happy 5th! of July: when guests COERCE you into being a DECLINE! demon

[Jesse-B--0]

Yey! It's time for another three-day holiday weekend here in America the great US of A celebrates its birthday and independence on the 4th of July. Which means most government workers and private employees at companies that abide by govt holidays will be given a paid day off in order to celebrate. Excellent!, this means that you can require a 3-night minimum that weekend without much pushback from chronic one-night-only travelers. 

If you are fortunate enough like I have been (thank god) to be completely booked for weeks in advance for the major holidays than all is good, right? I have nothing to worry about except counting my lucky stars. That is, until (1) week before said holiday weekend when the PROCRASTINATORS wreak havoc on my peace and sense of financial security. How?--you may ask. 

Well, first like the procrastinators that they are they waited until the last minute to reserve a room for that really special holiday that they must absolutely (or they may perish) enjoin at your property because it's the only home that they have had their eye on and you have such good taste and everyone says how nice your place is that they just could not fathom spending the holiday anywhere else. (Made you blush--why so upset?)

Because this guest is the (30th) inquiry this week with the same story and adoration for your BnB, and the Inquiry or Booking Request that they submitted for your listing and that you MUST respond to in under 24hrs or risk degrading your response score, is dated for Monday the 5th!!!! of July, and they want to know if there's ANY way, that you still have July 2nd to the 4th available??  And yes they acknowledged that they referenced your calendar and that yes it does appear every listing/Suite you host is indeed booked solid. BUT maybe just maybe you had some secret room or casita tucked away somewhere on your compound that you keep for yourself or that you never list----on the off chance that someone like them contacts you and you can come to their rescue by offering to it them and rewarding them for not planning ahead like every other guest that you will be hosting this fun and festive holiday weekend. 

And here is where the GUN to your head comes in. They have just stuck you with an active inquiry for the 5TH of JULY when they knew at the time they submitted such inquiry or request to stay that they had ZERO, none, zilch intention to book with you on that day. They only submitted that date because it allowed them to circumvent "the system" and gain access to your undivided attention and enabled them to ask you questions and communicate with you directly through airbnb inbox messages, and they even admit that none of the questions that they are asking you relate to or having anything to with the travel dates that now you as host have the burden and mandate to decide whether to "pre-approve" or DECLINE!!!

Well thats easy, just decline them and get over it. Right? WRONG!

Because this is the week before the busy holiday weekend and this is the 30TH time you have clicked DECLINE so easily and moved on. So now to your detriment, due to no-fault of your own, you now come across to the Airbnb algorithm autobots as a picky, anti-social, exclusionary host underserving of having your listings prioritized or highlighted in search queues. Why bother featuring your property---you're just gonna decline these sweet &  innocent travelers like you always do--you chronic decliner downer---you, say the autobots!

Yep, I am SOOOO happy that I am hosting a full house for the 4th. No, I wont be exhausted at all come Friday from being FORCED (left with no other option but) to reply to these silly irrelevant questions on "fake" (ie fraudulent) reservation submissions. I am going to see it as simply the cost of doing business even when said cost is only against my interests and not the inconsiderate swarm of "guests" that abuse the inquiry system. I am a happy-go-lucky host cheerful as can be to dedicate hours and hours (that I could have spent ensuring my current guests have an enjoyable stay) to guests that have zero-chance of being one of my guest this weekend and high likelihood of NEVER being one of my guests because I do not associated or invite people that place me under duress to my own detriment into my HOME!

HAPPY 5th of JULY EVERYONE! Hopefully you have carved out some time for yourself this holiday to drink HEAVILY...I know I have! Cheers 😃

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jesse-B--0 NO NO NO NO NO. You do not have to decline or approve an inquiry. You only have to accept or decline a booking request. All you have to do for an inquiry is respond with some erudite comments - Do not be fooled by the other options Airbnb force on you - They can be ignored.

If you decline consistently then the Airbnb Bot will start messaging and complaining to you.

[Jesse-B--0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 YES YES YES say the autobots HURRY before your time expires. I already sent two alerts in the message inbox, reminders in your notifications section, and alas if you are reading work emails I got you covered there also with (4) emails urging you to take action on the same guest inquiry. Also, the real savvy coercers have figured out that Trip Requests get quicker attention so they submit it as a reservation request, so that even if you pre-approve they quickly cancel because their given 48hrs of grace to do so at no peril to them. And on off-chance that they are unable to cancel penalty-free they will simply just cry foul and say you a bad listening and did not pay attention to them when they told you that they were not actually interested in booking or confirming for the fake date. They call airbnb and sob and then you get a call from airbnb pleading that you reconsider issuing them a full refund---after all they meant no ill will towards you and they really do like you and appreciate everything that you do as a SuperHost fo your guests. You're not a bad guy you're guy--and good guys ALWAYS issue full refunds.  Come on good guy whattaya say we give these kind folks their money back and we can all go back singing kumbaya, kumbaya my lord...

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jesse-B--0 Then I would play them at their game and accept the booking request (whilst ignoring the dates requested). If it is within the timescale (14 days?) where they can't cancel then it becomes their problem not yours and you can always allow the cancellation rather than have these idiots turn up at your listing.

[Tommy150]

This.

[Jennie131]

Ugh.  You get to enjoy nastygrams from the guest, who calls you a thief for not refunding, explains how unethical you are for "stealing" their money, and giving you sob stories about how they can't afford their house payment now.

And you block them, but this doesn't stop customer service from trying to convince you to "do the right thing" and just refund the guest because they totally "accidentally" booked your place. 

And guess what? They didn't actually cancel yet, so you have no idea if they are just going to rock up on the doorstep on July 5th, trash your place, claim bedbugs and get refunded anyway, and then leave you a one star review that customer service will NOT remove. 

Or we can just not penalize hosts for declining booking requests for the wrong dates. 

[Colleen253]

@Jesse-B--0  30?? That’s extreme. While Mike and Jane’s idea is clever, in no way is it a solution. it’s not our job as hosts to have to deal with this kind of crap, and employ time and effort to come up with creative strategies to fend off inappropriate requests and inquiries.I can only imagine the deluge of messages you’ve been buried under and the amount of time this has taken to deal with!

@Catherine-Powell @Airbnb 

Per below, you need to finally provide a way to mitigate this problem.

 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.

We want to ensure you’re empowered to decide who you welcome into your home and that you’re comfortable with the guests who stay with you. We understand that you only want to be held accountable to legitimate booking requests, and we’re committed to making sure that happens.”

"...we’re committed to making sure that happens." Really? Just how hard is it? Article is from 2018, updated April '21.

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

[Emilia42]

"Dear Guest, unfortunately, I am all booked for the 4th of July weekend. I see you have requested the 5th which I am happy to confirm. I will do so shortly. If you do not wish to have your credit card charged for these dates please withdraw your request as quickly as possible. I would hate to see Airbnb hold on to your deposit when it is not needed. Happy 4th!"

[Andrea-and-Glenn0]

@Emilia42 I always appreciate your input and stock answers for situations. I’ve already used your suggestion for thwarting third party bookings and will use this one also. 

Thanks/Glenn

[Jillian115]

I had a request from a past guest recently that I said I would not host again.  I was a little annoyed that I even got it. How is it possible that a guest who should have been blocked is even able to make a request. Then I had to deal with all the Airbnb messages and emails letting me know I had this request. I didn't respond, but I have not been marked down in my responsiveness. I wonder if it will change. It's only been three days. 

[Emilia42]

@Jillian115 That happened to me as well. Do you require guests who have previous recommendations from other hosts to instant book?

[Jillian115]

@Emilia42 Yes I do. Is that why I received it? 

[Emilia42]

@Jillian115 

Yes, well the guest was denied the option to instant book so that's why you got a request. It is annoying but at least you had the option to decline. The same scenario happened to me a few months ago. 

[Colleen253]

No host should ever have to field a request from someone for whom they’ve checked the ‘would not host again’ box, regardless.

@Jillian115  I don’t think the requirement to respond is there anymore, because it’s not a new guest, so your response rate won’t be affected if you don’t respond. Did you decline, or just ignore? Your acceptance rate takes a hit either way, which is ridiculous.

Also, if you just let the clock run out on the request, your dates will be blocked and you’ll have to manually unblock them. Again, all of this is just plain ridiculous for an inappropriate request! 

[Jillian115]

@Colleen253 I actually just ignored it. It's the first time I have ignored a request but, I really didn't want to have to deal with her again.  😞 probably not the right thing to do.