Blocking dates

[Emiel1]

My proposition:

Dates should only be blocked by Airbnb when there is a confirmed reservation.

- A booking request should not block dates

- "verfication pending" should not block dates

- "Awaiting payment" should not block dates (at least not for 24 hours).

If you receive several inquires from potential guests just asking reasonable questions and then one booking request is coming in for similar dates, those other guests (pre-approved or not) get the message: dates or not available (anymore)

This is false information as long the booking request is not accepted !

Airbnb: stop acting as a control freak !

I am now receiving a lot of inquires/requests from international students, starting in the new semester. It is extremely difficult and annoying to manage this due to Airbnb's "blocking the dates"  policy. Some potential guests live in total different time-zone, communication takes much more time. And in the mean time the "let's book the place" lunatics (New profile, No ID verified, No reviews, Not reading the listing and Not having any questions at all) pop in, totally messing up things by blocking the dates.

BTW

Maybe give hosts an extra option: "only want to receive inquiries".

[Debra300 · Accepted solution]

@Emiel1,

I can see why a booking request would block dates.  Especially for listings that don't have IB enabled.  The blocked dates gives the first requester priority to book, and disallows the host from choosing among different requests.  I also understand, and agree with many of your points.

When a guest is about to fill in a booking request, there should be a note that asks if the person is ready to make a booking or is just asking a question.  It should be made very clear to a prospective guest that if their booking request is accepted, the reservation is automatically confirmed.  

Unfortunately, it is industry standard to hold a booking for 24 hours when a payment is declined.  I am listed on a few other platforms, and they all do it.  When this happens, to get the attention of the sincere traveler, I send a message that states the situation needs to be fixed right away, because the room is available on other platforms.  I also unsync the calendars among the different platforms to unblock the dates during the 24 hour wait period for the bogus booking.  

The inquiries only suggestion would be nice for some hosts, but I doubt that Airbnb would implement that option, because it doesn't lead to an immediate sale and them getting a commission.  Plus, there would be hosts who abuse this option by steering the guest to book off platform since there would be any metrics gathered for declines.

[Emilia42]

@Emiel1 

I agree with @Debra300. These suggestions all sound great from the host's side but think about it from a guest perspective. Hosts would put guests in limbo until something better came along. While a large majority of the hosts on this forum are running their "hosting hobbies" like professionals, not every host operates this way. There needs to be some sort of intervention from Airbnb to keep it professional. That's what got them this far and what sets Airbnb apart from Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.  

Side note: @Debra300 Regarding, "When a guest is about to fill in a booking request, there should be a note that asks if the person is ready to make a booking or is just asking a question." I cannot think of anything more clear than "Enter your CC info." That to me means you could be charged. I can't think of any other online service that requires a credit card to ask a question. When I read a post about guests who request to book without the actual intent to reserve, it baffles me. 

[Emiel1]

@Emilia42 

"intervention from Airbnb to keep it professional"

Last week i was flooded with booking request from new accounts without hardly any information or verification. While the inquirers all had profiles to be taken serious.  So maybe unverified new accounts should not be able to make booking requests at all. or at least not keep the requested dates locked up for 24 hours "awaiting verification".

[Emilia42]

@Emiel1 I'm a "you snooze, you lose" type of person. If the inquirers were serious, they would have booked to lock in their dates. You can always release your calendar within seconds with a decline. You will then have to hold out and hope the inquirers are in fact serious. As for the "Awaiting Verification" 24-hour hold, I agree that is a senseless Airbnb policy. Those who are verified, meet your booking requirements, and are committed to book, should get pirority. 

[Emiel1]

@Debra300 

Thank you for your insights.

A booking request maybe then should give a "temporary reserved" option to the dates as long not be confirmed. My main issue is it sends people inquiring/communicating about the listing (and in which i put already a lot of communication-energy in) a message : "not possible" as soon a booking request comes in and at least 1 requested date is in the inquirers time period.

[Debra300]

@Emiel1,

The "not possible" auto-reply is doing what's intended, and blocking the dates prevents double bookings.  What I think you're implying with a "temporary reserved" option is offering interested searchers the opportunity to get on the "waitlist", and the booking is automatically confirmed if the host has accepted the request and the space becomes available during their requested dates.  That sounds pretty cool, and although it's a possible feature, I think that it's improbable that Airbnb will implement that type of functionality.  It's something that would be helpful to hosts, but doesn't increase booking commissions for them, because currently guests make reservations from among the listings that are showing as available during their search.  Including listings that have pending reservation requests would actually stall the speed of the booking transactions, because guests would wait to see if a preferred property becomes available, and if it doesn't may postpone or abandon the transaction altogether due to frustration and disappointment.

[Kurt240]

Hi Debra...What is 'IB' that you refer to in your first paragraph. We have a situation where we have a guest asking to book today and our current guest has requested TODAY to stay another month. We want to talk to our current guests to make sure they are willing to follow our house rules - which has been an issue for them - before we make a decision on whether to let them stay for another month.

Meanwhile, the reservation request includes a note that if we don't respond to the request within 24 hours, the dates will be blocked. We have spoken to the potential guest and he is understanding of the situation. We told him that once we make the decision on the our current guest, we will let him know ASAP what our decision is. Do we need to ask him to rescind his reservation request for now, so the dates won't get blocked?

Any advice you can give us would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kurt240 yes. If you can't answer within 24 hrs then you should ask the potential guest to remind their request. Alternatively you will have to decline them.

On a different note why are you even considering extending a guest who doesn't obey your rules? I assume you have already talked to them and they are still not complying so why would you believe them going forward?

[Kurt240]

Thanks, M&J for your input! I went ahead and contacted the potential new guest to let him know we declined his reservation so that our response rate would not take a hit. We let him know we would contact him within six hours to re-book, and he seemed fine with that.

With our new guests, it is more than just a conversation about rules, actually. We have had a problem with them cranking up our heaters. They are older folks from Florida and not used to the Colorado cold, despite an exceedingly mild winter.

Communication has been sketchy with this guest anytime we have wanted to chat with her and she does work long hours, so we are trying to keep that in mind. But if she doesn't contact us within a few hours, we will not be extending their stay and we will open things up to the new guest.

Thanks for your reply...It has been a blessing to have so many hosts who can offer their opinions and advice. This is just our fifth guest so we are still really green to hosting.

Cheers!

[Sarah977]

@Kurt240  You should have just asked the guest who requested to withdraw his request and resubmit it when you got back to him, if you decided to accept. Declines count against you, too, and if you decline too much,Airbnbwill threaten to suspend your listing.

I concur with Mike and Jane- it seems odd and foolish to allow guests who have been disrespectful and ignored your requests not to blast the heat and whose communication is sketchy, to extend- they aren't suddenly going to change their behavior.

[Kurt240]

Thanks Sarah...I will know for next time. We did decline his request at the last minute but I was in contact with the guest and he was understanding about the situation and once we realized we would NOT be extending our current guests for another month, we asked him to make another request and he will be staying for a week in February.

[Kelly149]

@Emiel1 I'll go you one better, how about adding a "host confirms this guest has met their booking parameters" in order to hold dates and confirm a booking?

I didn't at all mind using IB when ABB followed thru on my booking verifications and when a guest completed the steps of having a profile and answering my pre-booking questions. Bummer was, quite often they didn't

[Diana-And-Lando0]

I agree, I was surprised when this happened to me recently.  Something new that some idiot at Airbnb thought would be good thing.  We as hosts should have control over our calendars.  After all it is OUR listing! Not Happy!

[Stuart72]

Could not agree more.