Responding to guests with no reviews

[Selina2]

When you ask a new guest who has no reviews to tell you something about themselves, the clock on responding to their request keeps ticking (with respect to maintaining response rate).  It makes no sense to accept them if you do want the information before accepting - but the only way to stop the clock is to decline them, which makes no sense.  Is this right?  

[Robert78]

Nope. The response rate stats are determined by the amount of time it takes you to reply to an enquiry, not your acceptance rate.

[Babs0]

Hi @Selina2

I do believe there is an effect to letting the clock run out, but it doeesn't affect your response rate. That only is for the first message back to a potential guest, that has to be within 24hours. So also when it's just an inquiry and not a booking request.

Good luck!

[Andrea9]

@Selina2 @Babs0

Letting the clock run its course and not declining or accepting is not to be recommended.

It blocks off the days in question and is Airbnb's reaction this year to too many hosts leaving guest requests hanging.

Not declining/accepting a simple inquiry since this year summer also seems to have a (?stronger?) affect on your search algorithms, I've heard at least. And I think I remember seeing a little check box to keep those dates open. So missing that is not good. But I hardly get any inquiries I absolutely have to turn down. 

With requests, of course, it's stricter.

[Clare0]

@Selina2 Be sure you know the difference between an Inquiry and a Reservation Request!!  With an Inquiry, just responding to a question suffices as a response.  With a Reservation Request you must Accept or Decline within 24 hours or the dates for that request will be blocked on your calendar. 

Many hosts and guests get confused when they ask questions ("inquiring") through a Reservation Request.  It's up to the host to know the difference and take the appropriate action.  If a guest uses the Reservation Request method to just ask questions and they are unsure if they want to proceed, tell the guest to cancel their request and send a new request when they are sure they want to book.