Umm, did you mean to book my place??

[Colleen253]

I get a request to book early this afternoon, only it's not addressed to me. It's addressed to someone I can only assume is the host of another listing the guest has considered booking instead. I recognize the name as a fellow local host. So I message them back, asking for confirmation they want to book with me, rather than just accept and make an awkward situation more awkward. Crickets from the guest. But the clock ticks on. And of course, it's not crickets from Airbnb. The reminder to accept comes in 15 minutes later, as expected. And they keep coming. How about Airbnb sending messages to the guest...the one who nine times out of ten needs prompting, not the host. " Hey guest, your host hasn't accepted your booking yet, perhaps they need more info from you. Better check your messages!" Meanwhile, my calendar stays blocked with an uncertain booking.😫

[Ann72]

@Colleen253  Ugh, that is the worst.  It's impossible to ignore with the dates blocked.  I'm so tired of guests not answering!  

[Colleen253]

@Ann72 Yes, it's making me antsy, sitting there seemingly waiting for me to do something, when it's the guest who needs to respond back. Guests not responding in a timely manner is getting worse, for sure. I just wish Airbnb wouldn't make it so all of the burden and penalty falls on the host shoulders. If I don't get confirmation before the clock runs out, I'll have to make a move, and I'm darned if I do and darned if I don't.

[Ann72]

@Colleen253  I know.  You could tell the guest to fish or cut bait, but - they don’t answer!  You could ask customer service to get in touch with the guest, but - they don’t answer!  I get antsy, too, and am grateful if it’s just an inquiry so I can archive it as soon as I answer and make it out of sight, out of mind.  But a request and a blocked calendar - murder.

[Susan990]

Why don't you just choose one of the many options to decline the reservation and state in full the reason and the details. First  post a response directly in the inbox so the communication is saved forever and can be reviewed by  Airbnb and wait for an answer from the guest, if they do not respond quickly then Decline and state reasons in that section as well.

[Colleen253]

@Susan990 I could do that, but it rubs me the wrong way that I’m penalized by Airbnb for a decline, and I’d rather save my declines for when I really need them. The guest on the other hand is not required to take any responsibility whatsoever. I gave this guest plenty of opportunity to respond. 

[Susan990]

Thank you  Colleen 253 for waking me up to what is going on . Your story and others remind me and reinforce my view that the entire rating system of Airbnb-  as it has evolved  - inadvertently  invites this abusive user behavior.  If you study the  vrbo  site you can see how the Listings are rated and reviewed .  The tone and approach is never negative.  And still informative.  As I have stated in earlier community posts... the entire Airbnb platform is copied from that  platform- page by page-except for the review section.  ?  It  hosts many high end properties globally. It must be doing something right and  like the web page design itself is a  proven  successful format.  Of course I have no way of knowing what goes on back-side of that booking platform.  Like  you I have worked for many years building my business and my position on the Airbnb platform and value what it has done for me.

[Hal3292]

@Colleen253Does Airbnb penalize us for ANY decline, even when the reason is that we can't accommodate what the guest is asking for? For instance, I once declined a booking from someone who wanted to bring a couple of cats and a dog -- even though my listing says no pets! Do they ding us on the ratings or lower us in search results? (I feel the same way you do -- I don't like to decline.)

[Colleen253]

@Hal3292 Yes. To Airbnb, a decline is a decline. It's best to ask those guests to withdraw their requests, so you don't have to decline.

What is Airbnb doing to avoid penalizing Hosts' acceptance rate when they decline unfit or illegitimate requests?

We understand that sometimes you may get requests that clearly violate your House Rules, or that are actually marketing attempts disguised as booking requests. These can put you in the awkward position of having to risk harming your own acceptance rate when there’s not a better action to take. To address this, the first thing we need to do is help you flag to us when there’s a problem. We’re exploring how best to do this, and while we don’t have a feature to announce at this time, we are absolutely aware of this pain point for you.

From: 

https://www.airbnb.ca/resources/hosting-homes/a/understanding-response-rate-and-acceptance-rate-86

Note that article is from 2018 and updated in April of this year. Airbnb has been exploring how to address this pain point for hosts for a long time. 

P.S. re "Do they ding us on the ratings or lower us in search results?" No, ratings are not affected, but search placement may be. 

[Michelle53]

@Colleen253  They haven't done anything about it because they intend for it to be a pain point. If one is penalized for declines, it pushes one to accept, probably more than might otherwise be the case.

One can, of course, report  "marketing attempts disguised as booking requests" .   But a decline is still a decline. 

They do, of course, avoid making decline penalties totally overt by not including "Acceptance Rate" in the Superhost criteria. 

On the topic of reminders though: I received a Trip Request at 10.45pm last night - outside my response window, since I was already asleep. I was then woken again at 11.35pm by the reminder. 

[Hal3292]

@Colleen253Thank you so much! I would have had no way of knowing this without your sharing the information. I wonder what else Airbnb keeps us in the dark about??? And thanks so much for the tip about asking the guests to withdraw their request in such cases. That is super valuable info, and I appreciate your taking the time to share!

[Colleen253]

@Hal3292 No problem 🙂  "I wonder what else Airbnb keeps us in the dark about?" Lots of things! That's why I love this forum so much. In here, the lights are always on 😉

[Colleen253]

Update. I messaged the guest a second time, with no response. I finally had no choice but to accept. So the rub is, this person’s job is ‘Communications Consultant.’ I guess he’s just too busy communicating elsewhere 😜

[Emilia42]

@Colleen253 I would accept it. "Thanks so much for booking! Just so you know, my name is Colleen. If you didn't mean to book with me and intended to book with XX instead, you are free to cancel the reservation. But please make sure you do so within 48 hours of booking or cancelation fees could apply."

[Colleen253]

@Emilia42 Good idea, but I’m done helicopter parenting. He can figure the rest out on his own. I accepted with my standard ‘thanks for booking!’ message. Still no response btw!