New booking scam? No credit card...Certified Check. Chime in~

[Kerry Baird]

My first STR house has just gone live. I have one 60 day booking in January, which I mentioned in a previous post. And then I got a "tentative request" where he chose not to pay. The booking expired because he did not pay. The dates released.

Hackles up, 1.  He contacted me again, and asked me to email him directly, off site.

Hackles up, 2.  He said he would not use a credit card, and wanted to use a certified check.

Please share your thoughts.  I'm thinking I'd rather lose this first booking.

[Ken Latchers]

contacting him or accepting payment off the site might get you delisted Airbnb, VRBO, TripAdvisor, Etc. Is a common ploy. They try to save money and you are no longer allowed on the website.

Don't accept couple of month bookings (over 30 days), you are in danger of that person claiming via tenant and then having to go through the eviction process. It is not worth it. Most people I have seen doing short-term rental, focus on 3 to 6 days for a variety of reasons.

Cashier's checks can be fake. And echecks/ACH can have up to 60 days to yank the money back which surprisingly is the same length as this supposed booking.

If you were going to do midterm, multi-month rental such as traveling nurses, then be in that market. But it has its own paperwork and processes that are very different from short-term rentals. I guess Paul here would be the expert on that. 

If you were wise, I would flush this person and just focus on building a proper business. Don't be dazzled about something that might be poison, it didn't work well for Snow White.