What are your gut feelings on this?
Airbnb enquiry for one night in September, even though we have set our minimum night at 3 so he'd be charged for 3 nights.
The bumpf (in French) talks about "we" but there is only 1 guest listed
Asking questions about size of place, can he book just one room (quite clearly not from our ad) can he have early entry and late departure?
Bumpf written to Monsieur when I am most definitely on there as Rosie and my picture is obviously a woman.
Enquirer is only verified by a phone number and email address, not FB or otherwise. No reviews
Feelings on this Airbnb enquiry
Feelings on this Airbnb enquiry
Last edited by GRL on Wed May 06, 2015 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Well, my gut feeling would be that he wants what you don't offer. There's no reason not to respond indicating that. You can't be scammed just by responding and if a suspicious reply along the lines of I'll pay for the whole week and you refund the difference... you just reject the booking (or whatever you need to do with Airbnb).
It may be he just doesn't understand how Airbnb works - that there are holiday rental-type properties on there, not just rooms in someone's house / apartment.
Oh, and remember to address him as Mme.
At least he didn't ask you if flights were included in the price...
It may be he just doesn't understand how Airbnb works - that there are holiday rental-type properties on there, not just rooms in someone's house / apartment.
Oh, and remember to address him as Mme.
At least he didn't ask you if flights were included in the price...
Ah ha, the guy has got back to me. He wants somewhere to celebrate his mother-in-law's 60th birthday, at the gite, with 15 people and then have 6 people + a young child plus a baby sleep the one night.
Errrmmmm - we sleep 5 and we certainly don't have space to sit 15 people in there!
Bye bye Mr C
Errrmmmm - we sleep 5 and we certainly don't have space to sit 15 people in there!
Bye bye Mr C
Last edited by GRL on Wed May 06, 2015 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Clearly he was fishing by sending multiple enquiries in the hope that someone would take the bait, but he cannot have done his research before flinging out random enquiry emails. No one, not even a confirmed idiot, would think that a gite sleeping five could accommodate 21.
EDIT: Okay, that will teach me to skim read
Having six plus a baby stay over is still over-occupancy and I wouldn't be happy with someone booking my place to host a party in any event. Even a 60th can get quite lively! I agree that his name should be hidden as there is no obvious scam here.
EDIT: Okay, that will teach me to skim read
Having six plus a baby stay over is still over-occupancy and I wouldn't be happy with someone booking my place to host a party in any event. Even a 60th can get quite lively! I agree that his name should be hidden as there is no obvious scam here.
Last edited by Casscat on Wed May 06, 2015 9:30 am, edited 2 times in total.
I read his requirements as 6 of the 15 would stay at the gîte rather than 15 + 6 but in any event, I find French people are good at improvising so half-a-dozen of them would probably have brought extra chairs, an extra table or two, a gazebo for outside... etc. Our neighbour's house would fit into our kitchen but that doesn't stop her managing to accommodate 17 for Christmas eve dinner... 
Not that I'm saying Mr C's booking is one you'd want...
Btw Rosie, it's probably kind to edit and remove his full name from your first post on the off-chance he's real... if unrealistic. There is at least one real French person by that name, it doesn't scream scam to me and he is already catalogued by search engines coupled with scam via this topic.
Not that I'm saying Mr C's booking is one you'd want...
Btw Rosie, it's probably kind to edit and remove his full name from your first post on the off-chance he's real... if unrealistic. There is at least one real French person by that name, it doesn't scream scam to me and he is already catalogued by search engines coupled with scam via this topic.
However good they are at improvising there is no way we were going to have a party for 15 in a house that only comfortably only fits 6. There is nowhere to put up a gazebo outside and nowhere to easily park the extra cars without blocking us in. After a few more emails going back and forth he finally accepted that 1 double bed and 3 singles would not accommodate the 6 adults and 2 young children who wanted to stay overnight.
He is, from what I understand, not at all atypical of French guests who do not seem to think it unreasonable to cram extra people into a smaller property. Maybe it's because I'm English but when we say we sleep 5, we sleep 5 and no more. Plus I wasn't particularly happy that he didn't explain straight away about the party. Was he planning on doing that after I had accepted his booking?
Name removed.
He is, from what I understand, not at all atypical of French guests who do not seem to think it unreasonable to cram extra people into a smaller property. Maybe it's because I'm English but when we say we sleep 5, we sleep 5 and no more. Plus I wasn't particularly happy that he didn't explain straight away about the party. Was he planning on doing that after I had accepted his booking?
Name removed.
Its normal for French people to play sardines with gîtes, especially if they only stay for week-ends. Last week I had 15 plus dog staying in a gite sleeping 12 and this weekend 28 staying in all 3 gites which sleep 23. The children sleep on blow up beds or mattresses on the floor. I charge a little supplement for the extra water/electricity used but the houses are always left immaculate so I really don't mind at all.