Request to view before booking

Greetings! I’ve just had a request to see the guest room I’ve posted on Airbnb before booking it. It’s a first time user who plans to use the room on a weekly basis for 1-2 nights. Has anyone fielded a similar request?

Does this mean the guest is asking to come to your house before booking? If that’s what the guest means, we’ve never had a request like that. I’d have to say no to that. Guests don’t get our address until after they’ve reserved.

I assume your listing has pictures of the room—ideally multiple views.

I’ll be interested to see what other hosts say.

It’s a somewhat common request from new-to-Airbnb guests. I’ve only had it once when I was a new host. I declined to allow it because at that time, guests didn’t even get your address until after they confirmed booking. Now you can share your location with potential guests, but giving them a tour of the inside is still different.

I have had the request, and I have denied it. On the advice of ABB, I explained that the pictures I have posted are an accurate representation of the room, and asked if there was something specific that were concerned about.

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Other hosts say no. LOL.

They can book it and get a good look then. If they don’t like it they can choose a different place to stay. As an aside, if the first booking or two went well I’d be considering turning them into a direct booking but that has to be discussed in person, not on the Airbnb platform.

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@KKC, what do you mean by a direct booking?

Meaning they give me money, I let them stay in the room. I’ve done this with several guests, all of whom stayed 2 or 3 times via Airbnb first. It’s not for all guests or all hosts. In fact, I have one coming tonight.

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Oh. I haven’t done that.

Not to sound naive, but I thought Airbnb said that was a no-no.

If they contact you about a booking via Airbnb you need to book that stay via Airbnb. They can’t control what you do in the future. Do they tell hosts they can’t have their own websites? Do they prohibit you from giving out your business card? Do they make you list on Airbnb only? No. If they bring you a client you owe them a payment for doing that. If you are able to keep the client you earned their repeat business and you don’t owe Airbnb anything further.

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Recently I was out checking sprinklers at my rental when two lovely older ladies stopped by and told me their sister had rented my place starting in a few weeks. The place was empty, so I invited them in to check it out. They were thrilled. Turned out their sister was very concerned it wouldn’t look as good as the pictures. They texted her pictures and all her worries went away.

Saved me from a worried renter bailing on her reservation. And got to meet some darling ladies.

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Well, that all makes sense!

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Yes, many of us do it. Air is a booking platform that makes the introduction. You are the reason the guest wants to come back. There is no reason for them to profit at that point.

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JUST SAY NO! You open yourself up for all sorts of problems. Personally I also say no to locals who want to book, for the same reason.

As for the direct bookings - I don’t do that because I don’t want to have to collect the sales and occupancy tax. In our area, Air collects and remits it.

Contractor bookings can be very lucrative like this. I had a contractor on a small job locally book one of my rooms Mon-Fri for 2 successive weeks via AirBNB. A month later he got put on a massive road building project by his company that’s just started in the area and I got a call “Hi, can I book the same room Mon-Fri for the next 2 years?”. He has since introduced another guy working on the project who is doing the same and says he is pretty sure when it really gets going he’ll be able to fill my other 2 rooms with other workers.

So my rooms will probably be full all year around with contractors who leave the house at 06.30, get back at 18.00, eat, shower and go to sleep. Perfect guests & the other great thing is it still leaves weekends free for AirBNB holidaymakers paying “full price”.

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I had a similar situation last fall with a dentist who came several times a month, was gone all day to work and left weekends, especially holidays open. I’ll be curious to see if all that blocking affects your visibility in search and subsequently your weekend booking rate.

It hasn’t since it started 3 months ago, I have been full pretty much every weekend all Summer.

However in my village, though there are quite a few full house listings, there are only 7-10 ‘rooms’ available on AirBNB and 4 of them are mine so little competition. :slight_smile:

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Long term renters are a blessing because it is pretty much gtd income and is a lot less stressful not worrying about resetting the room on a regular basis however you are potentially loosing money by discounted rates and cleaning fee’s. We have a long term guest I would have to project we loose about $250.00 a month and if I multiply that by 12, that is $3000 just in cleaning fee’s alone. However, it is a blessing in the slower months that we have the income.

if you search. this is a subject that has been discussed many times and the conclusion is … that there is not conclusion. Some hosts do it, others don’t.

I feel mildly insulted when I get asked the question (“do they think that I’m lying on my listing???”)

They are also implying that times to show them around actually exist. I’m not going to let them in when there are guests in the place obviously. Equally obviously I’m not going to let them in during the turnover cleaning. And those two equal about 99% of the time.

Sure, the apartment might be in neither of those conditions in June next year when I’ve blocked a week to have contractors in to service the AC and so on.

So I’ll do it if it’s possible but it rarely is. I do let people come to the property and see the location and what the place is like from the outside though. And I’ll talk to them if I’m around and not busy

Just as an aside, this is something I’d never do. If someone books one or two days a week for any length of time, you’re closing yourself off to any guests who want to stay for a week or more.

Many many years ago, when Airbnb was in its infancy and we used other booking platforms, we used to get this request fairly often. After going through the hassle of trying to accommodate viewings for long-term guests, I learned that it was just not worth the time and effort. I did it twice and both times the guests were gigantic PITAs. One even insisting that we come and clean the inside of the kitchen cupboards for her mother-in-law…after the unit had been professionally cleaned. ugh

We reduced the max rental time to one week and the pre-viewing requests stopped. It should be noted however that this request goes against the Terms of Service for Airbnb if it means you will have to communicate off-platform.

Your potential guest is making an unreasonable request and this should be a red flag. They should be willing to book the initial 1-2 nights to do a trial stay to see if it will work for them. IMO, with the growth of private home vacation rentals into thriving businesses, this request is absurd, and yes, I agree with Jaquo…insulting. Dozens of photos and reviews should be plenty of information for any stay, let alone one that is just overnight-good grief! I wouldn’t ever permit viewings now, and even an inordinate amount of questions pre-booking, especially if it’s info already in the listing, earns a decline from me. How many people walk into hotels expecting to see the rooms first before reserving? I wouldn’t host that person at all, but that’s just me: high volume, low rates…lots of potential for annoying guests…so we weed out the red flags whenever possible. But every listing is different. This is up to you.

Here is what Airbnb says:

"Can I view a listing before I book?

We encourage all hosts and guests to complete their bookings through our website before meeting in person to best ensure their safety and privacy.

There are many ways to learn more about the listing and the host without seeing the property, including:

  • Private messaging
  • Profile verifications
  • Reviews
  • Verified photography

Hosts also need to provide information about themselves before accepting reservations on the site."

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