Basic Questions - What to do with an inquiry

[Lorna170]

I am relatively new to AirBnB but have been renting for more than 15 years.  On AirBnB, I have received inquiries from people who ask a question, like "Will there be snow for Christmas?".  I will respond with an answer, generally within an hour of their inquiry.  That is the last time that I hear from the guest.  They do not respond to my answer, nor do they book.  Am I doing something wrong?  Do I need to put in the response message text AND click on the Pre-Approve link?  What to do is not clear, and those guests who have sent questions that I answered but who did not respond to my answers (or book) are still hanging out under Pending Requests on my dashboard.

[Emiel1]

@Lorna170 

Answerring the question is all you have to do when it comes to "trivial" questions.

If it is more serious and you like to invite the guest to book, you can pre-approve (or do some more communication first). Not responding guests on inquiries better ignore instead of decline (BTW if it is a request you must accept or decline).

In former days it was possible to remove "pending" inquiries from the dashboard, but since the new layout we have to wait until they disappear (they will).

[Emilia42]

@Lorna170 All you need to do is answer the question. An answer can be written text, a pre-approval, OR a decline.  You only need to do one. The action of responding will affect your response rate (if you don't respond your response rate will go down.) I answer with text and let it be. It is very, very, very, very common for a guest to send you an inquiry and never follow through with the booking. 

Requests to book are different. You must respond with an Accept or Decline. Make sure you know the difference between the two.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Understanding-Response-Rate-and-Acceptance-Rate/t...

[Sarah977]

A guest not answering your response to their Inquiry has nothing to do with you doing anything wrong. Prospective guests may have sent out inquiries to several listings. And it seems that less and less people these days have any basic manners, like thanking you for answering, even if they aren't going to book.

So just answer and forget about it unless you hear from them again. And I'd certainly want better communication from a prospective guest than an idiotic question like "Will there be snow for Xmas?" before pre-approving their inquiry.

@Lorna170