Do I have to accept or decline an inquiry?

[Ginny30]

I’m a fairly new host so hoping you can help me!

When I receive an inquiry from someone, it always says pre-approve or decline.  Once I reply to the inquiry, isn’t it up to the potential guest to book if they want?  I use instant book. 

A potential guest is asking me to change the dates they inquired about.  I replied back and said “you haven’t booked yet, so you should be able to change the dates on your end and then book it”. Is my response incorrect?.

[Sabrina301]

@Ginny30 If it’s only an inquiry then yes your response is correct. If I intend on accepting the reservation I usually respond with “For your convenience I’ve Pre-approved your reservation. Feel free to proceed with the reservation at your earliest convenience”. If you do pre-approve make sure you don’t block off your calendar for those dates so that if the guest opts out of completing the reservation it isn’t unnecessarily blocking your calendar. Also, it is possible the guest is unable to instant book if they don’t meet your instant book requirements. 

[Ginny30]

@Sabrina301 Thank you so much!  Appreciate the response!

[Kevin1165]

I always respond to my inquiries with a message thanking the potential guest for inquiring about our property. Am I required to "preapprove or decline," or do I get credit for just responding. I find that most, 8 or 9 of 10 guests that I preapprove do NOT book. So I've concluded it is better NOT to preapprove. I think it scares them away a bit. I want to maintain my response rating. Is a message enough of an answer to an inquiry?

[Sarah977]

@Kevin1165  Yes, an inquiry only requires a response. I have pre-approved inquiries as long as the communication from the guest has been such that I feel fine about them. Pre-approving an inquiry shouldn't block your calendar, it just makes it easier for the guest to go on to actually book, and easier for you as a host in that they then don't have to send a request for you to accept if they are indeed serious about booking (which you are correct, most inquirers aren't).

Even if you pre-approve an inquiry, if a request comes through before the inquirer has booked, if you accept the request, that will override the pre-approved inquiry. Inn other words, first to pay gets the booking dates.

What you should never do is waste declines on inquiries, as declines lower your acceptance rate.