5-Star Airbnb Guests only allowed to stay at the property-

[Duane72]

I have been asking Guests with no reviews to please read and also agree to the home's additional House Rules for staying.

Guests with 5-Star Review I accept immediately but those with no reviews I ask them to read and agree.

So far everyone is OK to read and also agree if they have never used Airbnb before for booking a home.

I have had problems with Guests that have less than a 5-Star Airbnb Review not respecting my home, so I have been declining their requests to stay.

Just wondering is this OK to accept only Guests that have a 5-Star Review or Guests that wish to achieve a 5-Star Review.

Just Asking - What do you think - just tired of picking up after guests that don't respect his beautiful home.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Nicole2223 If is is a booking INQUIRY then you just need to answer within 24 hrs. You do not need to accept or decline (and I would recommend you do neither). If it is a booking REQUEST then you must accept or decline within 24 hrs OR persuade the guest to remind their request. Ideally if you want to decline try to persuade the guest to rescind the request as too many declines will upset the Airbnb search algorithms.

[Huma0]

@Nicole2223 as @Mike-And-Jane0 mentioned, you don't have to accept or decline a booking enquiry, you just need to respond to the first message within 24 hours. With a booking request, you have to accept or decline within the first 24 hours. That's when the pressure is on.

If I have a guest send a booking enquiry but the information on their profile/in their message is scarce (happens all the time), I will ask them the necessary questions. When they don't respond, I send another message explaining that hosts only have a limited window to accept/decline, so it would be be great if they could answer my questions asap.

Of course, there are guests who don't do this (one just checked in today) because they don't even realise they have their notifications turned off, and they can still turn out to be good guests, but I am now erring on the side of caution. If I don't get the info/answers I need within those 24 hours, despite chasing, I will decline.

I did actually decline the guest who checked in today. It's kind of annoying to have your acceptance rate go down because of this, but he had his notifications turned off without realising. Somehow, guests seem not to be notified of your messages, but respond very quickly when you decline their request or cancel their instant booking.

At first, I thought it was the guest being a bit clueless, but it has happened so many times now that I think it's more likely a glitch in the Airbnb system. I know that the notifications I receive are really erratic (reported this numerous times to CS but they don't seem to care. For example, last night I received a notification of a guest's message more than 24 hours after she sent it.

[Nicole2223]

Thanks @Huma0 - I really appreciate this clarification! 

We've had a big uptick lately in 'inquiries'...I respond to all of them immediately but sometimes never get a response from the guest...and I never accept or decline when I don't hear back. 

What exactly is the 'acceptance rate' that you mention and where is it displayed? Or is this one of those invisible numbers that gets calculated and used in an algorithm?

I hear you on the glitches - and if guests experience anything like the issues I do with the Airbnb inbox / app / notifications....I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they sometimes don't answer!  That actually gives me an idea for an enhancement...if the device type could be noted along with the time with each message, it would give us some very useful insight.

[Huma0]

@Nicole2223 

When using a browser (not sure about the App, which I only use when I am away from my laptop), you can see your acceptance rate under the Insights tab. Click on Superhost and then Basic Requirements. If you have more than one listing, you can select the individual listing in the drop down menu to see the acceptance rate for each one.

You will see here that the 'target' is 88% or above. When this was first introduced, of course hosts were not at all happy about it. Why should we have to accept guests we do not want to host for fear of being delisted?

However, it's really not that important. If you drop below 88% on any listing, a little flag or something will show up telling you there is room for improvement, but I have often dropped below this and it's been fine. Also, several CS reps told me it's not important. They said they only take action when a host is repeatedly turning people away.

So, it's really not something I stress about any more. It's still annoying though when you have to decline someone who you end up accepting later anyway, just because they didn't see notifications.

[Deborah175]

@Nicole2223  I believe you have to either decline or accept within 24 hours. I just saw that AirBnB is planning to begin nicking hosts who decline “too often.” Yet— I have to rehearse everything about my listing to all who book, cause a high percentage do not read the listing and are surprised once I send them their welcome text, and they subsequently decide they want me to help them cancel for a full refund (often on a same-day booking), effectively wasting hours of my day. Yesterday it was 3.5 hours of it.

[Nicole2223]

I hear you on the time wasting - for me it’s the folks that DON’T book that I spend most of my time on.  

Curious - what sort of details in your listing prompt a guest to want to cancel after you call things to their attention?

[Deborah175]

@Nicole2223  @Helen744 

I have two rentals in the house where I live. One is called Tiny Cowboy Cabin. In the short description, I say that the cabin is VERY tiny (8x10), the bed is an extra-long TWIN, that it is OFF THE GRID (no electricity, no heat), that the bathroom, kitchen, and charging outlets are in the main house, available 24/7. I say it’s great for one person without a giant suitcase or a very cuddlesome couple. Glamping, essentially.

It has probably 300 rating from people who rave about how adorable it is, and most mention that it’s small and that you have to go into the main house to use the bathroom (duh). And there are photos!! So there’s no reason people booking should think you could squeeze a bathroom in there! But I have to repeat the whole spiel several times a day.

[Helen744]

@ Deborah 175. Its very cute H

[Deborah175]

@Helen744  Thank you! It is cute, but it’s not for everyone either.

I received this request today:

“Hello Deborah, I am booking this for my sister who's coming here a day earlier for a wedding and this place will be perfect!”

I did my usual reply, about asking if they both had read the listing, added that booking for someone not on the platform creates communications and ratings challenges, acknowledge that the booker (not the “guest”) had great ratings, so I’d try to accommodate for the one night.

Moments later: Ohh I did not read the listing carefully, I apologize! I don’t think it will work for her. Thank you for your time 🙂

Notice how that first text said it would be perfect—as though s/he had read it??!!  

[Helen744]

@Deborah175 I do get similar but the strangest was a lady who read every word ,repeated them back and then went completely incommunicado, Only after they arrived did she say, if you wish to communicate during our stay please use my husbands phone. The phone number that people give to Airbnb somehow people do not realise must be working.Airbnb tell guests not to communicate 'off platform until after they have booked'. Many people seem to think this means dont communicate with the host off platform at all. I am continually having to explain to guests ,who are generally travelling that they must give me id,because Airbnb does not give it to me , and must have a working reachable mobile for text messages or calls concerning estimated times of arrival and heads up . Some people cancel when they realise that they are not getting into my house incognito. I think their assumption about IB is that it is somehow without  a host or observation wheras if they read my rules they will know I require  government ID, a pic and vax certs as well meeting them with the key.They will cancel without speaking or communicating at all. This just leaves me wondering why ? It is as though they think they are at risk by turning up or is the initial booking a dud to start with? do they go with friends or did they get sick ? Never a reason ? Did they speak to Airbnb? Am I missing out on guests or did I call their bluff ? Who knows H

[Helen744]

@Deborah175 so what is it about the rules that make the guests want to cancel do you think or is it just co incidence ? H or did they think they were anonymous?

[Deborah175]

@Helen744 

I answered above. 

 

[Willene1]

@Kitty-and-Creek0   I agree. I do ask them to read and agree to the house rules and ask them to tell us a bit about themselves, ages of children, reason for their visit and what interests them so we can best accommodate them.   I find this usually opens up a wonderful conversation where I feel a connection to them … or not.

I do find the ones that right away ask too many questions whether it be discounts or early check in or certain odd requests (had one ask for a badminton set) are a pain in the butt so now, to me, that’s a red flag and I let them know this may not be a good fit. 
Red Flags 🚩 right away are a great clue!! 

[Gillian166]

some newbies are great, they are on their ABB journey and want to get good reviews. Others, I fear, are ok with trashing their profile after each stay, and starting over. 

[Nicole2223]

I have always wondered if Airbnb has a means of preventing this (creating a new profile).  I mean if they're doing identity checks....shouldn't they?  But then you can have separate profiles for work and personal...so I guess all it takes is multiple email addresses to start over.