When a woman in her early twenties asked for a reservation at Vicky Borman's restaurant Heritage listed one bedroom cottage Last summer, in the English village of St. Neot, people felt something was wrong.
The user has no reviews on her Airbnb profile, so Borman “Super Host” status and conduct surveys on social media.
There it was – an ad for a St. Neot's party on this woman's Facebook profile. The intention was clear: the party would be held at Borman's cabin. She declined the request.
Half an hour later, Borman received another booking request through Airbnb, this time from an older woman asking on behalf of her son. After suspicions were raised, Borman also checked her social media profiles and pieced together that the second requester's son was a friend of a prospective party host Borman had previously rejected. She declined the booking as well.
Borman said the experience made her more picky about who was allowed to live in the cabins. She said she felt it necessary to check a potential guest's social media profiles if she thought their stay might cause problems.
“I know some Airbnb hosts who track every guest. I do wonder if I'm turning into some kind of super detective, but I'm definitely not that person,” Borman said.
“If someone has a good review, I don't feel like I need to do anything other than make sure they had a great stay. But unfortunately, over the past few years, there have been at least three situations where I felt the need to check in beforehand on what people were saying. on social media.
Digging through social media
A poll A survey of 247 rental property managers from the UK, US, France, Germany and Canada by home security company Minut showed Borman's hunch was correct.
About 43% of property managers have dealt with noise complaints in their rental properties, and 25% have reported noise issues to the property police.
However, Borman is one of 8% who said they check a guest's social media profile before accepting a reservation. It's a key part of the review process for the Texas company's CEO Sebastien Long tenantoffering fully furnished, short-term apartment rentals in Houston.
“When we have suspicion about someone, we dig into social media as a more advanced check,” he said. “We'll see if their story matches the information they gave us about why they booked with us.”
Long said he also conducts online news searches of potential guests to check for negative headlines or even arrests.
Credit card issues
Long said his company took these steps to address one of the biggest problems – people using stolen credit cards.
“A lot of people will stay for a few days and then leave before the actual cardholder has a chance to dispute the credit card transaction,” he said. “One of the biggest things we look for is whether the person making the reservation used their own credit card.”
Long said Lodour's review process meant blocking about 2% of nearly 1,200 bookings — a small but crucial step in its commitment to uncovering credit card fraud. The company's efforts have resulted in about 10 arrests among some 9,000 guests over the past five years.
“There's a trend of 'digital shoplifting' where people are just using other people's credit cards to get away for the weekend, basically petty criminals making a big living,” he said. “The first time was in 2019 when we were waiting outside a property for the police to show up and we saw them go in and arrest the guy and drag him out in just his underwear.”
4.5 star rating is not enough
Airbnb superhost Crystal Shell manages short-term rental operations in Alabama under management company Bailey TrackingShe said tenants' social media profiles will not be checked. But she is strict about only accepting bookings from guests with five-star reviews on Airbnb or similar platforms.
Shell learned its lesson, she said, by initially accepting reservations from guests with 4-star or 4.5-star reviews, only to discover they didn't follow check-out procedures, such as removing all sheets from the bed and putting them in the laundry. Depart the hotel before 10am. That's one reason she started another company, Hello Guest Screen, which provides check-out and other related information on hotel TV screens.
Sebastian Long, CEO of Texas short-term rental company Lodgeur.
Source: Sebastian Long
“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. If a guest breaks something or tears up your listing, it takes a long time for Airbnb to pay any insurance claims. Then, if you have back-to-back bookings (mine usually are That's it) and then you have to cancel another booking because something needs to be fixed, so I added 'If you have less than five stars or zero reviews, don't try to book' in my list,” Shell said .
An Airbnb spokesperson told CNBC Travel: “A stay rarely causes an issue, but we offer free AirCover For host and for guestsand has 24/7 support and strict policies.
An Airbnb spokesperson said AirCover covers damages for hosts and pays them out in an average of two weeks or less.
Airbnb also said that 0.03% of bookings globally resulted in property damage claims exceeding $1,000 and encouraged hosts and guests to communicate about their trip before confirming a booking.
Scheer said she asked guests to send a message before booking to confirm the nature of the stay — something she recommended all hosts do.
“Having people leave messages before booking often helps us save money,” she said. “Based on the responses, I turn down at least three inquiries a day, usually about wanting to have a party. So we don't allow locals to stay either.”
“Looks good on paper”
But she said that for Borman, no amount of social media scrutiny could have prevented the worst guest experience she had ever experienced. She accepted a last-minute booking request from a man who said he was dining out in the area with his wife and wanted to stay at St Neots Cottage rather than drive home.
She said the pair left the same night they arrived after the man complained the mattress was broken and asked for a refund. Borman said she immediately went to the cabin and found the sheets covered in apparent sex residue and that a set of coasters was missing. She sent the photos to Airbnb, but Airbnb rejected the man's request for a refund and ordered him to reimburse Borman for the coasters and sheets.
Borman later looked him up online and discovered he was a well-known and respected London businessman. A search also revealed the woman was not his wife.
“If I had seen this person beforehand, I might have bought a bottle of champagne,” Borman said.
“He's an Airbnb superhost with a stellar track record, so it looks great on paper. I don't think I'm going to end up cleaning up after him with rubber gloves on.”