Inquiry who’s dates are flexible

[Sharika1]

Hi all, I have a guest who first inquired about a discount and I said no since they’d already get the 20% off for being a first guest. 
I then received other inquires from 2 other men who seemed to be a part of this same man’s group. It took a while for one to verify identity. It seemed to be a language barrier. Then all of a sudden the profile name and picture changes and the guy says he entered his brothers info to verify the identity. I ended up declining their request. 
Today I receive another inquiry from the first guy and he’s begging to book. I tell him the dates are taken now but now he’s saying he’s flexible with the dates?? What would you do? 

[Colleen253]

@Sharika1 Red flags should never be ignored. Too many to count in this one. Easy no.

[Marianne89]

@Sharika1   I would also agree this is an easy “decline”, no further negotiation . In addition, I would report this to airbnb and my experience with odd requests like this is that airbnb will block them from the platform and you will not be penalized for declining this one. 

[Sarah977]

@Sharika1  Sounds super sketchy. Hard no.

On Inquiries, you don't need to decline, and you shouldn't, because declines count against your stats. All you need to do for an Inquiry is message back once within the first 24 hrs. Then just let the Inquiry expire. 

Of course if it's a guest who's just asking questions and not throwing up red flags, exchange as many messages as you need to.

If it's a Request, you do need to either accept or decline within 24 hrs.

Always follow your intuition.

And there is a flag symbol next to your message stream with a guest. If you feeel a guest is scamming or harrassing you, or doing something against Airrbnb policy (like using his brother's ID) click on that flag symbol to report them.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sharika1  I would raise my prices, especially for these dates, remove the discount for the start. The worst guests are discounts and bargain hunters.

[John2406]

@Sharika1 

I totally agree with all comments bye @Colleen253 @Marianne89 @Branka-and-Silvia0  and especially with @Sarah977  re your concerns, but for me, it would be your enquirer's using his brother's (which could equally be anyone else's) ID rather than his own.

That you have already declined his enquiry should be enough, but that the guy (or one if his associates) is using another ID, is definitely very worrying, and so needs to urgently be brought to Airbnb's attention.

"Instinct" is a very powerful tool, and needs to be acted on in this particular case, for there's definitely far too many red-flags involved with this case!

[Huma0]

@Sharika1 

Definite no from me.

[Huma0]

@Sharika1 

By the way, what is 

---

@Sharika1 wrote:

 the 20% off for being a first guest. 

?

Is this something you offer to all guests staying with you for the first time?

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  I think she's referring to the 20% new host discount on the first 3 bookings she gets.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Ah, I see. Not sure if that existed when I first started hosting. Maybe it did, but I don't remember it...

My first guests got the rooms at rock bottom price anyway because I thought I had turned off smart pricing...

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  I don't know when Airbnb started putting that new host discount on by default- I know it wasn't there when I started hosting in late 2016.

And so many new hosts don't even realize it's there, and get caught out when a guest gets a 40% discount because the host had offered a 20% weekly discount and the discounts are cumulative.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

I also started hosting (properly) in 2016, so I'm guessing this was introduced later.

Definitely something for new hosts to watch out for. I am not adverse to the idea as almost everyone wants to get those first few bookings/reviews asap. However, the cumulative discounts can really bite one in the backside!

When I first listed a room in my house, I am absolutely sure I opted not to have Instant Booking because it just sounded like a really bad idea to me! I did leave on smart pricing, because Airbnb told me I would get on average £X for the room, and that sounded okay.

So, I completed the listing, published it and went to bed. In the morning, I woke up to be inundated with bookings at rock bottom prices. Smart pricing had halved my rates overnight and, somehow, IB had been turned on. 

Well, that was a steep learning curve...

[Susan990]

@Sharika1  My suggestion is to do 2 things. First set up Instant Book and click the box for everything, especially the must have Reviews posted , since these guys obviously have not done this before they would then need to make it an inquiry  and they would need to select their dates etc. Suggest do not offer

them any response going forward. Then if they persist you can decline them based upon not meeting the review requirement and the detailed explanation would be you  do not feel comfortable or safe with this guest request( because of absence of reviews). This lets Airbnb and you off the hook.

[Sandra126]

With a large house such as yours @Sharika1 you will be a target for parties. There are ways to avoid it with vetting and things like partysquasher. Inna has many good ideas after long experience,  couldn't tag sorry. This enquiry is a hard no.