I think a lot of it depends on where the person lives in relation to a major bike route. I live in Beaverton, Oregon so I get an occasional request from people coming into Portland to head out to Astoria to start the TransAm. In 3 years of living here I've only had one cyclist who had started the route. He was going from Astoria to Portland before dropping south to join the route. Didn't want to ride on the coast. Otherwise they've all been people who are headed to the start.
Point being if they live on a major bike route and haven't hosted that a cause of concern. If they live in Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska; not so much.