Airbnb

[birdling]

We've never used airbnb before and are looking at having a couple of nights away. My dh pointed out that airbnb uses ratings for customers, but we don't have one, obviously. We are a family of 5, with 3 young children.
Will we get any booking accepted? Or will no one want us due to a lack of rating?

You shouldn’t have an issue, unless the place is very very popular and the host is likely to have a few people looking to book the same dates meaning they have to pick one in which case they might base this on reviews.

Use a family picture/picture of the kids for the profile photo it asks to provide, and write a nice message in the request box and you should be absolutely fine- they will be able to see that you’re a new user hence the lack of reviews

Everyone has to start with no ratings/reviews.
They don't want people with low ratings, but new customers will be fine.

We did our first airbnb a couple of months ago, was really easy, cheap and great locations to choose from.

Thanks everyone. That sounds good. I'm really hoping we get to go.
Just got to get a good picture of us all now....

The only way you'll get a rating is to use them. Everyone had 0 ratings initially. I certainly had no problems with my first booking

I always send a friendly email explaining who is going to stay and what we're planning to do while we're there. I've never had a refusal!

I’ve only ever used it once and it was a positive experience. I was worried about the booking being cancelled but all was well.

I just used it for the first time this month- no issues with the 2 bookings I made (and the accommodations were lovely!).

We're using it for the first time this summer. We've booked a week in an apartment in London. It's our main holiday this year. Hoping all will be ok.

We used it for the first time recently, had no rating, obviously. As fairly regular, decent hotel users, we were a bit dubious but gave it a whirl for a quick break for a couple of days and were very pleasantly surprised.
We have a nice rating now