Declining a Booking Request (not an Inquiry)

[Elena-And-Eugene0]

Hi Everyone!  I've been reading all day on issues similar to mine, but decided to ask if anyone experienced our specific situation.

We've been hosting for about 5 years with our family home and after tons of 5-star reviews and being successful,  decided to add our summer home as a second listing as well.   

Recently I had 2 booking requests (not inquiries) that were not well-suited for our home.  I explained to people why our home isn't a fit and they just didn't respond - didn't remove their inquiry or reply anything, so I had to decline the requests.  And after these 2 I got an auto-email from Airbnb threatening to temporarily deactivate my listings (I guess they mean both of them!) if I continue declining so much.   On Airbnb site it says that  "You can always decline any booking inquiries or reservation requests that you can’t accommodate, but you should do so within 24 hours. Whether you accept or decline, the amount of time it takes you to respond to requests is factored into your response rate.

When you decline a reservation request, you can choose to keep the calendar dates blocked or make them available for someone else to book. Update your calendar regularly so you'll only receive reservation requests for when you're able to host."

Nowhere here it mentions that you'd be penalized for deciding not to let people that would not be a fit to your own home.  Since now there are no names or photos that come with the booking requests, I solely based my decisions on what the people told me in their requests.  One lady said she wanted to bring a 1-yr-old baby and I responded to her saying that our home isn't suited for that, but she just didn't reply to that for hours, and the booking requests sat there ticking and adding time to my response time (which is normally very low as I pride myself on responding ASAP).  Finally, I just had to decline her request - but now it seems that Airbnb wants to punish me for that - and not only with the new listing, but with my older and very successful listing as well.

This is leaving me very bitter - should I open another account for the second listing to keep them separate?  And what is the real policy behind booking request declines?  I haven't called Airbnb yet but having dealt with them via phone before I kept getting different answers from different people I spoke with, so I figured I'd ask you experienced hosts first for any tips or ideas.

Thank you so much!
Elena.

[Sarah977]

@Elena-And-Eugene0  I'm surprised you got a warning after only 2 declines, unless you have some on your other listing (stats are based on all your listings, not separated). 

Yes, we do have to either accept or decline within 24 hours, but you can wait it out until then, to see if the guest withdraws the request. As long as you do't go over the 24 hour mark, itwon't affect your response rate.

What some hosts do is send a message like " I'm so sorry, but my listing isn't safe for infants or children, which is why we state no infants or children in our house rules. As hosts are required to either accept or decline within 24 hours and declines are counted against us, I will have to accept your request by then, on the condition that you do not arrive with any children or babies. As of course you are going to be travelling with your baby, please withdraw your request ASAP, since once I click on accept, you will be charged and have to then cancel. Best of luck finding a place that is set up for your needs and sorry I can't accomodate."

[Elena-And-Eugene0]

@Sarah977  - thank you Sarah.  I did message both people back explaining to them why our house wasn't suited for their needs but they just wouldn't respond, probably waiting for their request to expire.  I will be more vocal like what you wrote and hope that it works.

As for the number of declines, I had one a few months back on my other house; didn't think that they would be aggregating the declines even if they were few and far between, and on different properties.

Thanks again!
Elena.

[Kath9]

@Elena-And-Eugene0a couple of times lately, I've had booking requests for which I've asked for more information and, like you, heard nothing back. Tick, tick, tick... then sent a further message close to the 24 hour mark, only for the guest to say that they hadn't received my first message (even though I could see it as sent on my end). Now, I dont know if that's actually the case, but I do believe the messaging system has been glitchy lately. It's a tricky one because at that stage we don't even have access to their phone number. I would suggest sending frequent messages to them (in the hopes that one will get through) and like @Sarah977 said, you can always accept under the condition that will abide by your rules, meaning the onus is on them to cancel.

[Emilia42]

@Kath9 I've had a few inquiry conversations where the guest was late to respond and told me that messages were going to their spam folder. Not everyone has the app and instead waits for e-mail notifications that they never receive. 

[Kath9]

Ah good point @Emilia42. The message is probably going through, just not being seen on their end. I should add to my saved messages something about downloading the app (I think it was you who mentioned this once before?). But if they aren't seeing their messages in the first place, they won't know to download the app. Classic catch 22!

[Sarah977]

@Elena-And-Eugene0  Another thing you can try for non-reponsive guests is to send them a text message telling them you have sent them a message on the Airbnb platform to which you need a reply. This has worked for me before. Some guests don't have their Airbnb notifications turned on, and may never check their account after booking until they have a reason t communicate with the host, but will be reading their text messages on their phone. And like Kath said, sometimes there are glitches. I've sent guests messages, not had a reply, then saw that the message I sent had disappeared from the message stream, lost in cyberspace.

[Kath9]

@Sarah977 I tried doing exactly this with my booking request yesterday, but because it wasn't a confirmed booking, I didn't yet have access to his phone number. So there was no way of messaging him to let him know I'd messaged him. It was probably more to do with the fact that he didn't have the app. Definitely going to add this to my saved messages....

[Sarah977]

@Kath9  I always have to send my guests a map to my place through email. I tell them I'm going to, then message again when I have, asking them to confirm that they received it. I now tell them to make sure to check their email Spam box if they don't see it in their Inbox. It's odd the things people never think to do.

And true, you couldn't text a guest until a booking was confirmed, so it wouldn't work for prodding a response to a request message. I've done it when guests weren't answering ETA requests or other messages.