How to contact a guest after declining

[Hilary156]

We received a request that we had to decline due to length of stay but we have since been able to open up those dates. I can’t figure out how to contact that user again to let them know the space is available. 

[Sarah977]

@Hilary156  You should be able to simply send a message to any guest you've previously communicated with by going to your past message stream with them and sending another message. If the guest still has an active profile, it will be sent to them, but whether they have their Airbnb notifications turned on, or bother to look at them, or even reply if they do get it, is another story.  As far as I'm aware, there's no platform feature that tells you whether the message was actually read or not.

[Hilary156]

Thanks Sarah 

I tried that and it keeps showing up as a red, un-sent message. I was assuming this was because the request was declined. 

[Sarah977]

@Hilary156  I guess that could happen if you simply hit Decline, without messaging the guest. Or maybe even if you did message back, but declined. I couldn't say, as I've never had to decline a booking request. Perhaps other hosts who have experience with this will chime in.

I know I've been able to message guests who have just sent an Inquiry, but never booked. But that, of course, is not the same as a decline.

[Hilary156]

Thank you for trying to help. The guest was messages back and the request was declined at the same time. It seems like I am now unable to contact again but I would like to try. I’ll wait and see if someone who has experienced this specific scenario has any input.