That is good news indeed. Well done. To be honest, I have never had a problem asking them to cancel someone, but I only do so with good reason, like yourself in this instance. The last time that I did so, the CS stuck to the corporate script, but as I told them the story of how the guest(s) had yet to turn up at 1 am, kept calling to say they were still in London,wanted to bring a cat, then she wasn’t coming but her mates were,then her mate called pretending to be her, I could hear her colleagues cracking up in the background. I think as long as they feel treated with respect, as we like to be, they are very helpful. I think they also enjoy a good story!
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Phew! I’m so glad to hear how it worked out!
I was going to say the same thing Joan did - to call Air, tell them what happened and that it made you very uncomfortable and you now don’t want them in your home.
I’m really glad to hear Air accepted that!
I have had requests for advance inspections. I have never allowed them. No good could come of such a scenario. Just say no!
Sometimes I think people confuse Airbnb with private let’s. The whole point is we pay Airbnb so we don’t have to do viewings!
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Another thing you can do if you get these requests is to tell the inquirer that they can only see the building from the outside because of the current guests.
All you’re doing is guarding your guests’ privacy which is what the inquirers would also want.
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You lost out on revenue with no indication that the guest will be poor. Don’t understand your logic here.
I didn’t lose on revenue. The place will be booked hopefully by normal guests. The reservation was for July. If I had allowed it they would have given me a low review, my rating would have plummeted and then I would have lost revenue because of not that many bookings.
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Yes, I had this request - once. Never again.
Allow me to explain further. A guest booked a room in our home (we live here) for one month (amounted to $700), and then sent me a message, requesting to “come over and check the place out”. At the time, I already had a guest staying, so I told him it would have to wait until the guest checked out. As soon as the guest checked out, I messaged him and he came over. He stayed about an hour, just chatting, and checking out the place. He seemed to like it just fine, didn’t get any negative feedback from him at all. His move-in date was about a week away.
I didn’t hear anything until two days before, when out of the blue, I receive a phone call from Airbnb. They tell me “Igor” was misinformed, that he thought he would have the entire house to himself, and was uncomfortable staying with us - all lies - he knew ahead of time we lived there. Anyway, the Airbnb rep. asked me if I could refund Igor the $700. I have a moderate cancellation policy, which means if a guest cancels less than 7 days prior to arrival, they are charged the first night, plus 50% of the remaining nights. In Igor’s case, this would amount to approx. $350 he’d have to pay.
Well, I was so annoyed that he called Airbnb instead of calling me, that I denied his request for a full refund. I told Airbnb that he was lying, too, that he knew ahead of time that we lived there… and besides, who can rent an entire home for a month for $700? Makes no sense.
So about two weeks go by, and I get a nasty-gram from the City where I live. Apparently, Igor called Code Enforcement on me (his revenge!). Long story short, I had to pay $100 for a special use permit, plus I’ll need to obtain a business license. No big deal. All the other Airbnb’s in my city do not have a permit (per Code Enforcement), but they don’t do anything about it, unless someone complains.
So morale of the story is this - stick to your guns. Don’t allow anyone to “come and take a look beforehand” - especially if you have plenty of pics.
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And especially if you don’t have the correct legal permits??? 
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Right! But I do now!! 
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You learned the hard way never to show the house before the guest’s arrival and never give out the address–the guest will get it after they book. I’ve had people ask me, but I’ve never allowed it. Air discourages it for good reason–someone could be casing your house to burglarize it.
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This is what I always do when I get these requests!
He did you a favor, now you’re legal! Hope you kept his dough.
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this just made me think it’s about time to take videos. Perhaps if they see videos they will stop asking to preview the house. Although as in these case they were looking for cockroaches in the fridge and oven and dishwasher.
Do cockroaches live in the fridge, oven and dishwasher?
Oh my yes! They nest in the fridge seal. They creep under the burners. And they find their way under the control panel of the dishwasher. And once, just once, they fly. And when they fly out of your fridge’s seal, it can scar you for life.
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OMG!!! Honestly I’ve never seen cockroaches since college, but those only showed up at night
Clearly, my college cockroaches were in the advanced classes.
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Yeah working out their post apocalyptic plans for the universe.
Wait. She is a VRBO veteran, but is so paranoid that she sent her sister to give your place a run-down AND insulted you? What a nervy little dweeb. Augh.
Glad it worked out for you!
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