Inappropriate Inquiry

[Marti3484]

Hi Everyone,

wondering how you handle inappropriate inquiries from potential guests? A man with no profile and no reviews contacted me about a reservation and his only question was “ Will you be upstairs in the house while I am here?” I did not answer his inquiry, just ‘Declined’ for the specified dates. I wouldn’t have even done that if I hadn’t been worried about my AirBnb response rate/metrics. Now over 24 hours later, I have received another message from him saying “ Well that was really rude of you to decline me without even answering my question Hoe”.

What would you do?  Is there a way to report him without having to decline his inquiry again?  I’ve been a host for almost 4 years and I have not had a situation like this before. It gives me the creeps!

[Alexandra316]

@Marti3484Depending on whether you're in the app or on a desktop, there will either be a little flag icon or a report user function. You can use it to report the guest to Airbnb. Sounds like your intuition with the question was dead on: good thing you declined him.

He didn't send you another reservation request, did he? If not, there should be no need to decline anything. I wouldn't respond at all. 

[Anonymous]

@Marti3484  and for everyone curious about this, please be sure to recognize the distinction between these two protocols:

BOOKING INQUIRY :  This happens when the guest clicks "Contact Host." They have to put in dates to get to the next screen, but it is not a binding request. They can contact any number of hosts this way without a booking commitment.

The only thing the host is obliged to do is write a text response within 24 hours in order to keep a 100% Response Rate. Sending a Special Offer is an option if you'd like to encourage the guest to book quickly. It is never necessary to decline an inquiry.  You just have to write something - anything - even a single-word response to the original message. You do not have to respond any further in the message thread and are free to archive the conversation when you're done.

RESERVATION REQUEST: This happens when the guest clicks "Reserve," submits payment details, and ticks off the disclaimers agreeing to the terms, House Rules, and Cancellation Policy (which they may or may not have actually read). The host is required to choose either Accept or Decline a request within 24 hours to keep a 100% Response Rate and eligibility for Superhost. The Basic Requirements guidelines ask that you choose Accept at least 88% of the time ("Acceptance Rate") but there is no specific penalty for going below this number, aside from nasty and threatening-sounding alerts. 

If an Airbnb member is abusing the Contact host feature to harass you, they are breaking the rules, so you can flag them for review. Most of the time, Airbnb will not contact you back about the flagging, nor disclose any action they choose to take on another user's profile.

[Marti3484]

Thank you, Andrew!  

Your explanation is very clear, and now I understand the difference between the Inquiry and the Reservation Request.  I appreciate your response!

[Marti3484]

Thank you!  I appreciate your response!

[Dawn81]

@Marti3484 I would call Airbnb and Report this individual for calling you a vulgar name that is demeaning. I believe that you should ask them to remove the individual and point out the person is inappropriate and potentially threatening. Airbnb does not need to keep this person interacting inappropriately with it's its hosts.