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Someone named Cathey requested a booking 10 days from now to sort her mother’s funeral? I asked her to verify her account & that just sounds odd but now her name is Corina?
She said she has a green card and a passport so now she is verified.
Does it sound odd to plan a funeral 10 days later when it says she lives in NY not out of the country?
Not really. Especially if mom was cremated.
No. Where “it says they live” (if by that you mean their Airbnb profile is meaningless. Almost all my Army guests list some out of town location but they live here in El Paso. People who signed up 10 years ago and moved 5 times since then still have their original home. My American friends who emigrated to New Zealand and became NZ citizens lived and worked in China for 5 years. Where should they list their home on the profile? Where they reside currently, where they reside permanently, where their mail is sent, country of citizenship.
You get the picture.
Ok thank you I just think the name change threw me I replied to her as Cathey at first then she replied no this is Corina after the name change… but a minute ago I addressed you as Cathey?
That’s something else that’s fairly common. When people first sign up they have to put in a name and then they later change it for one reason or another.
You can just ask her about the name change!
The first time that happened to me it weirded me out too, so I just asked. Amy had become Tony. That was that ,) Another time someone said they changed it to their legal name (vs preferred name) when they did the ID verify because they assumed they needed to. Another one told me they didn’t realize they had used their “performance name” when they signed up… Anyways, lots of reasons, I don’t even ask anymore.
LOL ok thank you yes it just totally threw me. Now I’m realizing she tried booking about a month ago was asking how to set up Airbnb then disappeared.
“This is corina… its my first time doing these stuff so i thought it was a scam so when i text you i realized its no scam… Remember i told you i lost my mom and im trying to come florida to finalize funeral arrangement
Because i tried last month and they scam me…
So thats why im trying to make sure that this is legit… Because i really need to come florida and somewhere to stay“
One of the early weird ones I got was a request from “Man.” This was before I was consistently using IB and had lurked here enough to be suspicious of the non-suspicious. I thought, I’m not approving some jerk who thinks it’s funny to call himself “Man.” Then I go to my computer and see it’s a Chinese woman named “Man.” I approved and was supplied with a last name and a great guest.
@Betty_A, the name change thing sounds strange to me. I’d call Airbnb and ask if they can sort it out.
How long a stay is she booking? Not starting on a weekend by any chance…? And why did she tell you about the green card/passport? I find the spelling of “Cathey” to be quite odd.
ETA: Never mind, I see your listing is a private room, not an entire place. I tend to be more suspicious of people booking entire home listings.
I asked her to provide government ID and verify her account. She asked if either of those worked.
Yes starting on a weekend why do you ask? 13 days for the booking.
I’d definitely be on alert if it was a 1 night stay on a weekend in an entire home rental. In your situation, it sounds legit.
Thanks everyone now I’m just waiting for payment.
Leaves me wondering why Airbnb doesn’t require accounts and payments to be verified before allowing people to contact hosts 
Because they are pro-guest, not pro-host.
Yes, it’s annoying to wait for that and have it block the calendar. Or to block the calendar awaiting verification. Or to have a booking and the guest has only paid for half the stay (especially on a $60 stay!!) They don’t want guests jumping through all the hoops only to be interrogated and then turned down like we see so many hosts doing here. Anyone who has used Airbnb as a guest has probably had a bad experience. It’s not an easy process compared to booking a hotel or direct on a website.
So true! But you still need a photo ID to check into a hotel.
I’m still new I’ve only had 4 guests so far no issues 
I’ve had two people who were moving contact me directly and repeat stay off the Airbnb grid. I’m learning a lot through this group however it’s making me super skeptical, but still learning.
The nature of a forum is that people mostly end up here looking to complain. Someone like yourself who sought to learn BEFORE having problems is unusual. So the complaints, bad guest stories, etc are way out of proportion here. Every story of a stay that had no problems is just as valid as every horror story.
Skeptical is good, as long as you’re able to re-calculate that skepticism when presented with new information. There’s a difference between looking for trouble, and knowing what trouble looks like. 
And a difference between being situationally aware and being paranoid. Some posts here are so hostile towards guests I don’t understand how those hosts make it on Airbnb.
And of course for the second time she didn’t pay for her booking.
I’ve reported the profile as spam however was not given an option to block?
I graduated with a Vietnamese Man, lovely lady. Ironically, you’d have likely not questioned a man named Guy. 