Booking Enquiry over New Year 'blocked' and cannot be confirmed - what now?

[Chris1492]

This is a new one for me.

1. Instant Booking turn *off*
2. Guest wants to book over New Year
3. Airbnb sense this as potential bad news (parties, etc) and flags enquiry to me, in addition to adding some form of 'block'. (I've not seen this before - is it a new feature, intended to protect hosts?)
4. Anyway, I send a pre-approval
5. Guesy claims they cannot complete the booking - the system simply won't accept their payment.

My suggestion has been to:

1. Tell guest to check that their profile is properly complete and correct
2. Wait for pre-approval to expire
3. Try again...

Grateful for other thoughts. similar experiences, etc. Anyone come across this 'party trigger thing' before? (It's like email warning you that a particulat email might contain nasty stuff, etc).

Thanks, Chris 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Chris1492 Why would you want to override a safety feature? But if you really want to then change your listing from whole home to private room, take the booking then switch it back. Now when the guest parties and trashes the place don't claim Airbnb didn't warn you.

[Chris1492]

Hi @Mike-And-Jane0 appreciate your reply, but I'm a bit bit confused. Here's how I understand things - and I may be totally wrong, so if I need correcting/educating, then I'm up for that:

1.  I thought the safety feature simply flagged what might be a dodgy booking - in this case (a) over New Year and (b) by a profile with zero reviews. I can see how that might raise a few flags.
2. In email exchange I conclude that the booking is genuine - retired couple visiting family.
3. I send a pre-approval that the guest is unable to confirm - that's the point.

I'm confused about your whole home / private room comment. The booking is for a self-contained studio. I'm not clear as to what you mean by "...take the booking then switch it back..."

Apologies if I'm being dense here, but I'm just not following you. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Chris1492 the usual reasons for a booking being blocked are a group of young people booking a whole home for a short period of time as, especially if they are local,  this is an indicator of a party being planned. By switching the listing from 'whole home' to a 'private room' means this block will not occur as party are low risk in shared home bookings. Obviously nothing in the listing would actually change - its just a way around the system.

[Chris1492]

Ah, I see what you're getting at now - thanks. So this safety feature prevents the booking from taling place? I don't think I understood that - I thought it was just a warning message that I could 'override' by accepting the booking. Now I see whay a get-around would be required and understand what you're getting at - thanks. (I'll need to decide whether to do that or not - your earlier point taken).