Deny a guest for valid reasons?

Answered!
Mark15
Level 2
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Deny a guest for valid reasons?

Goodmorning,

 
I am trying my luck on this forum, since I cannot seem to find a way to contact Airbnb directly.
 
My question is the following
We constantly are getting requests for 4 adults. Our apartment can only hold 2 and 2 children. We only have a double bed and bunk beds for our kids (with matching mattresses that are designed for kids and do not hold adults).
 
My problem is that I have to deny these requests, for the simple fact that they do not fit in our apartment. As I experienced last year, after a few denials, my listing gets blocked.
 
As advised last year by AirBNB, we have made this as obvious as possible on our listing.
 
Now there seem to be quite some people that do not read the text in our listing and most likely are randomly doing requests (hoping to get a special offer perhaps?). And then I am stuck having to either deny them, or ignore them and ruin my response rate.
 
I once read here that denying them for the reason 'guest requested wrong dates' can help you not get blocked from AirBNB. But it just not feels right to lie about a reason.
 
AirBNB adviced me last year also to ask the guests to cancel their request. I have asked various guests, but always got the reply that they only send a message, and have not made a request that can be withdrawn.
 
I hope you can advice me what to do about this.
 
Best regards,
Mark
1 Best Answer
Marit-Anne0
Level 10
Bergen, Norway

@Mark15

Annette, a fellow US host has personally tested what I am saying regarding inquiries and Andrea, your fellow Amsterdam host claims the same. Look up their recent post or send them a message. You find them to the right on the forum as the most active ones. The trick in your case is not to decline the inquiries. The ticking clock and the automatic reminders are there to put pressure on hosts for a booking to take place as this is in the interest of airbnb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View Best Answer in original post

7 Replies 7
Marit-Anne0
Level 10
Bergen, Norway

@Mark15

If guests say they only sent a message, they did not send a booking request, they sent an inquiry.  Declining an inquiry will not impact you in any way, but you must respond, or it will be a hit to your response rate.  Politely responding to an inquiry explaining the situation is good enough, you do not have to decline.  

A booking request is another matter though and the guests who request are able to cancel. So asking the guests who did not read the description to cancel their request is the way to go.  It will take some explaining and give you some extra work, but with the setup of your apartment, I do not see any other way. Perhaps save such explaining message as a template.  

Thank you for your reply.

 

What you are saying is that I declining an inquiry is not a problem. Last year my listing was suspended because I have declined 3 inquiries in a row. It took a lot of mailing and phone calls to get my listing to show up in searches again.

The rep from AirBNB told me that this will happen again when multiple inquiries are declined.

 

If I politely respond to the inquiry, stating that our apartment is not suitable for the guests. I keep getting alerts from AirBNB, telling me that I need to respond before my response-rating drops.

As a matter of fact, I have just send them the following message:

- As stated in our listing our apartment is only suitable for 2 adults with (or without) children. We sadly do not have beds to hold more then 2 adults. We do hope you will find a suitable listing for your stay in Amsterdam. Best regards, Mark

 

After sending this reply to his inquiry, there still is an alert above the message:

- Respond within 11:09:16 to maintain your response rate.

 

I clearly just responded to the message, but AirBNB forces me to either Decline or Send a Special Offer.

 

As one can imagine I am hesitant to Decline, specially because I have needed to decline 2 inquiries in the past few weeks.

 

When booking a apartment on AirBNB, I can select the number of adults, children or infants. But there is no way that a host can use this selection.

 

I find this whole situation quite stressfull, in what should be nice experience.

 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Mark15

if you have 2 beds for adults and 2 small beds for children then you can make a photo of your beds and write on the photo (and under the photo in caption) something like: SMALL beds for children only (80x165 cm) and put this picture somewhere on the begining of your photo gallery

This can help bc guests are often just looking at pictures and don't read a description

ps

...it would be even better if you can change those 2 small beds and put 2 normal beds so you can host 4 adults too

Marit-Anne0
Level 10
Bergen, Norway

@Mark15

Annette, a fellow US host has personally tested what I am saying regarding inquiries and Andrea, your fellow Amsterdam host claims the same. Look up their recent post or send them a message. You find them to the right on the forum as the most active ones. The trick in your case is not to decline the inquiries. The ticking clock and the automatic reminders are there to put pressure on hosts for a booking to take place as this is in the interest of airbnb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@Marit-Anne0

 

I think I understand. I have send the people that made the inquiry a reply. I have not denied their request. The ticker is still counting, but this does not affect me in any way? Even though it states that I need to reply.

 

Is this correct?

Marit-Anne0
Level 10
Bergen, Norway

@Mark15

So they say. Cannot post you the links right now as I am on my phone only, busy preparing for my next guests.