Booking Enquiry / Contact outside Airbnb

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Alicia340
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Booking Enquiry / Contact outside Airbnb

I had a Booking Enquiry from a guest saying:
- "My name is Ahmet akarli. My aunty Judith is going to visit london between July 14 and August 6. We would like to rent your property for her entire stay here in london. You can reach me on (Phone number hidden by Airbnb) to discuss logistics etc. Best regards. A"

 

- Because the guest showed intention to contact me directly outside Airbnb and had no reviews, I declined his booking. 

 

- After two messages from the guest followed saying:
"have you declined the offer please? It has gone through my credit card. Please let me know. A"

I didn't reply and contacted Airbnb. They told me to block the person and that they will get in touch. 


One day later I got an email from Airbnb saying:
"Your listings may be suspended"

 

- Got in touch again with Airbnb and this was their reply "since when you are going to decline your guest request every time you will feel unsafe it will really affect your rates."

This is ridiculous. I need to feel safe and feel confident that I have the choice to select a guest that I am confident with. Airbnb can't use coercion and force the host to take a guest we are not comfortable taking. And if we don't take it we are going to be punished...

 

I am frustrated by the lack of support from Airbnb. How will you deal with a similar situation? Thanks

1 Best Answer
Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@Alicia340 Airbnb's outsourced CS ambassadors often reply with nonsense answers and are usually unfamiliar with policy. To summarize, this person tried to make not only a third party booking, but also attempted to take things off platform. One ambassador tells you to block the person (correct), then another tells you you will be suspended for doing that. What a circus.

 

@Catherine-Powell , you've been promising to improve CS since you came on board, but hosts are still dealing with nonsense like this. Not much progress is being made.....

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13 Replies 13
Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@Alicia340 Airbnb's outsourced CS ambassadors often reply with nonsense answers and are usually unfamiliar with policy. To summarize, this person tried to make not only a third party booking, but also attempted to take things off platform. One ambassador tells you to block the person (correct), then another tells you you will be suspended for doing that. What a circus.

 

@Catherine-Powell , you've been promising to improve CS since you came on board, but hosts are still dealing with nonsense like this. Not much progress is being made.....

@Catherine-Powell and @Colleen253 , yes it is very frustrating...

 

I don't want to feel under pressure by Airbnb and compromise my safety. 

 

Would you reject a booking if you are in doubt? 

 

Thanks, Alicia

@Catherine-Powell and @Colleen253 , yes it is very frustrating...

 

I don't want to feel under pressure by Airbnb and compromise my safety. 

 

Would you reject a booking if you are in doubt? 

 

Thanks, Alicia

@Alicia340 Going off platform and third party bookings are both against the Airbnb terms.

It’s fine to occasionally decline any booking request that you don’t feel is going to be a good fit. Your acceptance rate does take a hit, and Airbnb does revel in shaming you for doing so, with all sorts of threats of plummeting ratings and search placement, but that’s just their way of trying to scare hosts into taking all comers. You would have to decline a lot of guests, in a short period of time, before you would actually suffer any real consequences.

M199
Level 10
South Bruce Peninsula, Canada

@Alicia340, @Colleen253 

 

It's not possible to book and have credit card charged unless you have Instabook on and the guest meets your requirements.  Something doesn't sound right, IMO

Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@M199I rather suspect “Ahmet akarli booking for aunty Judith” wasn’t what was actually going on…

Alicia340
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

@Colleen253 , @M199 I agree, it was a strange request...

Alicia340
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

If you are following this thread, I wrote to Airbnb and the reply was

"Hi Alicia, My name is Karen and I'm one of the Supervisors from Airbnb. Apologies for the delay in my response as we're experiencing a high volume of inquiries at this time. We want to be able to address each member of our community individually, so we really appreciate your patience.

I understand that you reached out to us regarding guests trying to reach out to you outside the platform. Let me check this for you." This was on the 14th of July. Have not heard since and I suppose I will not hear from them. 

 

Nothing from them yet...

Alicia340
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Nothing from Airbnb yet ... 25th of July today...

Charlotte936
Level 2
Pannal, United Kingdom

Hi

Can anyone let me know how to reply to an enquiry - not sure how to do this and can't see a reply button anywhere on the message.

Not sure if it's a dodgey enquiry or not

Thanks

@Charlotte936  There isn't a reply button on the message- there should be an empty message box there below the guest's inquiry message that you just start typing into.

Charlotte936
Level 2
Pannal, United Kingdom

I've found it thanks - it was beyond the "be wary if this enquiry" button

Thanks for yor help

C 🙂

If you got a "be wary of this enquiry" message, I strongly suggest you do not pre-approve it. Just message back giving some reason why you can't accept. You don't need to either pre-approve nor decline Inquiry messages- all that's required is a return message.

 

I would also remove the wording in your house rules section re damages above the security deposit being charged to the guest. Airbnb's so-called security deposit is totally bogus- they neither charge the guest the deposit when they book nor put a hold on their credit card. 

 

So if you were under the impression that you would easily be paid for damages, that is not correct.