Reservation requests being unanswered or turned down

[Leigh4]

Hi,

I use Airbnb quite often to book places to stay mainly in London and Paris. Often I book a week or two in advance but recently have found a number of available rooms turn out not to be unavailable, usually this will involve a days waiting to find out if your reservation is not accepted. I find this quite frustrating as hosts shouldn't list there room available in the calender if thats not the case. I understand instant book is there to avoid this but the ratio of instant book to non instant bit is pretty low i find.

I'd be interested to hear what other guests and hosts think. 

Thanks

Leigh

[Clare0]

@Leigh4 Hmmm.  That's not good.  Hosts are supposed to respond quickly to reservation requests, and inquiries for that matter.  Airbnb grades hosts on their response time and commitment rate and if those grades are low they will sink pretty low in search rankings.  My best advice for you would be to filter searches by the Super Host category.  These hosts acheive this status because the do respond quickly and rarely turn down a reservation request.  The also get pretty stellar reviews so you know you are staying in a great place. 

If you are ever out in California, USA, I'd love to have you visit!

Good luck, Clare

[Patrice9]

Maybe you can help us....we seem to have lost our Superhost status all of a sudden. Only thing I see is that our commitment rate went down to 96%.....this was due to a pending guests wife could not find his access info so she kept emailing us questions by inputting fake date requests. We would decline the fake request and answer her, and Voila! Superhost badge disappeared. How to resolve?

[Helga0]

I would check the incoming messages list on your computer, not on the phone. It could be that you did not answer a request or two at all.

If it's an inquirt, it is considereed as answered if you accept / decline / write back.
If it's a reservation request, you need to accept or decline; answering does not count.
Only the first response time is considered, not the follow up questions.
You can filter the messages with a small drop down menu over them to find the open request.
If it was that lady, with a fake resuest to check something else, you can plead your cause with airbnb.

Generally, don't decline such requests, pre-approuve them. It's her problem if she is muddle headed enough to book her fake inquiry.
Just explain to her, that denied fake requests let you drop in search rank and that is bad for your business.

You can deny a request now and then without impact, but if you deny a series, you will feel it.
Although I believe, it does not show in your commitment rate. I'd rather suspect a cancellation as the cause (I can't see your profile on the iphone)
If you did not cancel, call customer service to find out the reason.

[Lisa7]

@Leigh4 -- As a guest, I've often had this problem in Barcelona and elsewhere. I hate it!!!! I sort through all the available places, fall in love with a place, make a request... only to hear back from the host that it isn't available.

We (hosts on this forum) believe that Airbnb rewards hosts that keep their calendar up to date. Airbnb also shows the "response rate" percentage, and they threaten to kick people off the platform if they don't respond in a timely fashion. You could notify Airbnb, maybe by using the "Report this listing" flag at the bottom, clicking "other" and mentioning that the calendar isn't up to date.

I like @Clare0's suggestion of filtering by Superhost, but that's a little selfish because I'm a Superhost 🙂 and in London no less 🙂

[Clare0]

@Lisa7 Yep, the search filter for Super Hosts is the most valued perk and is a nice reward for all the hard work we do!

[Leigh4]

Thanks for all the tips. I have reported this host and will continue to do so as and when this happens. I just made another request so hopefully i'll have abit more luck this time. I have tried the search with super hosts but didnt come up with alot, could be my budget and search area is not big enough (there are plenty of normal listings though).

[Leigh4]

@Lisa7 Your place looks ideal! I would have booked it but the room is not free saturday, nevermind i will save it for next time!

Thanks again @Lisa7 and @Clare0 for your helpful advice

Leigh

[Lisa7]

@Leigh4 Awesome! So kind of you. Have you put together a wish list? I'd love to see your favorite places!! You seem to have a ton of airbnb "guesting" experience!

[Leigh4]

@Lisa7 Not really put a wishlist together, although there is one in there for Brugges when i make it there eventually and i just added yours! Ive stayed mainly in London and also a bit in Paris and France. Compared to the price of a hotel you really cannot complain about Airbnb! (not too much) haha.

[Helga0]

@Leigh4 I host in Paris and usually answer very fast - even before IB I liked to have questions anwsered and booking concluded, arrival information sent within an hour. The last two weeks I had several messages disappear which brought my records down a bit and I lost one booking with a guest who had booked another place within 30 minutes at midnight. I'd conclude that there must be other fast hosts in Paris.

Clare, I like you very much and it's nice that you are a superhost but that's not the only criterium for hard work !! 

I'll never achieve that status because I take a lot of new members of all origins and even though 98 % say that they are very happy, I don't get 80 % 5 stars due to different expectations. 

So, from my experience, I'd say you can also look at number of reviews per listing - if the number is high, the host must be quite busy and that means he must have a habit of answering to requests. 

From what I see in the forums, it's often new hosts who are unsure about procedures or have strange fears, that turn guests down after a delay. After a few good experiences, they usually loose those fears and become a bit more open. It may be interesting to test new places and they may be cheaper than other lodgings in the same category, but if you are close to your travel date that may not be the best option.