which I’m somewhat dubious about as the user has no reviews.
Fair point. I can recommend reading up on some of the long-standing threads on this forum where guest issues are discussed, especially the ones on guest vetting, security cameras, etc. Most problems have already been faced, raised and responded to here including yours. So happy reading!
For guests with no reviews I generally ask them to tell me more about themselves and their reason for travelling to my city. That at least gives me a little better sense of whether they are someone I am going to be comfortable with. If they aren’t really open in their response, or if I don’t get a fairly good sense that they are going to be cool, I decline.
I agree with @Astaire but I’m a live-in host so can always make sure things are ok. Renting out your space when you’re away is probably the highest risk factor so you’re right to be cautious. Whatever you do, do not tell your guests that you will be out of the country. Do you have somebody close by to check on things?
In theory this is a good approach. But honestly, you can’t ever tell in the end. The nicest, most friendly and open people during communication can end up being nightmares in reality. And vice versa.
Indeed. I co-host for someone with an entire property and there’s no way in hell I wouldn’t have solid local back-up if I was going away. No matter what their reviews are or how nice they seem - not worth it without someone nearby to keep an eye on things.
I understand being hesitant to rent to guests without reviews. However, 75% of my rentals are to new-to-airbnb guests.
I don’t live in the condo full time (vacation property) so I am not personally at risk and I have less to lose if they are scoundrels.
I spend much more time corresponding with the New-bies before confirming the booking. I’ve declined a few. Their expectations were not a good fit.
My Instant Book setting permits only guests with a prior positive host review & government issued ID to book. All others must correspond with me first.
a) Newbies are often the best guests. They’re on their best behaviour and keen to get a nice review. Guests with a couple of good reviews can get cocky and have the attitude that ‘well, the last place didn’t mind if we checked out 2 hours late, ruined the towels etc etc. so we can do the same here’.
b) We were all new once. What if no guest ever considered your place because you had no reviews? Your very first Airbnb guest took a chance on you - time to return the favour.
