Basic Host Requirements - Loophole or Error?

[Danielle476]

Good day everyone,

Recently I logged into my account to see that '1 Host Requirement Needs Your Attention' under the Basic Requirements.  The target for accepted reservations is 88%, and I have recently fallen to 86%.  Seems fairly clear, correct?

I have my booking settings to Instant Book, with the caveat that all guests must be ID Verified.  For whatever reason, AirBNB still allows unverified guests to make booking requests - something I don't typically mind, as I will explain my requirements to the guest, walk them through the Verification process and eventually, 9/10 guests do end up adding their ID and booking with me anyway.  

The problem is this:  AirBNB requires that hosts 'Accept' or 'Decline' requests when they're made.  I always decline unverified guests, with a message outlining what I've explained above.  Once they're Verified, they Instant-Book.  I had no idea these 'Declines' were being held against me!  When I spoke with Customer Service, they explained I should instead be asking the guest to withdraw their request, submit their ID for Verification and then Instant Book once all is said and done.  This seems INCREDIBLY cumbersome for me to explain, and for the guest to adhere to.  I'm not an AirBNB IT professional, why should I have to jump through these hoops when the settings on my listing are clearly intended for Verified guests only?

To me, this is the equivalent of allowing a listing to say 'no dogs allowed', then penalizing them by saying 'you only allowed 86% of your guests to bring dogs instead of the required 88%.'  Don't let me select 'Verified Users Only' if you're going to turn around and penalize me for not accepting Unverified Users.  Ironically, this number isn't even accurate as most of the Unverified Users do become Verified and book with me after I've declined.

Any thoughts on this?  I'm being painted into a corner it seems.  Their algorithms don't appear very well thought-out at times.  I'm sure this is also damaging my listing's status in the search results.  Customer Service just suggested to send them a completed Feedback Form.  I asked if it would be better to simply not 'Decline' or 'Accept' but she said that would be worse.  Sigh.

[Suzanne302]

Another option for hosts who are uncomfortable with a guest, but don't want to have a Decline count against them can try to get the guest to withdraw the request. It may not always work, but I've done it twice. Here's the message I send:

"Hi XXX and thanks so much for your interest in booking my home! I'm so sorry I can't accommodate you at this time but if you withdraw your request you will not be charged and will be free to find another listing. Please let me know if you need help doing this. Have a great day!"

Both times the request was immediately withdrawn. 

[Danielle476]

This is great if I don't want to host them, but the majority of people making reservations are fine by me, just not ID Verified.  I think what I'll do is ask them to Verify and give them that 24 hours to comply.  If they don't, then I'll be forced to Decline but hopefully if I select 'Rules' instead of 'I'm uncomfortable with this guest' it'll be rated differently.  

[Suzanne302]

@Danielle476  Did you change your setting per the link Emilia posted? If so, your problem should be solved and you won't have to ask guests to verify ID.

[Danielle476]

@Suzanne302 I haven't yet - my acceptance rating will never go back to the targeted 88% if I check that box, because I will no longer have the option to accept or decline bookings.  I want to get it back up to 88% and then I'll change the setting.  I'm worried leaving it as is will affect my search rankings.  (Something AirBNB will not confirm but I'm sure their algorithms are set up that way given the plethora of hosts to choose from.)  In the meantime, when someone makes a request, I'll have them upload their ID or simply ask them to withdraw if the 24 hour mark is nearing.  SIGH.  Why they have to make things so complicated for no reason is beyond me.

[Suzanne302]

@Danielle476 Okay. I guess I'm confused? You're an Instant Book host and you don't want people to be able to even Request unless they are verified, correct? Checking that box would solve that problem.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you will no longer have the option to accept or decline? Did you remove your Instant Book setting?

[Danielle476]

@Suzanne302 If I check that box, I will no longer receive requests that I can accept or decline.  Yes, this is what I want - after my acceptance rate has been corrected.  I can't correct it/bring it back up to 88% if I select that option right now.  My plan is to leave it as is, try some of the approaches others have mentioned to circumvent having to decline, and get my rating back up to 88% by accepting a request after I've instructed someone to verify their account and they do.  (Which is what I was already doing, but I was giving them the instructions and immediately declining.  What I should have done was wait until they Verified, then hit 'Accept', which would have kept my rating above the targeted 88%.)

I'm worried that leaving my rating below the target will affect my search rankings.  So, once corrected, I will definitely check that box!  Hope that made more sense.

[Suzanne302]

@Danielle476  Ahhhh, I understand now! I was so confused!

[Dominykas3]

Hello everyone I think I have a bit different case. In my case  overall rating is shown 0 stars when I am at 4.83 and reservation acceptance is 0% when I have never ever declined any reservation. What is here wrong?

[Sarah977]

@Dominykas3  It sounds like there's some glitch on your account. Contact Airbnb customer service directly to find out what's up and get it corrected. 

[Yuxing1]

@Danielle476 I am having the same struggle to maintain the acceptance rate so I totally feel you.

Just want to share my understanding about how airbnb calculates acceptance rate. I think the notion that instant booked reservation do not count as 'accept' is incorrect. I am a relatively new host so I can keep track of all my reservations so far. Recently I declined several requests from, let's just say, suboptimal guests, not realizing that could lower my acceptance rate. I can see that my last decline dropped my rate by 3%, and I have a total of about 30 reservations so far, majorities of which are through instant booking. It is pretty clear to me that instant booking counts as 'accept'.

With that said, the secret check box only solves issues with people having no verification, it still doesn't solve other problems like people with children, pets, lower rating, etc. when it is clearly not allowed. I guess the only plausible way to deal with this is to politely ask the guest to withdraw the request. If they don't, we decline and take the loss. I am going to try this approach from now on and share my experience.

[Robert4444]

I'm really new to being a host 4-5 weeks! I looked at my stats and it warned me about declining guests and it had a - (dash) with no percentage rate. I've had three people request to stay longer than we typically allow or to bring a dog. We accepted all of them, but they didn't end up booking. Did I get penalized or is that statistic just not loaded yet? I'm still trying to figure this all out. I'm glad to have come across these conversations. I'm hoping to figure out what messages Airbnb is sending my guests. I don't want t to miss anything. 🙂

[Danielle476]

It depends if they sent a request, or an inquiry.  Accepting a request reflects positively on your stats - declining a request will ding you.  Accepting or declining an inquiry does not affect your acceptance rate, as it's just an inquiry.  🙂