From corona cancellations to double bookings...to a scam.

[Kerry Baird]

I *had* my calendars sync'd up; I had AirBnb set up to approve guests.  Now I notice that I have two double bookings, one for this upcoming weekend.  Was not really paying attention to AirBnb, since most of my bookings come through VRBO/HA and had a ton of cancellations.  

I'm moaning at my stupidity and aiming to be "a truth teller" and spill it all out there.  Must cancel a family and I don't want to.  Oh. So. Annoyed. With. Myself.

On a Spammy note, I got a weird request from a guy who wants to send a check from his employer's business checking account, and expressed a desire to book directly from me...red flags all over the place. No security that way, check instead of cash/Paypal.  Not using the platform. Sending him a check as a "refund."  Oh, yes.  His address is Singapore, and the booking "is my first for 2020" and in September.  Anyhow, his name comes up a bunch of times for scamming people on VRBO/HA. This is reported to be a scam where two checks come, and he asks you to send the overage to another address. 

I'm grateful to have bookings, and hope that you other hosts out there are seeing a rebound.

[John Underwood]

I just had a double booking. I had a block on Vrbo and something happened to it.

So I talked to my coworker that has a nice Lake house that he doesn't advertise but rents sometimes.

I got him to agree to rent his house to them. I gave the people options to cancel etc. We worked out that they would keep their reservation intact so that they have the option to slam me on the review if things don't work-out as stated. I  am just going to pay my coworker what I would have received.

I agreed to take some of my water toys over to the other house. I'm hoping I can just get them in my boat and do a  dock to dock tranfer about 15 minutes away.

I felt bad and wanted to do everything possible to not ruin their vacation.