fake inquiry not rent apartment but to rent a place for his hotspot

[Cecilia46]

Here is the actual "INQUIRY"

Lillie

1 guest · 45 nights · $4,334.68

Large furnished 2 bedroom/2 bath condo w/parking

Message

Hey, my name is Daniel Davis, I’m from Charleston, SC. I’m I would like rent out a window sill in your property. I won’t be staying the night in Sacramento. I run a business that places hotspots in properties that power smart devices like smart watches and smart dog collars. So instead of booking one night for myself I would like to know if I can book your place for $200 on going monthly for allowing me to have my hotspot at your property. It won’t interfere with your current internet or privacy at all, the size of the device is 3inches by 3.5inches. We will also cover the setup which only takes 1 hour at most. I’m reaching out to rental property owners because I figure it could be some extra supplemental income that won’t effect your bookings. If you are you open to the idea of an on going booking let me know so we can chat more.

I received the first one on July 7 which when I saw the inquiry it had already been marked "not possible" 5 hours later by Airbnb because someone else had instant booked for the same time period. I felt the message violated Airbnb's rules, he wanted to involve my apartment outside of Airbnb with his hotspot business, and that it was spam. I declined and marked it for Airbnb as spam. Airbnb reduced my timely response rate because I did not respond to this "inquiry". Airbnb's response to me is that they don't make the rules--their computer does and I didn't respond to Lillie/Daniel Davis w/in 24 hours. 

A few minutes ago I received the same inquiry again with new dates. Airbnb advised that I could block the sender and explained how to do just that. I will do that, but I guess I wonder why Airbnb has employees at all since their computer algorithms run everything and I'm told there is no way to manually correct the algorithm.

So my issue is with being penalized for this kind of spam inquiry which was labeled not possible 5 hours after he sent it. And, what is Airbnb doing about this?

[M199]

@Cecilia46 

Walk away!!!  How do you know he's not hacking you or your guests???

[Cecilia46]

I didn’t reply to either inquiry. I referred the sender to Airbnb but they penalized me for not responding to the sender within 24 hours even though just five hours after the first inquiry Airbnb marked it not possible because someone else had instant booked some of those dates. 

I blocked the second inquiry and am waiting to see if I am once again penalized for not responding to the sender within 24 hours.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Cecilia46 You need to respond to all inquiries. a dot or exclamation mark will do.

[Cecilia46]

Thanks for the advice. Even though I blocked this person, the response clock kept clicking down. BTW the Airbnb supervisor did not mention responding so I’m guessing I would have once again been penalized if not for your advice

[Dave1074]

It was an INQUIRY.  You need to write back something, anything at all, within 24 hours.  That is your response rate. 

Faster is better but 24 hours is the rule.  It has nothing to do with opening a case with Air or whatever. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Cecilia46  not once airbnb gave a full refund to guests bc wifi was down. I said OK, then why bother to rent the entire house if wifi is the only thing that matter and has a value!! I will place my router close to window and charge full nightly rate for the password. Guests can put their own pillow on the street under my window and surf from 14:00-11:00 h. Smoking, dogs and kids allowed. 

So my advice is that accept but charge your regular price 🙂

[Helen427]

hello @Cecilia46 and welcome to ABB CC from New Zealand

Should you ever receive an Enquiry like this, or a WhatsApp enquiry, ( ABB now flag WhatsApp msgs with an alert which is good to see)  immediately use the " Report User " option at the bottom of the reservation details page.

I had yet again, another WhatsApp enquiry today for a 3 week stay which I reported it as Spam, as you should do to & Declined the booking request.

When one Declines the request there's 2 boxes, one to reply to the Guest and in this type of situation it's best not to engage in conversation and do as @Mike-And-Jane0 suggested and simply place a
"dot' symbol.

The other box is for feedback directly to ABB which I also provided as my calendar had also been blocked this week for reasons unknown to myself and it may be interrelated.

Make sure you check your 'Views' and see if any dates may have diagonal lines though it suggesting someone may have checked dates and made a booking which didn't go through, nor perhaps did they have any intention of going through with it, and also report that to ABB Customer Services for following up.

They should be able to check the IP addresses and ensure they are held to account.

All the best