Can't see prospective guests' ratings unless I enable instant booking -- so I DECLINE.

[Christine455]

I disabled instant booking  because I don't rent to just "anyone" right now.

But I can't see the ratings because instant booking is disabled.

WTF???

I disabled instant booking because I want to know more about my guests. 

Should I tell my guests that they need to pay a $500 security deposit because Airbnb won' t show me their ratings?

Time to up my rates again.

[Emilia42]

@Christine455 

I know this is not the best cause scenario but you can enable instant booking and check every booking requirement box. These are 1.) Guest must have a profile picture, 2.) Guest must be recommended by other hosts/have at least one positive review, 3.) Guest must have a government ID. This will prevent a sizeable number of guests from instant booking and instead you will be given the option to approve/decline their request. It will also mean that only guests will previous reviews can instantly book.

Airbnb favors instant book and wants you to use it so unfortunately hosts lose the option to access vital information when it is disabled. 

[Christine455]

@Emilia42You're right, but WHAT is the purpose of rating guests in the first place?

I just don't get it.

There is absolutely NO use for those ratings.   Why would ANYONE care to see those ratings AFTER the guests booked?

To increase my STRESS when I see they suck?

I am so tired of wasting hour after hour setting up THIS, THAT and ANOTHER thing.  The website continually changes, never for the better.  It DELETED this comment when I tried to post it the first time. The support is AWFUL and the only thing Airbnb knows how to do well is to refund all my money to my guests.  

And those refunds are why I want to know WHAT my guests want to do here, etc. etc. BEFORE they book.    I don't need to WASTE my time on people who are likely going to cancel.

Without the guest ratings, the ratings are useless.  Why would I want guests with *** 1 *** good review and the others suck?

[Lisa723]

@Christine455 if you enable instant-book you will be able to see ratings of guests not meeting the instant-book requirements when they send a request, before you approve or deny it. You can also, at least in theory, cancel without penalty any instant-booking you are not comfortable with after seeing ratings.

Not arguing that your frustration is unfounded.

[Christine455]

@Lisa723  I would find it very stressful to cancel AFTER someone booked.   I don't like to be mean to people and would prefer to just say the house is not available.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Christine455 You don't have to cancel after they have booked. We thought that as well when we decided to go with Instant Book, but as @Emilia42 pointed out, when you set these prerequisites up (it only takes a minute, and it will actually SAVE you stress), then guests who do not meet them cannot make a booking with Instant Book. All they can do is make an inquiry.

Once they have made their inquiry, you can see whether or not they have good ratings. If they don't, and you don't feel comfortable renting to them, then all you need to do is reply to their inquiry (which counts with the Airbnb algorithm, as you are still supposed to acknowledge requests) and then let the request expire after 24 hours.

Note that letting the request expire does not count against you as a cancellation or rejection. You set the requirements for renting, after all, and so the onus is on the potential guest to meet those requirements. If they can't, then you are perfectly within your rights not to accept it. 

I hope this helps. 

[Sarah977]

@Rich-and-Yan0  You are giving some incorrect information here. Maybe it's just that you are mixing up terms.

Inquiry:  Actions- Preapprove, Decline or just message back. As long as you message back within 24 hours, that fulfills your obligation. You don't need to either Pre-approve or Decline. If you feel okay about the guest, pre-approve, if you don't, just message back saying why you can't accept their booking. No need to lower your Acceptance Rate by declining.

Booking Request: You must either Accept or Decline within 24 hours. Use that time to message with the guest if you have doubts. But simply messaging back without either Accepting or Declining before the 24 hours is up isn't acceptable. It will lower your Response Rate.

Response Rate is counted for Superhost. Acceptance Rate is not.

Inquiries and Booking Requests are not the same. They are handled differently. Hosts who use IB may not quite understand Inquiries and Booking Requests. 

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Sarah977 Yes, you are right, I did use the wrong terminology, but our experience so far has been that if a guest does not have the prerequisites we have set up for booking, then they cannot make a booking request. They can only make an inquiry. We always respond and explain to them that at the bare minimum, they must have a government ID registered on the site, and they usually take care of that right away. If they don't have history on Airbnb, we ask them to tell us something about themselves: who they are, who they are travelling with, and why they are interested in our villa and our area. And then we decide based on that.

If I got that wrong, then I apologise--but I don't remember us ever receiving a booking request from someone who did not meet our criteria for booking. All I ever remember receiving were inquiries.

[Sarah977]

@Rich-and-Yan0  I'm sure you know what you're doing- it's just that you used the terms inquiry and request interchangably in your post, which could confuse hosts who don't know the difference. 

[Lisa723]

@Rich-and-Yan0 you are incorrect. Guests that don't meet criteria can, and do, send booking requests.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Lisa723 Thank you, I stand corrected. I had thought that when we agreed to go with Instant Book and set up these prerequisites, that would prevent someone from making a booking (which, logically, it should do). But apparently this is not the case. 

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Sarah977]

@Christine455  I have never used Instant Book. And no, I can't see star ratings, but I don't put much stock in star ratings anyway, because they don't really tell you anything concrete. A host who's super fussy and expects guests to leave the place immaculate might rate a guest 3*s for cleanliness, whereas a host who's more practical and realizes that some people will be messy and doesn't consider it a big deal as long as nothing is damaged or really disgustingly filthy, might rate that guest 4 or 5*s.

I'm much more interested in the written reviews, which you most certainly can see before accepting a booking. Those reviews and messaging with my guests is how I determine whether or not this is a guest I'd like to host.

[Christine455]

@Sarah977So you agree that those ratings are completely worthless, whether you can see them or not.

So why put ME through the misery of having to decide how to rate my guests?  I take this **bleep** VERY serious!

[Sarah977]

@Christine455  I'm not sure why you consider rating your guests to be "misery", it doesn't seem like that big a deal to me. But yes, I think star ratings are pointless. Both for guests and hosts. 

[Christine455]

@Sarah977I don't enjoy giving people bad ratings and fortunately rarely had to because many of my guests USED TO BE Asians, super clean and polite.  By "bad" ratings, I mean anything less than 5 stars.

Now I'm dealing with mostly Americans and they're not all ignorant slobs, but I've had a few.   I also have a MUCH HIGHER cancellation rate with Americans.   And Airbnb almost always gives them all their money back.    10% of my gross last year.    Even before C-19 illness and weather were a FANTASTIC way to book KNOWING they can cancel and get their money back.