Am I allowed to decline users without other host reviews?

[Cross-Cultural0]

Am I allowed to decline users when they request to book if they do not have other host reviews yet? I seem to have gotten three different answers from three different airbnb support people

[Danielle476]

What are your booking settings?  I have mine set to "Verified Users Only" but still get the occasional request from unverified users.  I decline them every time and this has not affected my Superhost status.  Double check your settings, as I believe you can make it a stipulation that they be recommended by other hosts.

[Sandra856]

Hi @Danielle476 🙂

The reason why you get requests from unverified guest is because you can only add settings like that for instant book. Everyone can send you a request. You can always ask the guest to verifi themselve afterwards. Also you can see excactly what is expected to keep your superhost status under your superhost progress page. Press the superhost box under the progress tab. 

@Cross-Cultural0  Airbnb rates us in how many requests we accept and we need to have ar least 88 % acceptance rate. So it does effect you. Look at your progress section. You will see all the different numbers. My personal opinon and experience with newbies is that they are great guests. They usually read everything on your listing. They just need a little guideance with how airbnb works, that they need to upload photo, Id and download the app to make communication better. Also education on how the rating system works. I have made a little explanation and put it on my listing. 

There is a lot of newbies so you will probably miss out on a lot of guests if you don't host them.

[Danielle476]

I have instant book on, and my settings ARE set to verified users only. It doesn’t affect my rating when I decline. 

[Sandra856]

@Danielle476 It will affect your acceptance rate like it does with everyone else. Otherwise we wouldn't be rated in the acceptance rate category. You can find it under your progress page. 

[Sandra856]

This is a screenshot from my page :

It says I have 93% and that I have to have at least 88%.

[Cross-Cultural0]

Thanks Sandra - Would you be willing to share your explanation of the review system for newbies?  We have been hit hard by newbies who don’t speak English and have rated us backwards (5 as poor, 1 as excellent - It has taken us a few months to recover.

[Sandra856]

Hi @Cross-Cultural0 🙂

You can see how I have explained it on my profile/listing - it's just below the area description. You can also search on this community. There is a lot of threads about the rating system. Many hosts even got a print with explanation on how the review system works. They have added it to their guestbook. You can also find that when seaching. I have choosen to explain it on my listing - maybe a little strange but I felt like I was asking for 5 star ratings when telling (via the note) the guest after they booked. (I had the one many of the other hosts got lying on the table in the room for guests to read). I think that could be a culture thing. Europeans can be rather "entitled" or I don't know how to explain it. They don't like to be told anything.

And, ouch!! A 1 star rating instead of a 5 star 😞  If the guest meant to give you 5 stars I would contact airbnb to see if they can change it. I think I would do that. 

[Sandra856]

I forgot to write that if you want to be sure the one you write to gets your message then you have to tag that person by pressing @ and then choose the name so it turns green like I have tagged you 🙂 @Cross-Cultural0 

[Cross-Cultural0]

Thanks Sandra - I'll check out your listings - I did call airbnb support to see if they could change it and they refused to - they said that I didn't have proof that the guest meant to leave a positive review, because I had called them to get the feedback, not in the feedback sections @Sandra856 

[Sandra856]

@Cross-Cultural0 When you contact airbnb in order to get a review star rating changed it has to be together with the guest that explains that it was a mistake otherwise they can't/won't change it. And even then it can be difficult. I have learned a lot from this community on how to handle all of these things that happens. I did like most people probably do - assume I had an idea of how it all works. 

I think that being an airbnb host is difficult - it is a little business and it is impossible to know what kind of guests we get.