Worried about a forthcoming guest

[Felicity25]

Hey fellow air B and B folks! I’m fairly new to air B and B and recently accepted a reservation for a guest and friends to come to our family home over splendour festival. Since accepting I’ve read reviews that the guest I have accepted left one place very badly, broken plates on beds and in a catastrophic condition in the hosts own words. I accepted quickly to keep my response times good and now I’m worried I’ve made a mistake- it’s our family home so we have beautiful art and lovely things and I’m worried I will come back to carnage. What can I do? Is it possible to ask air B and B to take a security deposit or could they cancel the booking without my ratings being affected? As it’s at festival time I’m more worried especially. Any feedback and advice would be greatly appreciated- Thankyou 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

ajaj @Felicity25  you shouldn't accept it before reading his reviews or exchanging a few messages with him. It is not relevant if you respond within 5 minutes or 10 hours, you should give yourself some time..... or turn on instant booking.

If you had the instant booking then you would ill be allowed to call Airbnb and ask them to cancel this booking because your guest have bad reviews and you feel uncomfortable hosting him. But in this case, when you already accepted his request, this is not possible without being penalized. 

But I would advise you to try anyway, you have nothing to lose, as you are new to Airbnb maybe you will get some sympathetic rep who will cancel it for you without any penalties.

But if not, then think what would cost you more - trashed home or 50$ fee and super host status? I think you know the answer

[Mark116]

@Felicity25  I would call airbnb, tell them you've seen the prior bad reviews, that you are uncomfortable hosting this person due to fear of damage and see if they will cancel you penality free.

Your other option, besides taking the hit and cancelling yourself is to bring the previous review up with the guest, tell them you are a bit concerned and if there is 'another side' to the review, and then build in some face time with the guest to go over the rules and make sure you or your cleaning person/people are there for the check out so you can check for damage.  You should also take a video of the place before check in to make sure you have a baseline in case they damage something.