Change of dates on unconfirmed pre-approval

[Mike2114]

I need to shorten my stay of a pre-approved inquiry I made; because I did not confirm the booking it does not show up in my trips.  My host is happy to change the dates but if she declines the inquiry the dates of the original inquiry are blocked so neither my host nor I can re-book.

I believe if I confirm the original booking it will then appear in My Trips and I can request a change of dates but I'm concerned that if I do that I may incur a charge from Airbnb.

Surely there must be a way to delete the original inquiry so we can start again?

Thanks for any help.

[Helen350]

@Mike2114 

If it was an 'inquiry' you made not a 'request to book', then all inquiries expire after 24 hours, so you can start the whole process again. (You're obviously not needing anything urgently within 24 hours, if you're in the UK, cos calendars are blocked till 4 July!).

To avoid losing  her 100% response rate, the host must respond within 24 hrs, but that does not need to be by checking 'approve' or 'decline' - a written reply will suffice.- And it sounds like she's already responded, so job done.

I know you can withdraw 'request to book', to protect your host from black marks for declining; I thought it WAS possible to withdraw the 'inquiry', but I've never used the platform as a guest, so not viewed the tab....

[Sarah977]

@Mike2114  As Helen says, if it was indeed an Inquiry, rather than a Booking Request, just let it expire and start over. Do let the host know she doesn't have to pre-approve or decline, that her message back is sufficient not to receive any penalties, because there are actually many hosts who do not know this- that information isn't stated anywhere, as far as I know. And Airbnb does send "reminders" to hosts to pre-approve Inquiries, even if the host has answered the message, making those hosts who are unaware of the policies think they have to click on something.