Sydney Eastern Suburbs hosts beware

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Hallo everyone ,
I am a long time silent follower of the forum.This is my first post Particular thanks to and admiration for @KKC @Magwitch, @ Jacquo, and @Yana for your collective wisdom . I suspect we are all from the same demographic - older women with big ladyballs.
Just a warning to hosts in Sydney’s East if there are any of you on this forum - a guest booked via IB on 4 Feb for 3 weeks (our max) beginning 13 Feb . Name given was just a first name and the initial “O” and there was no information on the profile except that he worked for a company for which I couldn’t even find a website. Over 2 days I messaged him repeatedly requesting that he identify and introduce himself as we host in our own home and need to know who we are allowing into our house.He refused to disclose his full name , citing his right to privacy and security, He commented that he thought it was “dodgy” that we require him to disclose his surname. Really? He is coming to stay in our home for 3 weeks and we are not allowed to know who he is ?.The entire dialogue occurred on the messaging platform . I suspect he did not want his identity disclosed on the platform and has something to hide from Airbnb, us or both .
I went straight to “CANCEL” but the platform would not allow it - an error message kept popping up advising that the required explanatory message to the guest “should not exceed 240 characters”. My message was fewer than 240 characters and despite several attempts at making it even shorter the error kept popping up .
I have a strong suspicion that this was not a glitch but deliberate speed bumps cynically embedded in the software by Airbnb to make it really hard to cancel a guest.
I gave up and rang CS . Superho status got me a quick response and they cancelled for me. I did have to stop the CS rep in his tracks as he launched into the touchy-feely, virtue-signalling, newspeak Airbnb script which was all the more infuriating for its complete irrelevance to my call. But he got the message and addressed the problem promptly

According to the guest’s profile he is both a guest and a host but his host reviews are for a listing in Spain where he appears to have been a “cohost.” long ago.He has some positive reviews as a guest.

Happy to provide more identifiers if permitted but my understanding is that there is no naming and shaming on this platform .Please correct me if I am wrong.
In any case , caveat emptor Sydney hosts …

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I wonder if he gives the same speech about privacy to hotel clerk when he is asked for his licence at the front desk?

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-raises hand to the same-

Good on you for standing up for safety in your home!! You spent more time on him than I would have. If I can’t get an answer from someone like that right away, I post that I’m calling Air to cancel and then I do that.

Yeah, I got that this week, too. The only word they left out was “woke.” smdh

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So this guest was a former host/cohost from spain, where they copy down your passport information for the government yet he refused to give his name.

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Yeah, I’ve stopped wondering why I reach for the adult beverages after those types of messages…

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Thanks for the hat tip! I’m happy to be of help. In the US I wouldn’t have had any problem hosting this fellow. However guests aren’t sharing any space with me and can’t enter my part of the home.

Interestingly I realized this week that we don’t get the full names of our hosts unless the provide them. I wanted to look up the last name of my Dunedin host and it wasn’t listed. Luckily none of my guests have ever been concerned with asking for a background check or ID for me, even when they were coming into my part of the home.

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It’s not a level playing field. The guest knows where you live! If we were offering a self -contained listing I wouldn’t be so fussy but we host in our family home (which is not easily subdivisable, otherwise would have done it long ago).
Would like to add that most of our host experiences (>100) have been fine , and we are getting a lot of return guests booking directly. Many on this forum have commented that the incidence of problem guests has increased over the years - this is my impression too. The early adopters of Airbnb were more savvy and switched on, and it took a while for the scammers to identify the many ways they could exploit this new entity.

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Though they know where we live, they still don’t know much about us and not our last name. I know a number of people who are both horrified that I would stay in a stranger’s home and that I’d allow a stranger to stay in mine.

As you may know, I used to host in my home. I have a high risk tolerance, lol.

I’ve now hosted around 800 people and it doesn’t seem that guests are worse. Mine are better but I’m sure part of that is no longer having them in my house.