Penalized for refusing booking inquiry

[Yutaka7]

We recently refused some inquiry and our basic requirement performance went down below 88% (level required for Airbnb host). Airbnb only gives hosts 24 hours to respond to the inquiry either pre-approve or decline. We think that it is unfair to penalize a host when a guest's inquiry is not meeting rules of either Airbnb or Host, despite delining of the inquiry.

Examples we experienced and responded with declines are below: 

(1) An inquiry was about a guest who wanted to bring a pet. Our house rules clearly specifiy that we don't accept pet.

(2) An inquiry was about a guest wanting to book our listing, however, the guest profile had no information whatsoever (no photo, no description, no reviews, no government issued ID). 

(3) An inquiry was about a guest who wanted to book for someone else (a third-party booking).

We are confident that other hosts had similar experiences and noticed basic requirement performance goes down. Complaining to Airbnb did not work, and they told us just send a feedback. Is this something Airbnb hosts had nothing else to do, and we just have to ignore and move on?

[Mike340]

@Yutaka7

There have been many posts on this subject from many other frustrated hosts. Nothing is being addressed at present, whether it does, remains to be seen. It apeears to be on the "list of things to do" 

[Yutaka7]

Thanks for your response. I suspect that when a company gets too big, they are unable to properly and promptly manage itself, let alone Airbnb forces hosts and guests to do things in 24 hours very efficiently and automatically. 

[Emiel1]

hello @Yutaka7 ,

I agree with you. I recently had also inquiries and requests which clearly showed guests did not read the listing at all. Sometimes i ask them to cancel the request (yes, they can do this), but if they do,  i sometime get the annoying reprimand "the guest booked somewhere else". SO WHAT ?

Airbnb should stop this pushing behaviour or should at least punish the guests who are NOT reading the listing.

[Yutaka7]

Thanks for the response. It seems that Airbnb has the ability to automatically and instantly send out pre-determined emails/messages depending on our actions. If they can set up such algorithms and can code it’s program, they are certainly capable of changing the requirements of booking rather quickly, instead of leaving this matter as “to be addressed” until enough hosts all over the world get upset. 

[Adriana100]

Exactly the same thing happened to me. I had to refuse 5 inquiries last week because people do not bother to read the listing: one wanted to bring a 1 month old baby when my house clearly accepts kind 2 and older, another didnt have government id, another wanted to book for a third party, and two other wanted to come right away, one inquired at 11pm for the same day!!!! I declined all of them.

Second day got penalized and I called customer service. They told me to never press "deny". they said to reply in words that the place is not suitable for them blah, blah and to leave the inquire to expire. This is what they told me. So Im guessing that if we reply in words it counts... I usually reply in about an hr and in order to maintain the status I felt obliged to press either approve or decline.

Also I noticed something else. Actually more people have inquired but since they did it after 10PM I didn't have the chance to reply than the next day, sometimes after lunch. Some of these people, if they dont get an answer in a few hours, will cancel themselves, so I think that with people who are not fit for my listing I'm not going to be in a hurry to reply. I'll take the 24hrs window I have.

[Yutaka7]

Thanks for the response. I agree that we should respond in message within 24 hours, explaining the reason for declining. 

[Sarah977]

@Yutaka7  You misunderstood what @Adriana100 was saying. You do not have to pre-approve or decline an Inquiry (booking requests are different). If the potential guest is asking for things you do not provide, wants to bring more guests than you host, wants to bring their dog when you don't allow pets, etc, just message them back thanking them for their inquiry and explaining why your place is not suitable for their needs. If it's a lack of profile information, you can ask the guest to provide that before you will be able to consider them as a guest. You do not have to pre-approve or decline an Inquiry, at least not yet, who knows when that will change. Just messaging back, without either pre-approving or declining, will stop the computer clock from ticking on that 24 hour window.

[Yutaka7]

Thanks for the message. Just to clarify, as long as we respond back to inquiry with a message in 24 hours (explaining and asking for more questions), host’s performance will not be penalized and response performance will also not be affected at the same time?

Are these potential booking dates which are pending by not pre-approving or declining not going to be blocked on calendar by Airbnb system (the dates will be open for other bookings?)? 

[Sarah977]

@Yutaka7  Yes, just a response to an Inquiry seems to be sufficient to satisfy the punishment computer. Of course, that could change at any time, which is why I read posts on this forum all the time- we hosts don't get notified of changes by the platform, we're just surprised by them one day. And no, your calendar doesn't get blocked by an Inquiry, even if you pre-approve it. It only gets blocked when someone actually makes a confirmed booking.

[Yutaka7]

Thanks for the response! We will simply respond to messages without pre-approving or declining to avoid being penalized by Airbnb. 

[Adriana100]

Exactly. AT least this is what they told me. Usually I hurried to either pre-approve or decline. Don't press decline. just reply. And yes I am frustrated they change things and do not inform us. 

[Montana3]

Hi Sarah,

I've been hosting for 3 years now and my experience with Just Responding to an "inquiry" - not pre-approving or declining - will, after the 24 hour period, result in the dates being blocked on my calendar.

As a matter of fact, I just got off the phone - almost 20 minutes - with an airbnb rep who could not answer the question! 

I think airbnb really need to figure out what's what.  The Help center is no help, as it states, under Reservation Statuses:

Inquiry: A guest sent a message to a host about certain dates, but hasn't submitted a reservation request. In response, the host can send a message, pre-approve, send a Special Offer, or decline the dates of the inquiry."

VERY frustrating.

[Robin4]

@Yutaka7

What @Sarah977 has said is quite correct but many times it is a case of 'terminology'!

There is a vast difference between Inquries and Requests.

Inquiries:

You will never be penalised as long as you 'respond' to an inquiry...you don't have to accept it or decline it because all it is, is a question from a prospective guest, nothing more!

If a part of the guest inquiry is the request for a pre-approval......that will require a 'Grant/Decline' response on your part, and you will not be penalised as long as you do not decline too often. If you declined more than 4 pre-approval requests in a 6 month period you would receive a penalty advice notice from Airbnb. Once you have granted a pre-approval there is no further action required on your part. The recipent of the pre-approval has 24 hours from the time the pre-approval was granted to proceed to a reservation request. If the guest does not proceed in that 24 hour time-frame the pre-approval lapses and the whole inquiry drops off the system with no penalty to anyone!

Requests: 

A reservation request however does require an 'Accept/Decline'  response from you within 24 hours and a failure of you to respond will see the blocking of your booking calendar for the requested dates and your 'Response' rate stats will be affected. Once again too many declines will result in a penalty notice which may go from a warning to the temporary removal of your listing for failing to meet hosts standards.

Response time is important to you and your response time will be displayed on your listing description where it will be shown as anything from 'Less than 1 hour' to 'Within 24 hours'

@Yutaka7 one thing to remember, as a superhost you have a dedicated superhost number to call for rapid support and provided you call that number from your registered Airbnb phone you will be connected to the first available CS in the world wherever that may be. Response time is rapid and if ever you are in a situation where you do not feel comfortable with a reservation request, call CS and get them to deal with it. If CS handle a decline or a reservation cancel it will be regarded as neutral and have no effect on your stats

I hope this is of help to you Yutaka.

Cheers.....Rob

[Yutaka7]

Thanks for the message!

Just to clarify, a booking request from guests without any profile information nor asking something that breaks house-rules will get problematic, because we can’t just respond with messages?