This hasn’t happened to me yet but I’ve always been paranoid to accept someone in my city because I’m afraid they need a place to settle down while their apartment is being fumigated for bedbugs!
I just heard from someone at 4 am last night (yes, I was awake). He wanted a one night stay to spend with his girlfriend. A local. Just a photo. No other info. Joined in July. Terrible English, as usual. Plus he said it was his dream to stay in my area. Tres bizarre.
I said no. 
It might be Ok, but why take chances? And I generally prefer not to take locals. At least in this city, I think it significantly increases the likelihood of problems.
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ICK ICK ICK…
Does this happen often?
Didn’t a host on this forum have a neighbor who stayed, trashed them in the review, then opened their own listing?
If i remember all of them , there were 6 guests. And not all of them were super young. One couple actually was well into their 40s. Then after they did it, they turned on TV in our open ceiling living room around midnight. My husband had to stop them. ANd after that they just left.
I will write a book one day about all the weirdos i hosted:)
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The only one night request local was for a guy who wanted to go fishing, come and go at odd hours for fishing. I declined him, where was he going to put the fish he caught and what would the room smell like after? Fish?
(…geez, what’s with the slap?)
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As long as people reply and give a reasonable answer, book and pay, I don’t see a problem.
Hehehe, i guess slap is a part of sex routine
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I think that should be a collaborative effort with the other members of this forum. 
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Sandy Toes can be our David Sedaris
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yeah sex dates and also they want to stay out late and party and come back very drunk or want to check in very late / probably drunk. I can’t be bothered with that - get a hotel or the bus back home.
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… night time fishing is actually quite popular. strange but true!
That’s when the fish are active, but I’m not!
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My neighbors get up in the middle of the night to fish at our neighborhood beach. I’m awakened by the car coming and going.
I know you’ve got this sorted out now, but for the future I’ve had locals stay for many reasons. I recently had a similar situation, a man who had a picture of himself with his son in his profile photo. He lives an hour and a half drive away and had a heavy work schedule so he wanted to shorten the commute. He was a wonderful guest. I had a musician who was on tour and had Airbnb’d his house. Another wonderful guest.
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That’s not exactly local in my book… and more then half my guests actually come from 1.5/2 hr drive away (this is England were talking about).
When I think of someone in my neighbourhood I think of someone that could easily catch the local bus home so <20minute drive
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I agree that is so freakin’ weird! I mean, if you just need a bed, why not get a cheap hotel where you must know you’ll have at least a little more privacy than you’re going to get in someone’s home! Maybe doing it in a stranger’s house is part of the turn on?
I too would take serious pause in terms of allowing a local to stay at my house unless they opened with a story that made a whole lot of sense. And I think it’s interesting, the differences of all of us posting on this forum. Some of us are naturally very trusting and others naturally more suspicious.
Anyway, I’m still a brand new host (my first guests checked in on Friday, they are delightful). One thing I’ve noticed is some people asking for a reservation are very descriptive about their reason for staying, while others are not. My first guests, who are again, delightful, said very little about why they were coming here when making the request. The gentleman basically said, “Family in town.”, and that was it. I wasn’t crazy about his profile photo, he didn’t mention he was bringing his wife initially, and I nearly declined.
I think my point here is it can be difficult for naturally suspicious hosts when dealing with naturally trusting guests. My guest perhaps saw no reason to bore me with the details of his trip! Whereas, if you’re short and vague about your reason for wanting to come here, I get worried about your motives.
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Hi @Chloe,
Yes, there is considerable variation between how different people ask for a reservation, or make an inquiry. Some of them are very chatty; some are not. One of my first inquiries was completely blank. I had to write back and ask for some information. The couple in question wound up staying for nearly a month over two visits, and gave me two good reviews, so it worked out ok. I don’t think it is necessarily a red flag if they aren’t very chatty on the outset - some people just aren’t very talkative, and they may not realise how the Airbnb system works, the implications of staying in someone elses home, etc. But if they don’t reply sensibly to questions, that is definitely a bad sign. And you definitely should engage them in conversation if you want to.
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Well, it all worked out very well. I still don’t fully understand, and don’t need to - perhaps they just needed some time away to enjoy being together as a family. The two little guys were soooo cute! They were great guests - great at communication, quiet, etc. They even cleaned up after breakfast (we had left for church).
I began to wonder if they were here for a ‘black lives’ march happening in town. So when they came in late, I asked them if they had been there, but they hadn’t. Turns out just my asking them meant a lot to them - like I was aware of what was happening. We ended up having a very good conversation about race, it turned out super cool.
So, there…
Yes, @Chloe, you are right. It is strange how different people are. Especially since I have 3 kids I always give a good bit of info when booking a place. Many people don’t, and their photos are vague, etc. But I’ve found across the board, after about 70 groups, who is going to make a wonderful guest is impossible to predict. Some of the best communicators have been the ones I’ve been happiest to see go.
I just got a booking from a guy who gave me a whole paragraph about how level-headed, clean, and respectful he is. Makes me VERRRRRRY nervous, lol!!! We’ll see!