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There is one good reason to NEVER show your place to a prospective guest, especially in urban areas, and the main reason why AirBnB’s Terms of Service DO NOT allow it: In the beginning of AirBnB, thieves would ask for a preview and case the place for valuables and to see what kind of security it had. In some cases, they would unlock windows or doors.
Then they would come back that night and strip the place.
That in itself is why you shouldn’t do previews, especially if the potential guest is local.
And for the same reason, it’s a security risk to include a photo of the front view of your house that makes it easily recognizable to anyone driving by. Thieves can peruse your photo gallery to see if there’s anything inside worth stealing.
If you want to send a photo of the front to confirmed guests so they can find it easily, that’s different.
Here was my first one in SE AZ. There was nothing in the room except the wood stove. The upper cabinet I found in an out building, the lower some place else and it was unbelievable how many coats of paint because they were so dried out. The free standing cabinet was made in Mexico and the rug was handwoven in Guatemala.
Most stuff did not come with me when I moved East.
This is dependent on the listing. No thief is going to look at my listing and then break in. I’m home most the time, the good stuff in my home isn’t pictured in my listing, I have iron window and door guards, dogs and security cameras.
I wonder what the talk about criminals breaking into Airbnbs because of what a host has in their listing is based on?
The only thing that happened when I put a picture of the front of my house is that people started parking where I wanted them to much more often.
Yes, thieves would be sorely disappointed at the haul they could hope to get from my place, too. It’s more of an issue for off-site hosts with expensive listings- I have read several posts by hosts who had “guests” book one night, only to find the place had been cleaned out of the big screen TV, the rest of the electronics, the expensive coffee maker, etc.
I don’t have any statistics on how many places get targeted by thieves who didn’t book, but simply broke in, though.
Kind of depends. I’m in a condo neighborhood with over 200 condo. If they find mine, they need to buy a lottery ticket that day.
Also there is nothing in my condo of extraordinary value plus all is insured. I would be angry & hurt if there’s a break-in but unless they back up a truck for the furniture, nothing is individually more than $100. (TVs are 5 yrs old)
I remember a time when stealing a ‘hi fi’ or a video tape recorder, or a tv had value ‘on the street’. If someone thinks that their coffee table is valuable and you are afraid of a ‘break in’, you should not have that in your airbnb anyway. And no, that smart tv is not worth robbing - $20 on the street vs. arrest…
Retired, nosy, nothing better to do with his time?
There seems to be a lot of people these days there is something wrong with, or maybe it has always been like that and social media just enables us to be more aware of them.
I’d be tempted to put the photo in an envelope, with a message asking him to please not trespass and put it in his mailbox. Guests would legitimately be weirded out to find him sitting there.
@JJD Is that the sidewalk at the bottom of the stairs?
You might need to put a gate across the bottom of the steps.
I’ve had to do multiple things to keep the idiot neighbor’s dog out of my yard including building a gate between two stone walls.
If he was sitting on my front steps, I’d ask him to leave and tell him to stay off my property, including the steps. Even if he does share a lot line. He’s trespassing, and he knows it.
