Acceptance of guests/ rating for host

[Suzy36]

I am prompted by the system to accept or decline a guest within 24 hours.
I have been doing this. However, I had to decline several people and I did this ONLY when they did not match my rules and regulations:
1. I have a NO KIDS policy - they include up to 4 children
2. I have a NO PARTY policy - they ask to have a party
3. I set a price - they are not willing to pay it and want heavy discounts
4. I have an AGE policy - no minors - they are a group of guest under 21
5. they just do not answer my initial greeting and request of acceptance of rules and regulations
6. they ask for time that is not available
7. guest sent double request, booked one but the other one we cancelled out
8. inquired while house was booked on another platform, I am not a computer and have to do one thing after the other, so sometimes bookings overlap

I was told by AirBNB reps that this would not affect my ratings, yet under PROGRESS I find my acceptance rate dropped to 75%. This can't be right! Future guests are ignoring what I write in my ad and my account is derogatorily affected by accepting guests according to my rules and regulations.
So: if a guest asks to stay with 10 people and I have only4 beds I still have to accept him/ her if I do not want my account to negatively affected, that is not right!
Please take a look at this. Thank you. SL

[Letti0]

@Rob311 I can't help you I don't have minimum days except on holidays and events.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Rob311

My understanding is that guests should not be able to inquire/request for stays that do not meet your min stay requirement - please check your settings. And you should contact ABB directly in case there is a bug which is overriding your settings. 

[Kelly149]

there used to be the option (who knows today with the way things are often changing!) that a third option on top of 1. Accept 2. Decline, was 3. Special Offer, so if you have minimum days and they've not requested enough or if they want to add a party or extra people or some other unusual thing, then you could click the Special Offer button and make the rate be something that you'd be content with or that you're quite certain the guest WONT be content with.

but also what @Jessica-and-Henry0 said, if your settings were right, the too few days shouldn't happen

[Stephanie365]

Yes.

When you reply, let them know that you have a minimum stay requirement and you will be happy to rent to them for the 2 days but they must pay for 3. And then send them a "special offer" with the price you charge for the 3 days. 

So, for example, you have a 3 day minimum stay and the guest only wishes to book 2 days. For the sake of argument, they will arrive Aug 1 and depart Aug 3. Say your rate is $75/ night. Send them a "special offer" for August 1 - August 3 for $225.  At this point it is up to them to accept or decline. If they accept, you have your 3 nights payment and only 2 days occupied on your calendar. If they decline, your calendar is open and no penalty to you.

[Rachel567]

I have had ppl “false book” just to send me an inquiry for other dates and then not cancel. Happened recently and I waited for a response and declined request after 3 days, since I never received any other response. Super annoying! 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Rachel567

If people send an "inquiry" (which is different from a booking request) then the host has to either pre-approve or decline. (and host performance on how quickly you click pre-approve/decline is also measured)

Once you pre-approve then the guest has 24 hrs to complete payment for a confirmed reservation or else the pre-approval will expire. Also, ABB gives the host the option whether you would like to temporarily block those dates for 24hrs while the guest finalizes payment. If you don't block those dates, your calendar will be kept open for other potential guests and whoever pays first will secure a booking.

Most people sending "inquiries" are usually in the browsing stage and not all lead to confirmed bookings so my suggestion would be to just send a nice simple answer/response to their inquiry, don't block the dates, click pre-approve/decline and then forget about it 🙂

[Rachel567]

Thank you! I’ve never had someone not cancel their own request until recently once I told them the dates they inquired about were not available. 

[Fred13]

Inquiry: guest seeks Information from the host (Inquirer must pass available dates / minimum day filters)

Request: guest seeks Approval from the host to create a booking.

Hosts should answer both within 24 hours.

[Howard61]

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago - someone just booked giving me only hours warning...I do not accept last minute requests, in addition the guest had no past reviews and the photograph they had up was 'questionable' so wrote to them to tell them we were not ready to receive guests. I had no reply, and Airbnb dropped my acceptance to 80% lol - I contacted Airbnb to say there is no option to explain why we did not accept (security was one issue) and they replied to me with the standard. no problem as you have 100 % 5 stars....tried to explain this acceptance 88% but it did not seem to sink in....ah well

[Allison2]

Howard, You can modify your advance notice settings in the "Availability" section of your listing. You can select the amount of notice in days (1, 2, 3 or 7 days), or accept same day requests up to a certain cutoff time. Properly set up, you won't receive last minute requests that don't work for you - and also save guests time!

[Olga380]

I have been hosting for quite a while and have never had any comments or negative things to say

but recenly the acceptance thing did drive me up the wall!!!

The truth is  clients often create an inquiry to ask some more questions (and it is a natural thing and i do not mind answering these questions):

 as are these dates available (when they can probably see from the calendar than they are not)?

do you provide kayaks and canoes & boats  (nothing is said anywhere in my listing that i have them)?

how close it is to the beach? (it is in my description)

Can we bring in our 90 year old granny ( the property is on a ski hill slope with snow cover on driveway in winter and there is nothing i really can do about this but say no)

and now it seems when i answer these questions - not only i get a pat on the shoulder, but apparenly am not a good host as i am being penalized for either decining after answering or answering it and  leaving it unresolved) - tried both ....

The point is not for us to try to invent a way to work around the stupid formula but to have a constructive way for us to communicate to Airbnb the issues (this and other ones) and for them to build formulas around us and communicate to us the protocol. The formulas are created by tech experts who have no knowledge of hospitality. After all AIRBNB has built its wealth on the likes of us and it would not be wise of them to not to listen to us. A little appreciation is overdue.

And actually there should be nothing wrong with decining some guests if we are not comfortable... we are risking our poropery after all (just a crazy thought) and it is only a couple of hundred thousand dollar risk.

And i really love to stop hearing from bots to update my calender - it is current

And AIRBNB should have acessible toll free customer service number for hosts and guests published clearly on the website.