@pdxwindjammer - good for you. I can’t think of a good reason they have to know the exact address or see an exterior photo of the house prior to booking. I can think of a lot of bad reasons they want that information.
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If you don’t post an exterior picture of your property, what I have done is I only gave out the street name and city and had the guest google it online.
You dodged a spray of bullets.
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I would report her to Air for her strange and insistent behavior. I wonder what Air would do with that information. Maybe they would reach out to her and explain the terms of service.
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The potential guest was using VBRO, not Airbnb.
Oops–my bad. 1111111
Sometimes I want to say, “sure, I am happy to provide my address in exchange for yours. You first.”
Btw, your booking rate is impressive. Congrats! You may wasn’t to raise rates.
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Suzanne, I am a regular B&B and also use airbnb so my website, address, house photo, phone number and email address are all readily available on Google for any one to access at any time. So what’s all the fuss about an address and photo?
Airbnb keeps everything closed up as they don’t want to lose a possible guest but all my information is out there–and has been for 3 decades.
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That’s OK for people who live on the premises but if the house or apartment is vacant you wouldn’t want people knowing where it is.
I just say that the insurance company does not allow the address to be given out!
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You don’t turn her down politely. DECLINE
I can understand the desire to please - even we old-timers feel the same way. But please don’t allow potential guests to demand anything.
You will certainly get enquiries from people who ask the daftest questions (that are clearly in your listing) and I will always answer those but a potential guest has no right to demand anything. Remember that many enquries come from people who have contacted half a dozen hosts in your area with the same question. So even if you bend over backwards for them, it doesn’t guarantee you a booking.
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So it is very fair for a guest to want to see exterior. Too often, Air BnB guests report to us o their last experiencce, saying that the interior was cozy but the location was sketchy or even down right dangerous. So I would suggest you add some exterior shots. We have house as well as view of surrounding area from the room and the front door. Remember, yourguests most likely know NOTHING about your area.
Secondly, some of my most favorite guests were ones that I initally thought would be a pain!! Their wanting more details is indicative of their discerning nature. Frankly I prefer guests who are discerning: thoughtful and caring about themselves and their surrounding. It’s good for my space. Plus many guests turn out to be so interesting. I’d encourage people to be less judgemental on ONLY email correspondence, as it is difficult to interpret and so limited in scope, as well as guests being cautius of sace and location. They are as cautious of you as you are of them, its understandable they have questions.
Air BnB is meant to be enoyed, to meet new people, to share what we have. Its been a tremendously enjoyable experience for us in this first year, we have hosted over 70 guests and acheived super host status, mostly because we enjoy ourselves and find accommodating others a spiritual journey 
.
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I completely agree with @sondrad. One of my recent guests I thought was going to be a pain. It was a mom booking a 1.5 week stay, she’d be there at the beginning and setting up her “adult” daughter and roommate in the area as they were coming in town for a summer internship but intern housing wasn’t available the first week. The questions, the changes, the requests! They arrived and were lovely. They would chat, ask us questions about the area, we helped them find a new apartment as what they had signed up for was in an area they were concerned about.
It came down to a worried mom from a small town helping set her daughter up in a larger metropolitan/suburban area. They needed the local advice for neighborhoods, etc. Even though the girls moved out 2 weeks ago my husband and I have been checking in on them and since he drives Uber we’ve been directly giving them rides to keep an eye on them for mom and make a little money/save them a little money. It’s been a lovely experience and if I would have denied them based on message conversations this poor mom wouldn’t have had me to help her, I wouldn’t have met them, etc. Overall it’s been an experience of helping someone and it’s honestly what I love to do.
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This is the exception as I think that most guests who hound the host with excessive questions and need their hand held will be trouble. I have told the story of the super nervous Canadian guy who booked my place. Asked a zillion questions before hand, super nervous about everything. I did my best to make him feel welcome because I knew he was nervous. I held his hand and did everything but wipe his bum with a Huggie! I even arranged a discount on a helicopter tour with my special contacts from my travel guidebook writing. lol and behold, my reward was a review in the form of a laundry list of negatives about the things he didn’t like about the booking process, tax, cleaning, etc., as well as how I didn’t have a hairdryer, even though he was a guy with short hair and he felt it was misleading because the site amenities showed a hairdryer icon. What the heck! After I had my helicopter contact give him a discount!!!
Then more recently, a guest on another platform the same thing. A zillion questions before hand and I get a laundry list of what she found lacking. Funny thing was, she thought of herself as this hip traveler… but she was really high maintenance.
Mind you, I send every guest a super long PDF with every possible question addressed!!!
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Oh believe me, I was expecting them to be a royal pain and was relieved! But I’ve also had guests that seemed via communication that they would be great guests and turned out horrible. Overall, I don’t think there is a consistent way to gauge guests before hand. It’s all luck of the draw and gut instinct most of the time, and even then you can be wrong.
I definitely don’t like guests that you have to hold their hands the whole time they’re here, but sometimes they ask a lot of questions before arrival so that they have a more peaceful time once arrived. But as far as the original poster: they don’t have any need for your address until after they’ve paid…
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Until booked AirBnB hides any contact links such as phone numbers, addresses, url /links. Sounds like they wanted to rob you.
I now also make sure people read though my profile and understand what im offering. Once booked I make sure they read though to have the WiFi password, if they have that then I know they have read everything.
I only book to folks that have a review and have been verified including passports and or drivers license.
No offence but if I wanted to rob someone my strategy would be to just instant book and get the address with no muss.
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I make sure i have a good fit for my security, even instant book you still have the right to check them out and refuse.