Guest requests to see the place

[Dev4]

Dear Hosts, 

I have been hosting on Airbnb for over a year and recently turned Superhost. Every now and then, I get requests from guests who want to see the place before booking it. Mostly these guests are interested in booking the place long-term i.e. 2 - 4 weeks. 

In the past, I have entertained the request couple of times, depending on the rationale presented by the guests and also because I did not have a lot of reviews. Despite showing the place, I would still ask the guests to book through Airbnb. Now, I feel that it is not an effective use of time and lack of faith from guests' side. 

How do you deal with such requests?

Regards,

Casadell

[Michael477]

Hi @Dev4:

AirBnB disencourages completely showing the property beforehead.

I did once due to a very good argument and for a 2 month rent, but it is a safety issue and be careful with it.

Another well known issue is, that renting a local appartment frecuently has strange reasons..... indeed I had only one request from the same town, all others were not.

Personally I would show the property if I can be convinced by a good reason, but it never happened again.

Regards

Michael

[Zacharias0]

Its a waste of time and effort to even entertain the idea. Hotels, motels, cabins and all manners of lodging work in the same manner- what you see in the pictures is what you get. Even if I had zero reviews it wouldnt help me to show my house or rooms to potential people as people are flaky. Its rare even for a hotel or motel to show their rooms. They aren't buying the house for goodness sake. Showing your house to potential guests in hopes of get a booking is about as effective as showing everyone in your neighborhood your house. It doesn't pay off and it's dangerous.

[Dev4]

@Zacharias0; @Michael477

Thanks folks for the response. I am not a proponent of showing the property before hand. The guests said that they had a bad past experience with Airbnb and wanted to get a "feel" of the place before making the reservation. I asked them if they complained to Airbnb about their bad experience and they said 'no'. 

I called up Airbnb to validate the guest's story but the Contact Centre just refused to answer anything about the guests, stating that its personal information and cannot be shared. 

[Michael477]

@Dev4: that sounds to me like a problematic guest.... I agree with @Zacharias0, maybe that guest is not one who's travel way fits with the AirBnB one.

What did you decide to do?

regards

Michael

[Dev4]

@Michael477

I declined the reservation request. Although I would have earned good money in a slow season in Toronto, I chose 'peace of mind" over the money in this case. 

I have had one bad experience in the past and Airbnb's support and Insurance policy came in handy, it is not worth it. I had to cancel all the bookings after the incident and it took a really long time to reach a condusive conclusion.

[Michael477]

Hi @Dev4:

> I would have earned good money<

Who knows....... maybe you saved yourself from robbery...... think positively 😉

Regards

Michael

[David126]

If I was looking to rent long term I would want to see the place first.

The system was designed for short term lets and does not handle long term bookings very well.

[Dev4]

@David126

With due respect, I disagree with you that the system was designed for short-term. I met a guest who used Airbnb to switch from monthly rentals while doing internship in UK. He said all the interns were doing so and it worked out perfectly, as none of them wanted to sign long-term leases. Airbnb is a great system for stays upto 1-3 months. Beyond that it's not economical. 

[Dev4]

@Michael477

Sorry for the late response. I went off-line for a few days from the Airbnb Community. 

You are right; anything could have happened. I had the privilege to meet an amazing person, a guru in computer programming, who stayed with us a result of this. Things happen for good 🙂