The request system works against hosts

[Debra48]

I am writing this in hopes that Airbnb higher-ups get this feedback. THE REQUEST SYSTEM PRESENTS MULTIPLE PROBLEMS FOR POPULAR PROPERTIES AND NEEDS TO BE AN OPT-OUT, AS IS INSTABOOK.

WHY does it present problems?

1) Guests do not read house rules before submitting requests and therefore hosts must decline requests.

2) Guests do not understand the difference between inquiries and requests. They send requests with questions instead of inquiries.

3) Hosts are put in unenviable position of having to tell the guest to withdraw their request.

4) Hosts' calendars are held hostage for 24 hours while waiting for guests who may or may not withdraw requests.

5) Hosts are sent threatening removal-from-platform messages by Airbnb if they deny three requests.

CLEARLY THE ABOVE IS A PROBLEM FOR HOSTS WHO RECEIVE MULTIPLE REQUESTS/DAY.

And now, technical gliches:

1) The system has auto-accepted requests twice within the last 24 hours which I neither accepted nor denied, but rather responded to by message. Airbnb will say they cannot accept guest requests, that only the host can. (I am a 6-year veteran of super hosting. I know how the system works.)

2) Withdrawal notifications of guest requests are no longer being sent to phone app. The only way to know whether a guest has withdrawn a request is to check calendar. 

For hosts with popular properties, that the request system causes problems is an understatement. Time spent sorting through such a morass of problems with customer support is frustrating beyond belief.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION: allow hosts to opt out of guest requests the same as instabook. "This host accepts inquiries only."

Due to this rigid, buggy request system, I am considering leaving Airbnb for VRBO and/or any other number of competitors who have solicited my business. My property receives media publicity on the regular with pings back to Airbnb. When the onset of requests creates so many problems, it is time to re-examine hosting platforms.

PS: Customer support agents tell me hosts regularly complain to them about the request system. Airbnb, do something about it.

[Brian2036]

@Debra48 

I like the idea. 

Guests could enquire and host could either make a booking offer or tell them to get lost.

Even more beneficial in your situation would be the ability to just ignore ridiculous inquiries. I suppose you get hundreds of them.

 I don’t like instant book at all, but when I disabled it I didn’t get any bookings, requests or enquiries until I turned it back on.

 I don’t know if that’s because people really want IB or if it’s because my listing got buried.

[Debra48]

I turned IB off at the beginning -- still get way more requests than can accept. So it's probably not IB

[Michelle53]

@Debra48   I don't really understand how you are getting way more requests than you can accept.

You can only get a request to book for dates which are open on your calendar.  While you are waiting out the 24 hour response period, yes, your calendar is held by that guest, but then how else would one go about accepting bookings you like without making it a nightmare for guests to book ?

Imagine being a guest sending inquiries in your preferred new system for a 4-day trip, and then losing out to someone inquiring an hour later for a 5-day trip.    It would really not make for a fair and level playing field for guests.   It should be (and it is) a first-come-first-served system (unless the guest is really not a good fit). 

I imagine hosts playing around waiting for a better booking would end up making guests fed up and frustrated, and having the guests go elsewhere while the host was busy trying to make up their mind who to send an offer to. 

[Debra48]

Oh let me count the ways in which I get more requests than I can accept. 1) unreviewed guest requests -- I don't accept unreviewed guests. 2) Requests by guests who want to invite other people over. 3) Requests by guests who want to stay and shoot a video at the same time (I charge professionally for promos shot on my property). I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I have to deny roughly 75% of the requests, simply because people do not bother to read rules before submitting requests. 

You do have a point, though, in that it's cagey for hosts to wait it out for more preferential bookings. However, to that I say, these are our properties, and we should be able to do as we choose with them. They are not hotels. However, notwithstanding my personal pov, a practical workaround could be achieved whereby the calendar is not blocked for an entire 24 hours, but for a lesser period of time, say, 2 hours. If a guest or host does not respond within that period of time, the calendar is  automatically re-opened and all penalties waived. And to that end, how fed up and frustrating (to use your terms) is it for hosts to wait for 24 hours while a guest who neither 1) responds to your communication and 2) takes no action to withdraw their request while the calendar is blocked and you're losing other potential bookings? Meanwhile, 12 hours go by, then 13 and so forth, and the guest has ignored or not bothered responding to your communication because they're busy living their lives. Do you now see how this works against hosts?

[Michelle53]

@Debra48  2 hours is totally impractical. I get a lot of requests from people late at night when I'm sleeping.  Especially if they are international travelers in other time zones.  Personally, I think 24 hours is just fine. Any less and we'd have no life at all. We'd be answering requests at work, at dinner, and in our sleep, too.   Nobody is available 24/7. 

I have nothing against people with no reviews. I often get great first-timers, as long as we can have a conversation first. I've had some really poor guests who had a whole string of 5-star reviews. 

It is true that some people are very slow to respond. But I don't stress over that.   Pretty much everyone does, eventually, respond.   I generally send people my sorry-I-haven't-heard-from-you-but-I-need-a-response-by- Xpm-because-someone-else-is-waiting message, then give them another hour.  It usually works. 

[Debra48]

I do see your point about 2 hours being impractical for the reason you point out; I would suggest 8 hours as a compromise. And how very nice for you that you've had excellent experiences with unreviewed guests. Unfortunately for me, I've had an extremely bad experience with unreviewed guests who, as doctors, said they would treat my home as theirs. I even verified their identities. But let me tell you, they partied like none other. And ever since, it has been my hard and fast rule. No reviews, no stay. Also, I will add, guests with stellar reviews have always been stellar guests. 

[Debra48]

Also, why shouldn't the Request system be optional for hosts, the same as Instabook? If you are a guest that wants to Instabook, look for properties that allow it. Likewise, if you are guest that wants to request, look for properties that allow guest requests. If you are a host, and you want to maximize bookings, then by all means keep the request option open. If that is not a host priority, Airbnb needs to allow hosts to opt our of accepting guest requests, particularly because hosts are penalized if they deny requests. 

[Susan990]

It is because Your Listing Got Buried. ABB draconian punishment/reward system , run by robots, has simply got to stop.  All the good will earned by the early days of ABB are destroyed by these newer platform programing systems...run by robots.

[Sarah977]

@Debra48  The main issue I see is holding the host's calendar hostage while the payment goes through. Airbnb could deal with this by not allowing guests to try to book anything before they have uploaded their payment info and it has been checked as valid. 

I have never used IB, but I suppose it would be reasonable for hosts who do to be able to require only IB or Inquiries. However, Airbnb will never do this, as they don't want to put any impediments in the way of guests being able to book.

As far as you not accepting guests with no reviews, I don't see that as a valid reason to decline requests across the board. How is a new guest supposed to ever get their first review if no host will accept them? You think other hosts should accept new guests and you not?

It makes total sense for prior reviews and host recommendations to be a requiement for IB, as the host doesn't have the opportunity to look at reviews or communicate with guests before the booking is accepted. But with a request, the host has the opportunity to do those things before deciding whether to accept or not. I have accepted several guests with no reviews, and they were great guests. The key is communication. If they send a polite, informative message with their request, answer any host questions or return message in an apppropriate and timely fashion, there's no reason to decline them, IMO.

What sort of message do you send to guests who ask for inappropriate things like extra guests, pets, etc. in a request? Maybe you could come up with a saved message with wording that would be more successful in getting them to withdraw the request so you aren't left having to declline.

[Debra48]

You may be right about not communicating properly with guests who have no reviews. But when you have an extremely sought after property, you must draw your lines and stick to them. Believe me, based on experience, I have been sweet talked by unreviewed guests who then trashed my place.

As for the message I send them? After I have explained why I cannot host them, I politely ask them to withdraw their request in order to open the calendar for other interested guests. This communication goes unheeded for hours on end. Not always, but enough to where it I feel as if my correspondence is simply being ignored and my calendar held hostage. 

[Colleen253]

@Debra48 If your properties are that sought after, why don’t you do away with Airbnb altogether and develop your own website and take bookings independently? Why on earth would you suffer Airbnb? At the very least, yes you should be on other platforms 

[Debra48]

I have one, not multiple properties -- hardly worth the hassle of 1) messing with SEO and 2) independent management without the benefits of Airbnb's review system. Do tell, which other platform do you feel is most competitive with Airbnb and produces fewer problems or less, in your words, suffering? 

[Sarah977]

@Debra48  Okay, that's why I asked what message you were sending. What you have to realize is that guests don't care about your convenience, nor the calendar opening up to other guests. 

The trick to getting guests to do what you would like them to do is to word things in such a way as to make it appear to be a benefit to them to do so. 

So after letting them know why you can't acccept the booking, try saying something like, "I suggest you withdraw this request asap, so you will be free to book a listing which meets your needs". 

It's the same with getting them to give you an eta. If they think it's just for your benefit, they are more likely to ignore it- if you say, "I do turn off my phone when I go to bed, and may not be available to check you in after the check-out window, so it's important to advise me of your eta- I'd hate for you to be left waiting outside, unable to reach me, and not able to get in".

Some guests may still ignore it, but you have a better chance of them responding to what you want them to do if you make it appear to be all about them.

[Debra48]

The first practical suggestion provided. Thank you much, Sarah. I do hope that Airbnb sees this exchange. Clearly I am not the only host who wishes we could opt out of the request function, as demonstrated by the following two comments. I am quite confident that if Airbnb were to survey their hosts on this matter, they would find a decent percentage of us who would appreciate this option.