Blocked Dates due to Expired Request

[Marko16]

I can't for the life of me understand why Airbnb is so scrict with it's response-time rules.

Rather than ACCEPT or DECLINE a request, I started a conversation with a recent potential guest, as I needed to manage their dates vs. the dates of another potential request.

As this conversation is going on, Airbnb's clock is ticking.  Lo and behold - because I didn't officially ACCEPT or DECLINE their request (althought I was in constant contact with them), these dates are now blocked on my calendar - and I need now to extend them a "Special Offer."

What gives?  Someone please explain.

[Helen3]

Sorry I think you need to speak to BnB about this.

If you don't reply to booking requests - I thought it only showed up in your response rate - I have never heard of your calendar being blocked.

Give them a call now and see what they can do.

[Nia0]

AirBnB should change the name of the metric to Accept/Decline Timing.  To me, and I would assume others, Response Rate would be the amount of time it takes you to respond to their inquiry.  I respond within minutes and have also had conversations that have lasted longer than 24 hours to confirm.  This especially happens when a group of 5 has booked for 1 person so the pricing is different but they are camping in the mountains and only connect to the internet rarely.  I can't confirm until they reconnect.  Since I got downgraded for not responding within 24 hours now I have to give a lengthy explaination to the guests who may be out of contact.  I have to tell them it is OK for them to rebook if I decline them and not to take it personally.  I just need to keep my metrics up.  This is not the kind of conversation that should happen between a host and guest.  It hurts the relationship.

[Tony16]

This portion of the web site dealing with accpting or declining reservations, really needs to be better nuanced. I have lost bookings, and spent hours trying to untangle the confusion due to the insufficient programming needed to address these very real circumstances. These simple steps might have worked in earlier iterations of the site. Given its current size, however, and so many new users, perhaps more inexperienced than those intrepid souls of its earlier years, there needs to be more subtley inserted into the site use.

[Allison2]

One of the biggest guest complaints about the Airbnb system is unresponsive hosts, so Airbnb tried to improve things by requiring that hosts affirmatively Accept or Decline a reservation within 24 hours. It's not perfect, but it's the best solution they have right now.

Guests can only send 1 reservation request at a time* - their funds are tied up immediately & they need to hear back from the host before moving on to another listing. You can imagine how frustrated a guest would feel if they got no response from a couple of reservation requests, each taking 24 hours to time out. And there are MANY hosts who are absolute trash at giving a response, so Air blocks their calendars when a request goes 24 hours without an accept/decline .

A few hours in advance of the deadline I'll message "Airbnb asks that I give a definite reply to your request within 24 hours. If you aren't able to reply by 8pm I'll need to decline, but feel free to send through another reservation request if you'd like to continue the conversation". In my experience, the ones that send a reservation request, but can't respond to questions within 24 hours aren't the greatest guests (barring internet/cell accessibility issues), so I don't sweat it too much.

*not to be confused with an inquiry - which they can send out as many as they like