@Jacquelene1 Okay, you need to understand the difference between a request and an inquiry, from both the host and guest end.
If the guest sends an Inquiry message, they need to enter dates to do so, and they may not want those dates, as you are finding. The options for the host on an Inquiry message are pre-approve, decline, or simply message back, which is what most hosts do with Inquiries. There is no need to decline an Inquiry. Even if you pre-approve an Inquiry, the guest still has to take another step to go on to book, or they might not do that, in which case the Inquiry will expire after 24 hours.
If a guest sends a Booking Request, and the host accepts it, Airbnb instantly begins the process of charging their credit card. So if they have entered dates they don't actually want, and the host accepts it, the guest will have a nasty surprise, so it would be stupid of them to send a Request instead of an Inquiry.
If it's a Request, and they were that dumb, then you should message them telling them the dates they actually want are blocked on the calendar, so it didn't make much sense for them to ask about those dates, and urge them to withdraw the request ASAP, so they will be free to look for a listing that is open for the dates they want.
If they withdraw the request before the 24 hour window to accept or decline (which you do have to do on a Request), you won't have to decline it.
So, Inquiries never require a decline, and Requests may not either if they withdraw it in time.
I hope I explained that understandably?
If you are getting a lot of these, you may want to add some wording near the top of your listing like "Please do not send Inquiries about booking dates which show as blocked on our calendar. If they are blocked, they are unavailable."
How far in advance does your calendar show? If you only have it set for 3 months ahead, then guests may assume that some winter dates might be available, so it would be better to show the calendar for 6 months ahead and block off all the dates that you will be using the place yourself.
And your Acceptance raate is not why you lost Superhost status- that stat is not factored in to Superhost criteria. Response rate is, but not Acceptance rate. So there was some other reason that you lost Superhost.
