Of course, no good deed goes unpunished!

21

I have it in my IB rules and my regular rules that I will be asking certain questions. When I get an inquiry or even a request to book, I first send the info that I will be asking within 24 hours.

The guests actually have 48 hours to cancel for free and If I don’t hear back from the guest after about 10 hours, I send them a text (Unless it’s outside the US) reminding them that the info is due and to respond via the airbnb system.

I will discover right away that it’s a third-party booking and then tell them that they need to cancel and have the real guest set up an account and request to book. I tell them to make sure that the guest has their account set up before they cancel so they can make the request to book right away so no one else gets the reservation.

Asking these questions have caught many things. Kids, pets, underage child with an adult that is not related. Third-party.

If they guests don’t respond within 24 hours I get airbnb involved and ask them to reach out.

NEVER NEVER NEVER CANCEL THE BOOKING yourself. Get Airbnb to cancel because they are in breach of your rules.

Now you might think that this is overkill and it is but I’ve been doing this for 9 years and have learned that a little effort upfront usually eliminates the issues at check in.

Here’s are the questions I ask:

Thank you for booking the Melrosian Suite. This information is due within 24 HOURS booking. *

** THIS IS SEPARATE FROM YOUR AIRBNB VERIFICATION.

  1. For you AND your guest we will require: (I only allow 2 guests, no pets, no kids)

a) Full Legal Name,
b) Complete Current Address and phone number
c) AGE
d) Phone number

Airbnb does not provide hosts with this information and I am required to have it for my home owners insurance.

Note - I ask for the phone number because I have run into issues where someone is using an old account and has not updated their phone number.

  1. Photographs used for identification:
    a) You photo on your profile must be a picture of your face without sunglass or a hat. We need this to verify that the person on the account is the person who is staying in the suite.

B) Send a picture of the face of your guest (No sunglasses or hats). Please let us know if you need instructions.

  1. What time do you expect to check between 4 - 11 pm.

Arrival day guest must check in by 11 pm unless pre-approved 24 hours before arrival. If more than one person is checking in at different times, the person who booked the suite must arrive first. Also be sure to read the instruction on finding the house. GPS sometimes auto-correct to back of house.

Note - I say that the person booked has to be the first person check in because this will also eliminate third-party bookings.

  1. Check out time – Check out time is 10 am. If you know that you will be leaving early to catch a flight or for traveling, please let us know what time so that we can schedule our cleaners.

  2. Will you be bringing a car? Free off-street parking is available.

  3. Confirm that you and your guest have read and AGREE to the house rules. (House rules can be found in the listing, OVERVIEW HEADER & select policies.

  4. Reason for your stay.

  5. Is there anything you would like to learn about that is not addressed in the listing?

***MISSING INFORMATION WILL DELAY YOUR CHECK-IN because the keypad code is sent ONLY after all info is received 1-2 days prior to check in.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Thank you. Regards, Lynn and Mark

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22

Thanks for your thorough explanation! This helps a lot to tweak our process. Very helpful information.

May I ask what kind of accommodation you’re offering and if you’re basically always booked?

We used to be fully booked with back-to-back reservations but of course since we upped our screening process bookings have slowed down. It is still ok but not as packed as before. Maybe a day or two in between bookings. We did notice better guests and I wouldn’t want to deter people with no malicious intent but feel put off by all the roadblocks we through in their way by further tightening our screening process.

Although we are happier with guests who are a good fit, so we try to find the balance between being well booked but with good guests… :grimacing:

23

Here’s my listing - https://www.airbnb.com/hosting/listings/editor/13818003/details/photo-tour

It’s the second floor of my home. I have a shared front door but the suite and my apartment (first floor) have separate locked doors. too.

I keep track of my revenues year-to-year and am finding I’m down about $1000 for the year so far. I changed my booking minimum to 2 nights and I travel more and close the suite so I’m sure that has made part of the difference. And while I offer a really affordable rate, I don’t have even a full kitchenette so I feel that it should be a little lower. I also keep an eye on the market, what’s available and at what price. If you go too low and offer 1 night stays you really end up with hooks ups and bad apples. I’m very strict about not have unregistered guests in the suite.

From Mid-May through Mid-November I’m very busy (and with maybe a day or two open each month). Since my slower time is in the winter/spring, I do tend to close the airbnb and travel more then.

24

Thank you very much for that information. I see you have a very thorough list of rules and description that leaves little to the imagination of how it will be at your place.

I’m intrigued to know whether all guests are carefully reading everything you listed…

I surely will add some things to our description.

Just to be clear:

If I write in my listing description that we require all these personal details (name, address, phone number photo) within 24 hours of booking - Airbnb WILL cancel that reservation if any of those things have not been met? No questions asked?

25

I can not make promises as to what Airbnb CS will do however, it is what they should do. You may get a CS who says you can’t do this and too bad. It’s a crap shoot but for me, it has always works and honestly, I think my rules weed out most of the bad apples. BUT never cancel the reservation yourself.

Many Airbnb hosts are not as particular as I am and have no issues. I even date stamp a video before checkin showing the state of the place. You never know.

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26

No they don’t but occasionally I am surprised. I still have the covid vaccine requirement that I no longer enforce and will get questions.

Some people put a question buried in the rules that you have to answer to show you have read. I don’t go that far.

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27

Forgive this stupid question: How do you time stamp a video? Are you using a special app for that purpose?

28

found an app. That’s it for me.

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29

When you take a photo or video on an iPhone, it’s time & date stamped. Easy peasy! Not sure about other phones, but I would assume it’s the same. :woman_shrugging:

30

On my android it isn’t possible. If you click on the photo in the photo gallery, which only shows the date it was taken, you can call up the time, but none of that is shown on the photo itself.

Some androids apparently have a “watermark” setting, but on mine I’d have to download a separate app that does that.

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31

I think the term “time stamp” needs some clarification.

Every digital image taken (with any camera) will contain EXIF data.

EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format . It is a standardised way of storing useful metadata in digital image files, and it holds a wealth of technical information about how the image was created, including the time and date it was taken, the camera and lens that was used, and the shooting settings.

This works fine as long as the camera has been set up correctly with the proper date and time.

When some talks about a time stamp, I think of a date and time “stamp” on the visual image itself in one of the corners of the image, so everyone who looks at the image can see the date/time without having to look at the file properties to find that information there.

Regardless, both ways of displaying the date and time can be easily manipulated with the right apps. Therefore, I’m still sceptical to what extent “time stamping” is really helpful unless you do it the old fashioned way of buying a newspaper of the day the image/video was created and hold it into the frame as reference.

With the ruthless approaches of some guests trying to get free nights or full refunds I wonder how effective our ‘proof’ is…?

32

Here is the free app for iPhone that will do this for you:

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