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Airbnb has announced that effective Mar 9, upon a booking, a booker immediately will have the host’s exact address, house manual, and check-in details. This is atop Airbnb’s current policy allowing anyone to instant book if they have had one reservation that was not negative.
Basically, for a $40 investment in a one-night booking, to establish the right to access all hosts’ info, a bad actor gets to book a place, know that Airbnb address and how to enter the Airbnb space. They can then monitor that place’s public calendar to know when the place is vacant, and have a nice low-risk break in business. They can cancel the reservation later at no cost.
The diffetence from current policy is that, under the current policy, they dont get my address except by paying for at least a night of occupancy… An investment of a couple hundred dollars, minimum. Under the upcoming policy change, the bad actor has no monetary investment in getting to know when places are vacant, which would make a petty crime venture more attractive.
What are people doing to deal with this?
So far, I’ve stripped all the info from the Airbnb listing about how to enter, which door to use, where to park, etc, so it’s a little harder to know the place is vacant. I’ll send that info to guests less than 24 hours before the start of their reservation, after they have irrevocably committed their funds to the booking.
I’ve begun installing timers for lights and sound, and will probably spend the money to upgrade door and window security to a system that can be turned on only by me, not by guests, and activated when the place is unbooked.
Do folks have thoughts on other ways to prevent their places from becoming the neighborhood low-hanging fruit?
I think the guest will only have the detailed address, but didn’t mention the check-in details. That’s crazy! I suggest all the hosts write emails or make calls to Airbnb to oppose this change. This is a very dangerous situation for hosts.
I wonder if the reason Airbnb has done this is because unscrupulous hosts have not been upfront about the location of their place. I know I have read posts by guests who have been scammed in this way- the “approximate location” not being near where the actual listing was.
No one would ever find my place by the address, nor do I have a house manual or check-in instructions, so this doesn’t affect me personally, but it obviously just adds to safety concerns, and the disrespect Airbnb shows towards hosts.
I thought it was just the address? Maybe I didn’t read it closely enough but I didn’t appreciate that all check in details would also be made available. I can see that could be worrying for some although in my case that only tells them where the key safe is - the code is something they only get in a message from me the day before arrival.
I guess this is a good prompt for me to review what information I actually provide in the listing and different layers.
Can you please share where it says they will be given check in details? I just checked my listing and it says check in info will be sent to the guest 24-48 hours before check in
This is in the host “resource center” of the Airbnb app.
In my case, my house manual also had all the info on where guests park, where the entry is to the Airbnb space, photos of the exterior of my home, etc. I have now stripped all that info, and will instead send it 24 hrs before arrival.
Just my interpretation, but “check-in method” could just mean letting the guest know if there is an electronic keypad, keysafe, physical key, and whether it is self-check-in or the host meets the guests. It doesn’t necesarily mean they would be given the door code. And even if they were, hosts shouldn’t be activating door codes before check-in time anyway, unless they have made some arrangement with the guests to check in earlier than stated check-in time.
I agree. The new policy doesn’t give entry to two people simultaneously. It gives a bad actor the exact address, information on where the visitor entrance is, the method how to access.
If it’s in your house manual, the bad actor learns where visitors park and any other details you give guests to make their life easier.
Because our calendars are public, a bad actor looking for places to break into with little risk and almost no cost, can identify our places, and know with high certainty when the place is vacant.
Maybe this not a concern in apartment buildings, but for standalone homes, it increases risk and exposure to harm.
Thank you. I also had the key codes in my check in method information which I have now removed. I’ll send the code in a scheduled message 6 days before check in.
I’m a homeshare host, & always meet my guests when they enter the property, so this doesn’t apply to me. But, as far as giving the guests the code 6 days in advance, I think that’s too soon. Most hosts send it the day before, if not the morning of their scheduled check in.
I wouldn’t book a place where the host only sent the door code the morning of check-in day. When I travel, I don’t like last minute stuff. There is too much that can go wrong. What if the guest loses or breaks their phone? What if it runs out of charge and the guest has nowhere to plug it in? What if the Airbnb message function glitches out? What if the guest has no data unless connected to someone’s Wifi, as is the case with some of my international guests.
It shouldn’t matter how early the host sends the check-in info if they don’t activate the code until check-in time.
I have a home share and guests receive entry codes and instructions the moment they book - which may be months from now. Why be concerned? Door, codes, etc. should activate at the start of the booking and not a minute before.
@muddy@Rolf You both bring up very valid points. Most of the Air properties I’ve stayed at have given the check in instructions upon the booking being confirmed, sans door codes, but a few have sent them, a day or 2 before. This new rule change Air is rolling out will be interesting to watch. We’ll see…
In addition, I just reviewed my listing. Despite the Airbnb email to hosts saying the change would happen on March 9, they have already added the exact address of my apartment. I attempted to delete it and the site would let me do it. This is highly deceptive. As hosts we should be ultra vigilant about what Airbnb is attempting to do.
As a host of 9 years with an extremely high user rating, I have written to Airbnb about this many times since receiving this email. Airbnb simply doesn’t care what hosts think about this change and the obvious and dangerous security breach it creates for hosts and guests.
It is now really easy for a criminally intentioned person to get the exact address of an Airbnb rental by making a reservation and then cancelling it within 2 days without penalty. They know the contents of the rental through photos, they can access the calendar and know when it is occupied or not, and they can ‘troll’ guests arriving at or leaving the rental. This is a serious problem that Airbnb fails to address.
I urge every host to rise up and contact Airbnb about this. A good place to augment contacts is with their head of legal Ron Klain. He is reachable on LinkedIn. This is a disaster for hosts waiting to happen
My concern is that bad actors have my address and calendar, and can easily know when the place is vacant. At literally no cost to the bad actor, since I, like others, permit cost-free cancellation.
Its just a matter of time before this becomes common knowledge among property thieves, and a scheme we’ll have to deal with.
At minimum, it makes me much less inclined to accept requests from first time users. So far, the best option I’ve come up with is to interrogate first time users (in a slightly offensive way) about why they should be accorded trust, in the absence of prior host recommendations. Its not a great solution… Walking a tightrope between being welcoming and unwelcoming.
Just putting it out there but back in the day, we would find people who would break into houses to steal things like VCR’s and TVs. Nowadays, TVs are bolted to the wall and have very little value and most of the things and people’s homes have little resale outside. If somebody broke into my Airbnb, they would not find anything of resale value.
Why would you do that? How would you have liked a guest interrogating you in a slightly offensive manner, as to why they should trust you, when you were a new host with no reviews? Everyone, both hosts and guests, start out with no reviews.
I’ve been hosting since 2016. Have never used Instant Book, exchange friendly messages with guests, have had several first-time users and or those with no reviews, and have never had a “bad” guest.
Most of the guests I get send a nice, informative message with their Requests. For those that seem unclear on how to communicate, and just write something like “Arriving at 2”, I ask if they are aware that… (some things they would have had to read through the listing to know), which has always elicited a more informative response.
As a homeshare host whose house no one would be able to find just from the address (and like Rolf, nothing much to steal here), the giving out of addresses on booking doesn’t concern me personally, but I do understand the concern about thieves who have access to the address and calendar of a whole house rental with an off-site host, being able to use that in nefarious ways.
