Am I being paranoid? "Red flag" guest is back with a new booking request
I’m a relatively new host and I treat my listing as a side hustle, not a full-time business. My goal isn’t to maximize every cent, but to find quality guests I can trust with my property and my neighbors' peace of mind.
A few weeks ago, a guest requested 21 days in May. He had an account since 2021 but 0 reviews. Because I don’t feel comfortable hosting "black box" profiles without social proof, I declined and sent a polite generic message.
The Red Flag: 10 minutes after I declined, he tried to circumvent my decision by sending the exact same request from a different account (also with 1 review). I felt this pushiness was a red flag, like I had "dodged a bullet". So I declined that one too.
The Current Situation: He’s back. He just sent a new request for the final 8 days of that original period. Interestingly, in the last two weeks, he managed to get one legitimate 5-star review from another host in my city.
I’m torn. On one hand, he finally has some social proof. On the other hand, the "account hopping" and pushiness from before really soured my gut feeling. I’m also worried about a retaliatory review since I’ve rejected him twice already.
Some extra context: I’ve been declining (not cancelling!) more requests than usual lately because of a massive music festival is happening in the city in August. Airbnb keeps sending me old, empty profiles for those high-stakes dates, and I’ve been picky to avoid party issues or neighbor complaints so was worried that to many declines add up.
What would you do? Would you give him a chance now that he has one review, or does the previous behavior mean he’s a "Hard No"?
Update: I declined and now he is asking me why it is not possible to book…