Negative impact of declining requests

[Daniel6914]

I am a host for more than a year now, I have a super host badge and make decent money from my listing.

At least once per week, I get a message from a potential guest, asking some clarification questions about my listing. Those requests come to me not only as a message but as a booking request. I am answering questions usually within less than 30 min. Most guests just stay silent and do not reply. I am getting the counter asking me to respond to the booking request within 24 hours, so I usually just click decline and ask a guest to rebook if they want to. But I am afraid this is negatively impacting my ranking.   

The issue is that those are not really booking requests, but just questions from guests who are shopping around and all of my declined bookings are quests who did not reply to my initial response.

Is declining those requests negatively impacting my ranking? If so, how do I deal with this?

[Colleen253]

@Daniel6914  Here is an Airbnb article on the subject

 community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Understanding-Response-Rate-and-Acceptance-Rate/m-p/76107...

[Sarah977]

@Daniel6914  Yes, declines count against you. If these questions are being sked in the form of an Inquiry, you don't need to decline- just answering the message within 24 hours fulfills your response time obligations. Ignore the pre-approve or decline buttons.

If it's a Booking Request, you do indeed have to either accept or decline within 24 hours. It's best if you can encourage the guest to withdraw their booking request if they are requesting inappropriate things, so you don't have to decline. 

[Mitchell74]

Unless you decline every other request, no. They don't. 

[Daniel6914]

Thank you for the link and answers.

The issue I see is the following: "If a guest sends you a booking request and you only answer a question, but do not approve or decline before the request times out, that counts as a decline."

I had a situation in which I had a booking request where a guest indicated they are coming with a dog, while my place has a no pet policy, and it is clearly stated in the listing description and settings. I had to decline it, but this was a mistake on the guests' side. Here is the specific example, in my inbox: email from Elizabeth, I believe the conversation ID is 790343974.  Is there a way somebody can review my decline transactions and help to understand how they impacted my account and how I could avoid it?

[Ange2]

@Daniel6914    If it is a booking request that has to be accepted or declined within 48 hours, I write to guest with reasons why it is not a good fit,  i.e. no pets, etc.,  and I tell them if they cancel within 48hours Airbnb will return the  payment and their fee in full as per Airbnb strict policy.  If it is outside the freebie cancellation window (i.e. the reservation is within 14 days)  I tell them that I authorize Airbnb to refund them the nightly fees, but they will have to speak to Airbnb about refunding the fees it charges.  They usually do it straight away. https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict-with-grace-period

[Daniel6914]

@Ange2 Yeah, this is something .I wanted to avoid, as I have a strict refund policy. But that sounds like an option. Thank you!

[Emilia42]

@Daniel6914 It doesn't matter if you have a strict cancellation policy. All cancellations made within 48 hours of booking will be given a full refund (including Airbnb service fee.) It's actually a wonderful thing. I have been able to persuade all those who wouldn't have been a good fit to cancel.

[Daniel6914]

I was not aware of that. That is a powerful tool then. Thank you

[Colleen253]

@Daniel6914  You can respond by answering any questions, and/or point out why their booking request is inappropriate. Then, as Sarah mentions, ask the guest to withdraw their request instead of declining it, for those reasons. Once questions are answered/they decide they are really ready to book (if it's appropriate), they can submit a request again later. If for some reason they fail to withdraw and it becomes a decline for you, you have a record in the message history of your very valid reason for the 'decline'. That can back you up if there's ever an issue. You can check your acceptance rate by going into your Progress tab and looking at your percentage. 88% is the min target, according to Airbnb. I honestly don't think you have any reason to fear that your ranking is being affected. You have a great listing, stellar reviews, etc. Airbnb likes to use the Superhost program to subliminally influence hosts (using fear) into doing it's bidding. Don't fall under it's spell.

[Daniel6914]

@Colleen253 That makes sense, thank you!