4 Red Flags To Look Out For In Airbnb Booking Requests
As hosts, I believe the little euphoric feeling of getting a new booking request will never really go away. It’s almost like “Yessss, another one in the books!!” Though I’m sure I’m not alone if I say that this feeling is much stronger when you are a beginner than when you’re an experienced host. When I was a rookie I thought that every guest will be a delight to host and will treat your property with the utmost respect. A little way down the road, I realized that I might have been a little naive thinking like this. Over the years I have noticed some patterns in booking requests/enquiries that can be red flags and it is important to think twice, before accepting. I have listed them below:
1) Asking for discounts (for short-term stays)
Negotiating with a potential guest for a nightly rate can be exhausting. I’ve spent countless hours getting my pricing model right to make sure that I can cover my cost and have the margins that I forecasted. When a potential guest is asking for a discount because he/she would like to stay for an extended period of time, then I’m happy to engage in such a conversation. I therefore always make use of the long-term discount function on Airbnb and if it’s the low season, I’m also happy to engage a potential guest about a special offer. However, what I would not like to see is someone bargaining for their life when it’s about a 2-night stay for example. The price is the price for a reason and based on the reviews, the guest can normally see that the price-quality ratio is quite fair and justified. What I really love btw is when potential guests start arguing and gaslighting me by saying that I’m not flexible and that my way of conducting business will not get me very far. On that note: Please know the worth of the service you are providing. If you know you’re doing a good job and get consistently high reviews, then it’s no use in engaging in such an argument. Of course, this is the worst-case scenario and it really doesn’t happen too often, however, such people do exist on the platform. Often I get potential guests who ask for discounts and after I politely decline, they will book anyway and are quite courteous. I guess what I’m saying is that there’s no harm in being asked to provide a discount, but you can tell by the way the person goes about it, whether or not to engage in such a conversation or to simply decline and move on. More often than not, such a person is more likely to find flaws in your listing so that they can try to get a discount afterwards in exchange for a good review. Yep, such people actually exist, sadly…
2) Not displaying a profile picture
Airbnb is somewhat a social network where guests and hosts come together. For me personally, if someone books my place, I always like to see a profile picture. A big reason for this is also to verify that the person who booked is actually the person who is arriving. Not displaying a profile picture almost unconsciously gives me the impression that someone might have something to hide. Not 100% sure if I’m alone in this, but if you have a different opinion, please do share this with me.
3) No intro message when sending the booking request
Another red flag is when I get booking requests that don’t actually have any messages attached to them. Who are you? What is the nature of your stay? Who is accompanying you? A little intro message that tells me something about yourself goes a long way and gives me the possibility to learn a bit about yourself and will more likely make me accept your reservation. Not to mention, it gives us hosts some peace of mind knowing that our room/apartment/house will be in good hands.
4) People booking on someone’s behalf
For me, this is a big no-no. I have had this now a few times with corporate as well as private bookings whereby an office or friend is making a booking on another person’s behalf, who I don’t have any information on. This can be very exhausting since the person will not know the house rules and will not have read the listing description in advance. More often than not, this will result in the guest breaking some house rules and pleading ignorance afterwards. Most of the time this includes multiple people in a 1 person booking i.e. the person booked a single accommodation for their employee, but she/he invites over multiple people. Such bookings usually give me a lot of headaches, which is why I try to reject them. If they book via “Instant Booking”, then I’ll try to get a hold of their contact information to then share the house rules and listing description with them and make sure they have read and accepted the house rules.
