guests push for pre-approval yet not really book it

[Tim100]

Hi all

Continuously 3 times in the past one week, guests push for pre-approval, then not really pay to book it. What is it? Is this a new scam? Thank you.

Tim

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

It's not a scam. Guests are just looking at multiple properties and trying to get the best deal.  It's just apart of the process.  If you turn Instant book on, you wouldn't have to go through that work, the guest would have to be committed to booking with you.  

[Lilian20]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 : not necessarily, even with IB activated you still get questions without booking. 

@Tim100 there's something wrong in the way you answer queries but I don't know what, it could be anything..

Also, it may not be an important feature of your place but simply how you come across, my feeling as a host is that any host can get it wrong two ways : 

 - too needy (please book my apartment...)

 - I don't care (the opposite : not answering potential guest questions)

When communicating with potential guests, I tend to keep my answers informative, ultra short and straight to the point.

I also allow myself to ignore some questions when I feel it's not the right time to answer. 

Hope all this helps, 

Enjoy and happy new year !

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Typically if someone is trying to scam another person, they would be getting something out of it.  Seeing as how the guest gets nothing after you pre-approve, I can't imagine a scam is the case.  Airbnb encourages guests to "shop around" and send inquiries to multiple hosts in order to get a few pre-approvals.  That way the guest can weigh their options against each other and pick the listing they feel best suits their situation.  Is there something about your replies you think might turn off a guest? 

[Tim100]

Thank you, we thought that too, they don't seem to get anything from doing that. But again and again, I mean if they really want to book, then why not go ahead book it, especially when they woke you up in the midnight and asked all the information they need, then it's like the pre-approval is all they want for now. If you say they do that to a few properties they like, then compare, that makes sense. Also I just figured out pre-approval won't lock the dates to other potential guests, then I won't worry to do that.

Thank you all for the quick help!