Weird conversation with an angry (no longer) prospective booking

[David-Ljung0]

I had mistakenly set my booking settings to 6 months out instead of 3 months out.

I received a booking from someone for 5 months from now (that's how I found out), so I politely and quickly declined, updated my settings to 3 months, and told them I was sorry, but if they wanted to check back in a month I could look at opening it in the future.

At the same time, my 3rd ever booking was finalized, meaning the the 20% first-timer AirBnB promotion was no longer on my listing.

So this person said that I was just trying to make more money, and that's why I cancelled.

I explained that it was due to the promotion ending, and that actually I had slightly dropped the price after it ended because they seemed to jump too much, and that I'm sorry they felt that way.

Fast forward a few messages, and they are calling me a "liar" and telling me that I have been "busted" and so on, even though I've sent them links to the first-timer promotion and told them all my prices, not to mention the fact that I actually *do* have the right to raise my prices, but I didn't.

I told them to please not contact me again.

Questions are twofold:

I never want this person to rent my place, even if I some day turn on automatic booking, or can't remember her username.  Is there no way to put specific users on a block list?

I'm fairly new to AirBnB - is there a better way to handle these kind of responses?  Does this happen often?  And I presume they have no way to leave any sort of review for me since they aren't booked (and never will be for me), yes?

[Till-and-Jutta0]

@David-Ljung0 

During our hosting story I learned to stop toxic communication very soon. The sole intention of sending messages is to finalize a booking. If a communication is leading to nowhere, and if the other part starts offending you, you can flag him:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/4/how-airbnb-builds-trust-between-hosts-and-guests

[Colleen253]

@David-Ljung0 Report, then block the person. In your message thread with them, you will see a grey flag beside their name. Click it and select 'they're being offensive'. Clicking any other option won't ask you if you wish to block them as well. 

That's right, they can't review you and you can't review them, unless they've stayed. The best way to handle this type of person is to not engage with them further. You do not owe them any sort of explanation. Full stop. And no, you definitely do not want to ever host them. Report, then block and move on.

[David-Ljung0]

Thanks for the info - I don't know if they need to be reported for being difficult, but if that's how I block them, then that works fine.

[Colleen253]

@David-Ljung0 Yes, unfortunately, that’s the only avenue Airbnb makes available to us for blocking. Every time I have to do it, I leave feedback requesting a better way to simply block someone. It’s ridiculous. Their thought process is probably that we will be less likely to do it if it’s unpleasant or uncomfortable. So it stays as it is. 

[Helen744]

Helen@744 also David many hosts offer discounts for long term stays

[Laura2592]

@David-Ljung0 never get into a back and forth with a guest or prospective guest. 

I have a 3 message rule. If someone doesn't respond after 3 tries, or if the communication is not solved in 3 messages from me, I stop and either call or terminate the whole conversation. I would have done this as soon as I canceled and not got into an exchange. 

"Sorry I had to cancel. I wish you the best in finding a great place to stay!" 

Guest rants, name calls, I stay silent. Its like depriving a fire of oxygen-- no response will make the conversation end. Report and move on. 

Consider a bullet dodged in all cases.

[David-Ljung0]

That's great advice.

[Helen744]

Helen@744 you absolutely can change your prices .Airbnb will send your current prices so it was not you who changed it . That was worth pointing out but maybe if you had been happy to host u could simply have offered the discount yourself as a one off. H

[Helen744]

I cannot figure out what they were looking at . If it is your calendar then it can be deceptive as people do not understand that prices can be different any day they book . They lost nothing as they did not book and have no understanding obviously. Challenge them to actually book. They quickly go away if they were not genuine. An enquiry is not where they find the price.Put a distance between your self and your price. They can see the price. If they were looking at one price and it changed well that is a little weird because the promotion should have already ended. Its tricky to move on to the nitty gritty of this business but Good Luck. some people target Newbies H