Response times with messages - Does it effect response rate

[Amy1938]

Hi everyone, 

Im going to assume that this question has been asked a few times but I would appreciate if it someone could clarify this for me. 

Im new to hosting and I have been messaging a guest back and forth with information about the area etc... however the conversation has come to a natural end with the guest being the last person to respond.

Will this effect my response rate if I don't send the last message?

Thanks in advance,

Amy

[Emiel1]

@Amy1938 

No. Only your respons(time) on the initial inquiry or booking request counts.

[Amy1938]

Thanks for your response Emiel

[Sarah977]

@Amy1938  If it's an Inquiry, no problem. If it's a Request, you must either accept, decline, or get the guest to withdraw the request before 24 hours is up. If you don't, it will be counted as a decline and will affect your Acceptance rate. 

If you still have more to discuss with a prospective guest who has sent a request, ask them to withdraw the request and continue the conversation by submitting an Inquiry instead.

[Amy1938]

Thank you for your help @Sarah977 I appreciate it!

[Hala67]

I want to make sure to confirm that this is true. 

Example: 

If I get an INQUIRY from a guest asking for a discount and I reply, saying I am unable to give the discount. 

Do I still need to decline on the system or will my reply in the messeging count as a response? 

If I decline will it affect my response rate? 

I am talking about an INQUIRY, not a REQUEST. 

[Colleen253]

@Hala67 An Inquiry only requires a response of some sort. You can ignore the accept/decline for Inquiries. By the way, the Airbnb help pages explain how all of these hosting features work. There is loads of stuff to learn. Just an fyi, in case you didn't know. 

[Peter3390]

@Colleen253

Despite reading the article referred to in the response below, I still don't know how to differentiate between an inquiry and a request.

EVERY message that I have ever gotten with questions includes potential reservation dates and the options to pre-approve, decline or send a special offer. Does that mean that they are all registered by AirBnB as "requests," even those that are asking about different dates or the ones that clearly are hinting that they want to make a deal off-platform?

What are the concrete criteria for identifying what the system will register as a request?

[Colleen253]

@Peter3390 A Trip Request will have the option to ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’. An Inquiry will have ‘Pre-approve’ or ‘Decline’. Your email notification of either will also indicate if it’s a Request or Inquiry.

[Emilia42]

@Amy1938 I always refer to this article. It is very informative and updated by Airbnb:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Understanding-Response-Rate-and-Acceptance-Rate/m...

 cc: @Hala67 fyi