Welcome to the *most important information I will ever share with new hosts.* If you learn to filter potentially high risk reservations, it will save you time, money, emotional trauma, and liability! Although it’s not fun to talk about, it is surprisingly easy to lower your risk as a host by tweaking a few settings on your Airbnb listing.

This is what I dramatically call the Trifecta of Death on Airbnb: Same day, no reviews, local. Add on to this combo, one night, weekend stay and it’s over people! Hate to say it. But the Venn Diagram intersection of these factors should cause you to pause, ask additional questions and use caution.

By adjusting your settings, these reservations will not slip through without your say so. YES there are definitely going to be times when guests meet the above high risk criteria, and are harmless. But in these instances, you’ll have the chance to chat first, and manually approve the booking.

I created a video discussing this topic. Start at minute 4:00 to watch a quick tutorial on how to avoid high risk situations. I’ve also summarized the steps in the text below.

1. When you set up Instant Book–be sure to Toggle ON the requirement that says “guests who instantly book your place must have prior reviews from other hosts.” You will still receive booking requests from those who do not have reviews, but you’ll have the option to speak with the guest first and double check potential problems. 

2. Under your calendar availability, there is a menu option that says “Advanced Notice.” I select 1 day’s notice, and then check the box that says “For Instant Book Hosts: Allow guests to send reservation requests without advance notice.” What this means is that you’ll still receive requests from last minute people, but you’ll have the option to make a judgment call. It can’t be booked instantly, but you can still manually approve all requests.

3. Local guests. You can’t always tell where a potential guest is from before their reservation is confirmed. I’m not a fan of this but I can tell you if someone without reviews says on a same day inquiry “I’m local, just need to get away” RUN. FLAGS. NO! 

Let me reiterate that in all my years as a host, 99.95% of experiences with guests have been positive. By using these filters, you will be able to prevent the rare bad actor who uses the platform against Airbnb’s rules.