High Risk Inquiry Blocked

[Megan601]

Hi all - Just this morning I had an inquiry for next weekend.

The potential guest said that he received a message that he was unable to book due to risks of parties. He assured me that he would not be having a party; that he was coming for a job interview - however he's requesting to check in on a Friday afternoon and check out on Sunday; 2 guests; and his home base is less than 10 miles from my listing.  

So I agree - it seems fishy. 

On my side, I received an alert that said the inquiry was block automatically because it was identified as being high-risk. 

So my question is -  has anyone else ever approved a 'blocked inquiry' and it turned out okay? Or if I was to approve it and it ended up being a nightmare and I had to terminate the booking or whatever the case may be - what would AirBnB's stance be? 

Basically - why is this user even allowed to inquire if their bookings are suspicious?

For the record - I love this feature. And I did decline the booking.  I told him that my suggestion was to call Customer Service.  Not sure where that will get him? 

[Carole1008]

I had 2 individua bookings blocked today because they happened to be over the new year which is still 2 months away, one is for 4 days and the other for 3 and both declined due party risk , i messaged airbnb twice and have not had a response so they are costing me income with no control on my side

[Sophia]

Hey @Carole1008 I've given the Support team a nudge, they have requested that you contact them again so they can further assist you and hopefully get this resolved. 

Best wishes,
Sophia 

[Wahid28]

I have the exact same issue, and support is not replying me.

[Ashley1797]

Has anyone had any success with booking these specific inquiries? I’ve had 3 for Chrismas that have been blocked and cannot book and 2 for New Year’s Eve with the same issue. I’ve directed these individuals to Airbnb support but it still has not resolved the issue. 

[Monique1086]

I am having the same issue as of today with NYE a week away.  Any updates on your end?

[Adrian2677]

I believe all hosts have a right to block without penalties, what happens for example if you give a review on a guest only to find out a few days later they stole something. To be penalised for making a decision is actually not fair, and unless sites allow for hosts, sellers, buyers to block etc the system collapse

[John6556]

Not the case, unfortunately. See my comment. Too many declines may result in deactivation. 

[Helen3]

You absolute can block guests on the platform @Adrian2677 

Just go into a message between you and the guest and you can block them.

If a guest stole from you hopefully you have lodged a claim on Airbnb for the cost of replacing the item.

Can I ask what they stole? I would presume missing items would normally come up during your cleaning process so you could take into account when reviewing. o 

You can also ask Airbnb to remove your review of the guest.

[John6556]

I have had several high risk requests this weekend. Two tried to book under multiple accounts. One tried under one account with no reviews and then under her original with awful reviews.  Another had no reviews and then tried to book through her sister. I even had one guy who said he was flying in and would send his friend to come pick up the key! He didn't even introduce himself, just expected me to accept. What is wrong with people? All this happened yesterday and today I received a deactivation warning after declining these high risk requests, two of which were duplicates, same person, different account. The real question is what is wrong with Airbnb? Why are such terrible clientele permitted at all? Why are the dos and don'ts not summarized up front? Hardly anyone reads all these long drawn out ambiguous policies. This platform is broken. 

[Helen3]

The best way to avoid having to decline high risk guests is to change your settings so guests can't try and make last minute bookings @John6556  This will avoid you having to decline unsuitable last minute bookings. 

[John6556]

@Helen3 I just found out today from Airbnb that we can call in to have unsuitable requests removed by support without compromising our account stats and performance... supposedly