Airbnb suggestion

[Lisa1196]

There should be some sort of suggestion to potential guests by Airbnb for the guests to introduce themselves in the first message exchange prior to booking. I am not comfortable inviting guests into my home that don’t start off with a cordial introduction. Any thoughts?

[Sharon683]

Not sure what you mean? 🤔  You can always ask them questions before or after they book.  I have a series of questions I ask all my guest prior to their visit. Most people will inform me why they are visiting, etc.

[Lisa1196]

A recent potential guest’s first message to me was “do you have AC”. Airbnb gives me the option to accept or decline the reservation. I’d much rather have Airbnb education potential guests to introduce themselves and the intent of their visit especially when a guest is new to Airbnb and has no reviews

[Colleen253]

@Lisa1196 Actually, I’d rather have a potential guest present themselves just as they are. Then I immediately have a sense of whether or not I’d want to accept them. Someone who leads off as in your example would put me off. And some introductions simply set alarm bells ringing.  I wouldn’t want that masked by Airbnb ‘instructing’ them. 

A rigorous screening process can and should always be in place for all potential guests. That’s the best tool in the box. 

[Lisa1196]

Please tell me more about your screening process.

[Lisa1196]

I did decline them. Tell me more about your screening process. 

[Sarah977]

@Lisa1196  You declined simply because of their curt message, without communicating further with them? 

Getting guests who are a good fit requires mutual communication. You can ask questions, chat with them, whatever. Some newbie guests are completely clueless about good communication with hosts, they think it's like booking a hotel room. 

And I've observed that a lot of younger people who've grown up in the texting age tend to send one liner messages.

If I get a curt message like that, I respond, asking if the guest is aware that ..... For the AC question, I might answer, "Hi XX, Thanks for your inquiry. If you read through the list of amenities on my listing, you will see that AC is on that list (or not, as the case may be). Please read all the information given on a listing, as hosts try to make all clear. If you still have questions after doing that, I'm happy to answer. Could you please tell me a bit about yourself and what brings you to my area?

And if you don't already know, you do not have to decline Inquiries, allyou have to do is message back within 24 hours. If it's a request, you do have to either accept or decline within 24 hrs. unless you can get the guest to withdraw the request before then.

[Lisa1196]

I like your strategy and maybe I should have taken a gentler course of action but the question about AC struck a nerve that the person not only did not read thru the amenities but most likely did not review our house rules, either. I feel this is a set up for future problems. 

[Sarah977]

@Lisa1196  Yes, a non-informative first message can certainly be a portent of future issues, but that isn't necessarily the case. I have had several curt, non-informative initial messages, but my responses to them have always prompted much better communication and they all turned out to be lovely, non-problematic guests. So don't be so quick to judge people simply based on one brief message. 

Of course, if they ignored any questions I asked them, or failed to respond at all, I wouldn't be at all inclined to accept them.

[Bronwyn11]

Unfortunately more people I find don't read the the list of amenities these days. Maybe the shock of emerging from Covid restrictions.

I get asked "Do we need to bring linen?" so often that I have  a (pleasant ) stored answer which saves time 🙂

[Huma0]

This is what I was doing on Christmas Eve:

1. Late afternoon, guest messages: "Can you confirm?"

I ask him to tell me a bit about himself and answer the questions on my listing. I stress that I don't accept bookings without that information.

2. Guest then Instant Books and sends message: "Hello Huma! I look forward to staying in your home!"

I tell him I'm surprised that he instant booked instead of responding to my message and ask him again for the information requested.

3. He says he can't see any questions (BTW everyone else seems to find them) but can I please decline. I explain that I can't decline because he's instant booked. This is followed by 14 messages back and forth with me explaining how the Airbnb booking system works, cancellation policies etc. and that only Airbnb will be able to sort this out for him to get a full refund (it's a last minute booking so the 48 hour grace period doesn't apply).

4. I call Airbnb and they agree to do a guest cancellation and full refund, once the guest confirms. I inform the guest. He says he doesn't need to confirm. I have to really stress that he will not get his refund until he confirms. 

5. Guest then asks if we can forget about the cancellation and he will provide me with the information. I tell him he needs to respond to the rep and it would be better if he cancelled. Finally he does that.

6. Guest messages: "I'm a student in the course，19 years old.Can I check in"

I tell him as clearly as I can where he can find the questions and stress again that he needs to answer them.  Okay, I could have spoon fed them to him but I need him to read the listing/house rules, which he clearly hasn't.

I also tell him I am confused about his reviews as they appear to be for someone else.

7. On Christmas Day, the guest messages to say the reviews are for his parents. He never did answer any of the questions but the minimum notice period had kicked in by this time.

I think that's the end of that. However, I wasted hours of time on this. @Lisa1196 's suggestion could help to avoid these scenarios (I've had several similar experiences). On the other hand, I think @Colleen253 has a really valid point. Guests who start off like this usually end up being problematic. The first message (or lack of it) is often the first red flag.

[Lisa1196]

Your time is valuable. May I ask the list of questions you post for guests to answer?

[Huma0]

I have a very, very long reservation coming up from a guest that simply asked me a practical question or two in her first message but no information about herself. I answered and she responded with a couple more practical questions and was then obviously satisfied with my answer, so went ahead and instant booked without answering any pre-booking messages (still don't know if all guests see these - a lot say they don't). She also didn't answer the question that is in my house rules which lets me know the guest has  read them.

Once asked for info, and she gave me a detailed description of herself. She sounded nice enough, so I felt more relaxed about it. When pressed again, she found and answered the questions in the house rules and sent quite a funny message about it. So, I felt relaxed after that.

Since then, I'm starting to see some red flags. Her communication is not so great (it's not a language barrier thing) and there are some other things. Perhaps I should just trust the gut feeling I get from the initial message/messages, but when guests instant book, it's tricky. You only get three penalty free cancellations a year, so you need to use them wisely.

I wish I could just turn IB off. I am trialling it with one of my listings. It will be difficult to tell how it affects the search results/bookings as that room is booked back to back from early January to early August. However, in the days before I turned it off, I was getting a lot of interest in that room, including some bookings. Since I turned it off, I have not received a single message about it. Then again, that could just be due to Christmas.

[Michelle1851]

I just had a guest, no reviews, request to book,  I wrote to him and said “because this appears to be your first time booking with Airbnb and have no prior reviews, please tell me a little about yourself “. He responded with pages of information really going above and beyond, turned out to be a wonderful guest.  Actually every time I’ve asked , they have responded. I prefer when I don’t have to ask, but so far asking has worked out.  I think I’d decline if there was no response 

[Anonymous]

@Lisa1196 I don't see Airbnb adding new features that add friction to the booking process but don't increase profits. And plenty of hosts couldn't care less about initial communication. But you can add in your House Rules and listing description a bit of text about what kind of communication you're looking for in guests. Some hosts ask that guests slip a certain code word into their requests to show that they've read the listing. 

I do think it's worth at least one attempt at follow-up questions before outright declining an insufficient request. Also, the way you write your listing can help set the tone for the initial correspondence. You want people to appreciate how personal hosting is to you. Inatead of just listing the features, you can also convey your history with the home, what sharing it means to you, and how your unique perspective enhances the guests' experience. Keep in mind that looking at search results often feels like thumbing through a dull real estate catalog, so it takes some extra effort to retrain the focus on the hospitality element.