I have heard hundreds of horror stories from neighbors, guests and hosts alike. First of all, I cannot believe the number of people who give total strangers the keys to their home. Unless these hosts are changing the locks after each guest, they are asking for huge problems. A guest could easily have a copy of the key made and come back to the home at any time. Since guests book online, you have absolutely no idea who these people are who are staying in your home. It could be another Ted Bundy who may rape and kill your daughters. It could be another Jeffrey Dahmer who may rape and kill your sons. It could be a serial killer who could return in the middle of the night at some future date and kill your entire family. Or, in a less violent scenario, the guest may return sometime while you are away and rob your home. If you are going to allow strangers into your home:
1) Get a copy of the driver’s license of any guest who will be staying at your home.
2) Get an electronic front door lock and change the code after each guest departs.
3) Be sure you have dead bolt locks on all bedroom doors where your family members are sleeping.
In the US there are all sorts of online sites where you can check people’s backgrounds. Sign up for a membership to one of these sites and do a preliminary background check on each guest who will be staying in your home. There are actually a lot of very nice people in the world and you may be lucky enough to host some of these people in your home. However, there are also some very unethical, sick and violent people out there. Your first priority should be to protect yourself and your family.
Hey, I know there seem to be some AIRBNB staff but I still want to disclose that lots of AIRBNB users are not the landlords or tenants at all! They just use someone else’ ID for registration. AIRBNB can also cancel any transaction made anytime they want. Be careful! We tried this web for a while and decided never to use it anymore for safety purpose.
then don’t use instant book, don’t accept requests of new users and check the reviews of everyone before accepting a request, you can also request a driver license or personal ID (but mention it in the description), also most of the stories are made up like nearly everything on the internet
and you 3 steps are also fine except if someone wants to murder you he will find a way to do so and a simple electronic front door lock won’t save you
Thomas, what in the world would make you say that most of these stories are made up? My family had a very bad experience with Air BnB – we are neither guests nor hosts – it was our neighbour’s Air BnB guests that caused the problems. The guests were drunk and tried to break into our home completely ruining our front door and fracturing my son’s nose in the process. As you can imagine, the police is involved and investigating. These things can and do happen.
I agree it’s a risk when you give keys out but like, the person could still kill you or rob everything. So you have to be trusting. Or read users reviews
Who wrote this preachy, fear-mongering post? It’s out of place in this otherwise helpful, sincere website.
Paul, not sure how common sense can protect you from criminals. After all, they don’t tend to wear signs.
I’d never considered the possibility that someone could copy a key and rob an apartment. But it’s certainly a possibility – especially with some of the higher end properties.
I think you should sign up for http://www.paranoia.com
Personally, I’m an honorary member of http://www.usecommonsense.com
🙂