Guests submitting reservation requests when they just have questions with no intention of reserving

[Debbie100]

I have discovered I'm being penalized for guests who submit reservation requests with bogus information just to ask a question.  For example, two in the last four months have been 1 person, 1 day, and just to ask if I allow dogs when my listing explicitly indicates I don't.  And in their message they indicate it's a family with their "beloved dog, over the holidays."  Obviously the reservation request was bogus.   Another sent one on Christmas Day saying they were "in the area and forgot their fishing poles.  Where can they buy them?"  I've been denying these not realizing I'm being penalized for declinations.  Since we only have a binary option: either approve or decline, what am I to do?  Airbnb support saying I should tell them to retract.  Well, these are people who obviously aren't computer savvy and now they have to navigate cancelling the request?  What if they don't?  Or what if they don't within the 24 hours I have to respond?  

THIS IS SO UNFAIR TO HOSTS.  I've been a Super Host for two years with 5 stars across the board and 100% response rate.  Yet, I'm being threatened I'm not meeting "minimum requirements."

Very frustrated.

[Larry339]

@Debbie100 Are these just booking inquiries? If it is an 'inquiry' you do not have to approve or decline the booking. All you need to do is to respond to the message within 24 hours to keep up your response rate. 

I know there is the red bolded message at the bottom to pre-approve or decline. Ignore that and respond to the message. There is a good section on booking inquiries and booking requests in the community center updates.

[Debbie100]

@Larry339 I will definitely pay more attention to that.  Thank you.

[Emilia42]

@Debbie100 

Follow @Larry339's advice but if these guests are in fact sending you booking requests that means that they have entered their credit card information and their card will be charged as soon as you click accept. I would most certainly attempt to get the guest to withdraw their request at the risk of them being charged. When most guests understand that they could be charged for asking a questions they will withdraw their request immediately. 

[Debbie100]

Wow.  I did not know any of this.  Both of your replies have been very helpful.  I just went back through my inbox and looked at every decline within the last year.  I had 13 declines of which 11 were Inquiries.  Based on the feature @Larry339 mentioned regarding the red bar at the top indicating I *should* accept or decline, I thought that's what I had to do.  I did not know I could just Reply.  Thank you, thank you!  I'm taking this up with Airbnb to clear my data points given this seems to be a grossly confusing piece of functionality.   I've got 62 total reviews of which 60 are five-star and two four-star.  That's another gripe I have.  Given the inherent nature of people, there will always be somebody who just doesn't want to click five.    Depending on the total number of reviews, they should drop the lowest X.  Those two four-star reviews bring my average to 4.97.  That's ridiculous for a user to see.

Thanks again for the very helpful replies.  I have a warning on my Dashboard so hope it will just stay there>  I've been waiting over 48 hours to get a reply back from the Airbnb support team.

[Emilia42]

@Debbie100 This is a good article with lots of useful info:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Understanding-Response-Rate-and-Acceptance-Rate/t...

[Carlos765]

Hi Debbie, like someone already said, just answer the question and leave as is. I get tons of those with questions that are already answered in the listing description or house rules. When it’s an inquiry you could pre-approve at times, and sometimes it is just a matter if accept or decline. If the guest has no intention of booking or you don’t feel comfortable simply answer but don’t click on either. I’ve been a superhost for years now and this method hasn’t affected my standing.