Help - the system has overidden a pre-approval and now two sets of guests not happy!

[Barbara2055]

Guest 1 messages an enquiry - i respond and click pre-approval

15 minutes later Guest 2 requests a booking- but dates overlap the first enquiry

I decide to message back guest 1 and we agree i will hold till the following morning ( within the 24 hr of pre-approval)

Woke this morning to find on the sytem that Guest one now has a flag next to booking saying "not possible" and system has blocked out the dates that Guest 2 requested... HELP 

have a feeling I will lose both opportunities if this isnt sorted? .. What is best way to resolve..

[Helen3]

Hello @Barbara2055 

I don't believe the system was 'overridden'. 

it sounds like when you pre approved the first booking you didn't tick the box to say the dates were blocked for 24 hours so the second inquiry was able to use IB. 

Why would you lose both bookings.??? You have a confirmed booking for booking two.

you will need to go back to guest number one and say tha unfortunately while they were considering their choice someone else made a definite booking - so it's no longer available.

personally I wouldn't offer to hold  my listings while guests make up their mind as to whether they want the space. Most don't go onto book

[Colleen253]

@Barbara2055 When you ‘pre approve’ an Inquiry, all it does is allow that person to instantly book for those dates when they are ready to. It doesn’t block the dates for them. It looks like what happened is the other inquiring guest went ahead and booked those dates (either by Request or Instant Book, if you have it switched on). There are articles here in the community center and in the Airbnb help pages that you can read up on to understand how all this works. 

It’s generally best to just let nature take its course….first come, first serve, rather than fuss about blocking/holding dates.