Progress Issues and Guest Honesty

[Sharon1074]

Hello everyone,

I've been renting my suite for 4 months now, but in the past few weeks I have had multiple issues within inquiries, declining bookings, and then I had to cancel a reservation. All were due to the guests not being fully honest and following AirBnb Policies by trying to make changes including; "booking for friends or family", finding out they minors but stating they are adults with non-related adult guests coming in, or swapping who is going to be renting. Due to me declining bookings and one reservation, I received a message via AirBnb at 2:07 AM (ouch) stating that I can have my account suspended if I keep cancelling reservations and that my acceptance rate is too low.

I know that I had to not accept a few others, due to my weekday guest being late in sending a request for booking. He sends me a text, so I can open up my blocked booking, and then someone tries to snag it immediately, so I have to decline. 

Please let me know there are ways to fix this or ways to make sure this doesn't happen again. I was on my way to becoming a Superhost and want to get back on track!

Thank you!

[Linda108]

Two thoughts about your situation come to mind, @Sharon1074 . 

First, given the complexity of your availability situation, perhaps you should stop Instant Book , a potential guest has to contact you so you can assess your real availability.

Second, anytime you plan to cancel a reservation, contact AirBNB staff directly and explain the situation as to why you need to cancel.  Anytime a guest is doing what you are describing, the staff will help you out.  As for the cancellations you already have, if you have messages on the Air BNB system that can be seen by staff, you can ask the staff to reverse the penalty.  Much of Air BNB messaging is automated and there is no way for the automated system to know the reasons you are citing.  Need human intervention.  Good luck!!

[Sarah977]

@Sharon1074 If you are declining Inquiries (as opposed to booking requests), there is no need to do that. On an inquiry message, all you have to do is message the guest back within 24 hours to maintain your response rate and not get dinged on acceptance rate. If the inquiry is asking for something inappropriate to your listing, just point out that you can't accommodate their needs- the Inquiry will expire in 24 hours.

I would also echo Linda's suggestion that you consider not using the Instant Book option.