Requests for one night from locals....

[Lance141]

We keep getting requests lately for one night stay even though we have a minimum three night stay setup. Never happened in all the years we've hosted then in the last week I've had several. All the requesting guests were local and some had brand new profiles. What I don't understand is how they're allowed to request the dates below minimum then block the dates in my calendar. 

Anyone else getting these kinds of odd inquiries?

Thanks, in advance

[Sarah977]

@Lance141  When a guest sends a request, they can request anything they want, from asking that you waive your house rules or length of stay minimum to asking if they can bring their pet iguana. 

It's quite annoying that your calendar gets blocked, but abut all you can do is message back, telling them that as stated on your listing, you have a 3 night minimum, and to please withdraw the request, at which point, your calendar would unblock. And you can always decline the request, which will also free up the dates, but affect your Acceptance rating.

I would suggest that you ask Airbnb to unblock the dates when you get a request outside your stated parameters, but it is quite frustrating to try to reach Airbnb right now.

In your last line, you referred to Inquiries- you do know the difference between an Inquiry and a Request, right? 

[Anonymous]

@Lance141  Your Community profile is not currently connected to an active Airbnb listing. If it were, some veteran hosts might be able to point out what aspects/wordings in your listing could be adjusted to draw fewer inappropriate inquiries (which sound like likely party scenarios). 

Anyway, if your minimum is set at 3 nights, it isn't possible for a request to block a 1-night stay on your calendar unless there's a severe glitch in the request system. What does sometimes happen is that people send an Inquiry with a different set of dates attached than they're inquiring about. These don't block your calendar, and you don't have to accept or decline them - you need only write a reply. As @Sarah977 says, it's important to recognize the difference.

[Lance142]

Thanks so much for all the responses. This sort of thing never happened to me before so I presume something changed on the AirBnb programming that allows these occurrences. I screen everybody pretty well and don't allow auto-booking. Our units are above my wife's dental clinic and we can ill-afford for things to get out of hand....

How do I link my listings or my personal settings with the Community profile? 

Sorry Im such a Noob!

[Sammy35]

@Lance141  (you may want to consider a photo of sorts to build the community trust safety security standards, even if its an avatar-picon-bitmoji of sorts.  now that i'm getting tons of bum requests from locals, i tucked my profile face photo away for the time being)

but yep, tons of these 😞 😫

MINIMUM STAYS IN NO WAY SHOULD BYPASS THE SYSTEM HOWEVER, double check your settings!

i redirect non approvables back to certain terms of service policies house rules etc, try to do so with airbnb help links or referencing listing details with as little as communication as possible.  i tell them they can withdraw and retract their request with no fees or penalties (that's the trick to get their attention) and to ensure for themselves they don't get on the hook for double booking themselves where oops refunds aren't guaranteed.  this works almost every time.  (i'm doing you a favor but myself a bigger one, i just don't say that)

when they show no effort, you needn't show much back.  its (almost) always a sign of people you won't want in your home/space

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/who-is-getting-inundated-with-local-resident-stay-reques...