As a vacation rental host, you are always taking a risk when accepting bookings. You are having guests stay in your home that you know nothing about. Why not make this challenge a little less risky? There are several precautions you can go through to minimize the chance of hosting problematic guests. Start from the beginning and be sure you screen your guests thoroughly before approving their booking request. In this blog, we will go over how to screen potential vacation rental guests.
-
Verify through Airbnb
Before booking, all guests must provide a profile picture and phone number. Furthermore, Airbnb has additional verification procedures in order to keep Airbnb secure and fight fraud. Guests may be asked to provide a picture of their government ID. The government ID is used to verify that the person in their profile picture is really them. Although the information from the government ID is limited when shared to a host, most hosts feel more comfortable or even require the completion of the verification process before they confirm a booking.
-
Ask questions
There’s nothing wrong with asking questions to get to know your guest better. However, it is best to make sure your questions seem warm and inviting rather than suspicious and interrogative. Asking questions will hopefully provide you with some insight on the type of person your guest is while also creating a more personable relationship. Generally, hosts will ask guests about the purpose of their trip, if they have stayed in a vacation rental before, and to tell them a little about themselves.
-
Reviews/References
Similar to when guests check out your reviews as a host, you should check out their reviews as a guest. Reviews are just as important for guests as they are for hosts. Reviews can give others an idea of what kind of guest they are. Similar to reviews, you may also want to check out their references. References are written by friends, family, or colleagues and are used to allow others to get to know you better.
-
Social Media
It is relatively easy to find out some information about people with a few minutes of researching online. In this day and age, a majority of people have some sort of social media platform whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or even Linkedin. Do a brief Google search to see if you can find any general information on your potential guest.
