28 Night Stay on Airbnb - Guest Wants Virtual Tour Before Booking

[Senta J.]

Hey Everyone,

We are in the process of taking over the management of a vacation rental we have in the Poconos and a prospective guest asked about booking it for 28 nights but he wants a virtual tour first.

I’m assuming a virtual would have to be done outside of Airbnb’s platform and sounds suspicious. I asked him if there was something he wanted to see that is not covered in the pictures, he said since it’s a new listing without reviews he wanted to see it first hand. I directed him to the old listing that is still being managed by the old management company that has 3 reviews that are all 5 stars and explained that we are taking over managing it so the reviews don’t get transferred over.

What do you all think? Is this a scam? If not, should we do the virtual tour?

Assuming he is legit, would we then go through the same process as a long term rental with a full application, background check and lease since they would have squatter’s rights for a stay that long?

I’m assuming all this would need to be done outside of the Airbnb platform, right?

Thanks in advance for any input you can provide as we are new to self-managing STRs but have LTR experience.

Senta

[Erin O'Connor Smith]

Hi~ in my listing I mention that house tours can be found on our Insta so people have never asked for a video. We also post a floor plan in the listing itself. We have 5 stars in accuracy I think as a result.

Def check the laws around rights for tenants vs. guests, Airbnb customer service may be able to help! If you have weird gut reactions or see red flags, don't ignore them!