Welcome to another Ask Me Anything (Ask Us Anything?) episode! Each week we’ll answer your questions on STR, real estate, OTAs, and everything in between.

Jasmine asks:

How can you check if booking requests from brand new Airbnb users are valid? Specifically, if they are requesting a long-term stay but have just made an account and have zero reviews.

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[00:00:05] You're listening to the Thanks for Visiting Podcast. We believe hosting with heart is at the core of every short-term rental. With Annette's background in business operation--

[00:00:14] And Sarah's extensive hospitality management and interior design experience, we have welcomed thousands of guests from over 30 countries, earning us over $1,000,000 and garnering us thousands of five-star reviews.

[00:00:28] We love sharing creative ways for your listing to stand out, serve your guests and be profitable. Each episode, we will have knowledgeable guests who bring value to the short-term rental industry.

[00:00:39] Or we will share our stories of our own experiences so you can implement actual improvements to your rentals. Whether you're experienced, new or nervous to start your own short-term rental, we promise you'll feel right at home.

[00:01:03] Hello. Welcome to another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:01:06] I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:01:08] Thanks for Visiting.

[00:01:08] This is an AMA episode, Ask Me Anything. If you have a question about business, short-term rental, hospitality, whatever that might be, you can go to thanksforvisiting.me. In the upper right hand corner is a red button and it'll take you to a page where you record your voice. And if we feel your question would be really beneficial to all listeners and viewers on YouTube and here in the podcast, we will answer it here on the show.

[00:01:31] I have a question.

[00:01:32] Yeah.

[00:01:33] How much money do you think we would have if we got $1 for every time we said, Thanks for Visiting together?

[00:01:39] I don't know if it's still fun all these years there.

[00:01:40] It's still is fun, but now I'm trying to do the math.

[00:01:43] Well, if we say at the beginning of the show and the end of the show, we have how many episodes?

[00:01:46] 200 and some episodes. What episode did we start saying that?

[00:01:49] What made us start saying it?

[00:01:51] I don't know, because I was never a cheerleader. It seems there's--

[00:01:54] I don't know, but we never sat down and said, you know what? We should do it.

[00:01:56] We should do it in tandem. I bet you what happened is we both tried to talk at the same time--

[00:02:02] Because we both like to talk.

[00:02:03] And we said it at the same time, like, oh, that works. Okay, That was my Ask TFV question for the day.

[00:02:07] I'm sure our listeners thought that really valuable. Okay. But now Jasmine has a valuable question she's going to ask and we're going to chat about it. Here we go.

[00:02:14] Hi, my name is Jasmine. I am from Texas, Houston, to be exact. My question is when they request a long-term stay such as three months or so and you go through their profile to review and they show that they just joined, so like joined 2023, no previous reviews, also when their message says-- all it says is hi and it's your house available for long term, do we decline, approve or what is the process? Is this an automatic red flag for such squatters or anything like that? Thank you.

[00:02:48] Can I go first?

[00:02:49] Yeah, that's a great question.

[00:02:50] Do we say that every time?

[00:02:51] Great question.

[00:02:52] Yeah, go ahead.

[00:02:54] And I've learned because I also think about these questions, Jasmine, what is a red flag? It is one of my biggest worries. I know a lot of you listeners it's your biggest worry, who is coming into our home. But here's what I can tell you, and it brings me peace, is I'm on a lot of Facebook groups with real estate investors. And from a story that just happened in one of my groups where a guy had tenants for years and years, always paid on time, they were always fantastic to now he's in a legal battle with them, trying to evict them, and he's like, this happened out of nowhere, what the heck, to someone in our membership who it was a weekend stay and they couldn't get the door code to work and they knock the door in and then they told her that they don't want to leave and they are going to protect themselves with their Second Amendment rights. Here's the thing. We're in the business of people and there's only so much you can do. And we're going to talk about what you can do. And this is not meant to scare you. Honestly, it's meant to say, you know what, if you're in this because you love doing it, there is some inherent risk. And you can do everything you can to protect yourself. And if something were to happen, you take it one moment at a time. You make sure you have a good attorney that you trust, who knows what you're doing so that you can call them immediately to help you walk you through that process. And that's what you do.

[00:04:06] And I think this question also-- this type of inquiry is not just for long-term stays, mid-term stays. This could be a five-day stay, a one-night stay. This is a common inquiry or question that might seem very brief. But again, that's where we as host need to extend the hand to help them understand the platform a little bit better. So that kurt I guess we might say, that kurt and very short inquiry is not an instant red flag.

[00:04:37] No, it's not an instant red flag, but it is like, I need to get more out of you.

[00:04:41] This is a red flag for yourself to, I need to maybe ask more questions. So let's go through how to kind of like-- the comeback. I don't think it's an immediate no way.

[00:04:51] I don't either, because I've been surprised over people who are just really brief in their communication. But we do need to let them know-- so, for example, if this were to happen to me, some things that come to my mind of things I would ask is, "Hi, it's possible that we could accommodate you for three plus months. There are some questions I have for you, and if you're willing to have a conversation, we can figure out if my place is a good fit for you."

[00:05:13] Yes. What Sarah just said is the best to say, I want to see if my place is a great fit for you. So it puts it right back to them. It's not like I want to see if you're a good guess for my place. Uh-uh. I want to see if this is a good space for you. That is like such a warm welcome and it puts the ball back in their court of like, oh, they're in quote-unquote, "control" of the conversation and what they're looking for in the space. Love that.

[00:05:35] Yeah. And then you could follow it up with what is bringing you to town. And with that information, they tell you about a special project that they're working on or a hospital. You can do some side Googling and see if that is true. I would ask them, who is coming with you? Are you bringing any pets? And do you understand that if you stay with me longer than 28 days, I will require my own due diligence to verify your-- do a background check and sign an additional lease with me if you're comfortable with that. And I have that in my house rules too. So if they were to go over my house rules, they see that I'm not singling them out. This is a blanket rule that I would have for all of my stays that are over 28 days, regardless if they are quote-unquote, "verified" by whatever platform they're on. We have additional steps at the table to be approved by us.

[00:06:20] Anything else you can think of, Annette, because then the conversation would start and we might have more questions.

[00:06:24] Yeah. And the thing is, too, you can kind of just say like-- obviously, this person with no reviews is just joining. You can even be excited like, hey, I see you're new to the platform. Do you have any questions about using Airbnb? That's also a really warm welcome like, hey, I see you, I'm paying attention to who you are. I'm not just blanket-answering things that are coming through the app. I think that's also a really good way to welcome them to the platform and educate them as guests. And so you can, are there any questions for me? So I think letting them know you see that with them, that they're new to the platform and welcoming them and what questions might they have too. So yeah, but again, not an immediate no because also we all have to start somewhere. Even as a host, the first time we have someone stay with us, is this a red flag? They've never had a guest before. We all have to start with zero reviews and just join in a platform. So we all start somewhere.

[00:07:15] Another good question to ask too right off the bat, because sometimes it'll nip it in the bud and it'll end the conversation is what is your budget for your three-month stay because they might be someone wanting for a place that-- this happens to us all the time where our one bedrooms in midterm stay, we're starting at let's just say $2,000 and their budget is $1,000. So--

[00:07:36] We're not the space for you.

[00:07:37] We're not aligned.

[00:07:38] Yeah, we don't want to waste your time.

[00:07:40] Right. Right. So that's also another great opening line question of what to ask to see if there's some synergy there.

[00:07:46] But Jasmine, from Houston, great question. Thanks for reaching out and--

[00:07:51] That was helpful.

[00:07:51] Yeah.

[00:07:52] With that, I'm Sarah Karakaian.

[00:07:54] I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:07:55] Thanks for Visiting.