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We just got our first guest request for a one night stay.
In his email he says he & wife are coming from Virginia for brother’s wedding.
He gives us his first name but that’s it.
How I do I see the guest’s profile?
I keep reading comments about what’s in the guest profile, etc, but I can’t see his profile.
I replied with questions, but he could answer anything & I have no way to check the answers.
I didn’t have the ‘Verified ID required’ turned on. (I do now).
What happens when you click on their name in the message thread?
Click on name - nothing happens
Click on picture get this:
Picture with checkmark Verified
City, State, Member since March 2016
4 Verifications (Email, phone#(blocked except last 2 digits), LinkedIn, Offline ID personal info
Wish Lists (1)
Nothing else.
He emailed the info I asked for but Airbnb masked out his phone numbers. Why would they do that?
There are no phone #'s in his profile & I can’t get them from his messages. This is crazy.
What am I missing? Does anyone else have this problem?
Thanks
Airbnb blocks phone numbers until the reservation is confirmed. This is to prevent guests and hosts from using the Airbnb platform to view the property, then making a cash deal on the side. I would highly recommend against communicating via telephone. I’ve had two guests insist that I call them prior to their arrival. Both of them were high maintenance. Also, any communication that is off the Airbnb email cannot be verified to support you if you need to make a claim against the guest.
Thank you Ellen. That makes a lot of sense now.
We’re just a little jittery since it’s our first rental.
What about other information. Do guests normally not have a lot of info in their profile?
It seems like the host should be able to see the full profile of the guests (except for phone#).
It that not how it works?
I don’t understand what you mean by the full profile. If you mean that you should be able to see copies of their identification, their Facebook page, etc.; the answer is no, Airbnb does not give you access.
Guests profiles vary vastly in the amount of information they provide about themselves and the nature of their trip. We take everyone unless prior reviews have led us to believe that there will be a problem. One example is that I declined a guest because a prior host said the the review that the guest let the host’s dog out of its dog run. We have not found a correlation between the amount of information the guest provides and the quality of the guest.
If you are not comfortable with the amount of information the potential guest has provided you are free to ask questions via the Airbnb email.
Again, thanks for clearing this up.
I was assuming that all guests filled out their profiles with lots of info and I just wasn’t privy to it.
I understand now that some guests put in a lot of info and others the minimum.
Your advice about the quality of the guest as a function of the amount of info is an interesting one that we will try out.
Thanks, Ellen. This site is awesome!
No, they don’t 
Some don’t even upload a photograph. I’ve mentioned before here somewhere that later this year I have the Taj Mahal coming to stay! In fact, when we started hosting on Airbnb, it was several weeks before we got around to filling out our own profile.
Read posts here and you’ll find lots of help about questions you should ask guests and how to evaluate them. (I’m in no position to because I’m hopeless at it!)
One other thing - try not to be freaked by the horror stories you’ll read in the internet about Airbnb hosting. True, we vent sometimes here about our less-than-perfect guests but these stories aren’t the norm - that’s why they get onto the internet. Hosting is great fun
Airbnb does not screen the guests - it is up to you as short-term landlord to do so. Airbnb’s verification process is extremely simplistic and shoddy. I have accidentally hosted guests who I found had criminal records online (for selling drugs) and guests with atrocious, misogynistic profiles. If you are uncertain, ask your guest in no uncertain terms to provide his full name, address, phone number, and his wife’s, and if he has any decency he will provide it. Otherwise, if you want to take the risk, accept it and hope all goes fine.
Once you get a booking confirmation, THEN you see their last name (if they filled it out) and phone number (if they gave you a real one).