Hello. I am happy to have found this forum! My husband and I are new to hosting (have used Airbnb) and are looking forward to the experience.
We had a booking request that my husband questioned based on the reason. The request was from someone that just joined this month. The request was “I know its short notice but your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Coming in for family funeral.” The reason my husband questioned it is because the request came today for a funeral that will take place in over a week from now, 10 days. They stated that they use to live in my area and have lots of relatives here. In our area, it is unheard of to have a funeral so far out. Does this raise any red flags? Any suggestions?
If family are coming from some distance, funerals can be planned so that they can attend. My uncle’s funeral in England was almost a month after he died.
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Not to me… How busy is the funeral home? Is there legal stuff to be done? Family stuff to deal with and how far everyone has to travel.
My mother in law passed recently and we were offered 2 slots and trying to line it up with the Orthodox Church was awful with Easter in the mix.
That all makes sense and gives me something to consider.
The other reason is that since I am new to this, I hadn’t verified with my ID, therefore, I couldn’t require it from guests. The guest is verified by email and phone number only and have no reviews.
Don’t be worried about new guests with no reviews. All of mine have been fine and we all have to start somewhere.
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Presumably you have no reviews either?
Yesterday a colleague asked me to check a listing for him that he was planning to book because it’s his first time using Airbnb and he’s worried about being scammed.
I’m sure you would be surprised to learn anyone might consider you a scam artist just because of your lack of reviews. 
If I may add, there are other platforms out there, who aren’t as obsessed with reviews as Airbnb are, and all the guests I received coming on those platforms have been fine, too.
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