Am new to Airbnb. How come guests do not accept my pre approvals?

[Vjollca0]

Hi,

I am very new to Airbnb. I created an account about 1.5 week ago, I did receive 6 requests and I have replied with a pre approval. However, I have not had anyone accepting my pre approvals. Am I doing something wrong? 

A bit confused.

[Donna15]

@Vjollca0, I'm a little confused as well. Though you've not yet had a completed booking, I note that you've been able to active Instant Book. Normally, this is not possible. Also, if you have IB on, guests don't need to make a request for pre-approval. 

I wonder whether there's some kind of glitch. 

I hope someone more experienced than I am can help. 

In any case, before you take on any guests, I strongly recommend that you turn off Instant Book. Especially for a new host, IB can be a recipe for disaster, as you have little chance to get a clear idea as to who is booking. 

I also suggest the following:

1. Request a Secure Deposit. I can almost guarantee that at some point you'd regret not having one;

2. Change your cancellation policy from flexible to moderate or - my own preference - even strict;

3. Get rid of the Extra Guest No Charge box, as it's misleading. You can do this by going to your settings entering a very high price (e.g. $250) in the box, and hitting Save. Once the page refreshes, the box will be gone;

4. Create a much more comprehensive and clear set of House Rules. You need to state specifically, even in the smallest detail, what the boundaries are. 

[Vjollca0]

@Donna15 Hi. I thanks for your reply, I think I will follow your advice it kind of make sense actually.

[Mark74]

Hi, I am about as far into this as you are but what I have seen is guests get 24 hrs to book if you pre-approve. They then think they can't book after this. So I think just best to continue with messaging until they confirm in a message that they are ok to book. I pre-approved one guest and she asked me if it would be ok to confirm later... there maybe other guests that don't think to ask and then just dissappear. Maybe this could be what happens to you.

[Nelson4]

but if a guest wants to ask anything before he book the room cant he? Just messaging and asking more infos?

[Clare0]

@Vjollca0 Let me see if I can clear up some confusion about Pre-Approvals.  

First of all, Pre-Approvals can only be sent to guests who make a reservation inquiry, not a reservation request.  Second, Airbnb encourages guests to send inquiries to many hosts at the same time.  Why? Because they can ask questions, check availabilty and shop around which they cannot do when making a reservation request.  Making a reservation request puts the guest on the hook, so to speak, for up to 24 hours waiting for the host to respond.  if the host declines then the guest has wasted a lot of time. 

By making multiple inquiries, the guest may receive many Pre-Approvals (and or Special Offers, for that matter) from different hosts.  The guest can then sit back and see which ones they want to accept.  In that case, a host may or may not get a response from the guest. 

Hope this helps!

[Vjollca0]

@Clare0 Thanks for the info! Much appreciated!