Response rate: accept/decline within 24 hours?

Sepand0
Level 3
Toronto, Canada

Response rate: accept/decline within 24 hours?

I'm new to Airbnb and I don't understand one thing. I've had several inquiries over the past 2 days for my property. These inquiries can be replied to, accepted, or declined. Since the inquiries have always involved questions by the potential guests, we do some back and forth. But this takes more than 24 hours. IN fact, I usually reply very quickly, and then wait for 12-24 hours before the guest replies.

 

Does this hurt my response rate? If it does, it makes absolutely no sense.

18 Replies 18
ZenHomes0
Level 10
Singapore

@Sepand0 when guests inquire about your property, only the first response matters, even if it's a "hi". Whatever follows doens't count towards your response time.

 

However if someone sends a booking request, you'll have to respond within 24 hours (either accept or decline) otherwise it'll expire and those dates will be blocked out. 

 

There's always a countdown timer for every inquiry or booking request. If you respond and refresh the page, and the timer is there, you'd probably have to accept/decline as it's a booking request.

So if I've responded once or several times within the 24 hours, but the 24 hours have gone by and I haven't accepted or declined the request, that wouldn't hurt my listing's standing/ranking in the search results?

Enda0
Level 7
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Sepand0,

 

If the person has made a request to book, you have to accept or decline within 24 hours or it expires and this *may* hurt your ranking. It may affect your response time rating and apparently this is one of the factors the search algorithm takes into account. It's a bit annoying when you genuinely need more information before you decide. It may be best to decline within the 24 hours and message the guest that if they are still interested, you can make a Special Offer for the dates. 

 

From the site:

Expired reservation requests

If you don’t accept or decline a request within 24 hours it expires.

If you’re still interested in hosting the guest, you can send a Special Offer .

 

Good luck,


Enda

@Sepand0 No, at least in my experience. My response rate is still 100%, and out of the 100+ inquiries I've had over the last 2 months, I've only declined 3 inquiries. Most of the time people just check the suitability and don't get back to me so there's no reason to decline/accept upfront. 

 

But if it's not an inquiry, like a booking request, you will need to accept/decline. 

Paul0
Level 10
Brunswick, Australia

If you do not explicitly Accept OR Decline a booking request then your response rate and possibly your search results may be impacted. So long as you make that decision and act on it in 24 hours you will not be negatively impacted by Airbnb.

 

Inquiries, chat away, no major impact once you've done an initial response.

 

Cheers,

Paul

Good morning sorry for the super early message.  I am new on air bnb my respond rate has being 100.  I just receive a request @ 1:00am I did not notice till 2:46am I responded @2:46am when I saw the message and accepted the request. But it said inquiry. Will that affect me?

And how I can avoid this inquiry when the messages are sent in the middle of the nigh. Thank you in advance.

First of all, you have posted this on the discussion forum, so there isn't any need to apologize for what time you post- it's just an online forum, which people can read at any time they want- it's not like you're waking anyone up.

 

Secondly, there is no reason for you to feel you have to answer inquiries or requests that come in the middle of the night unless you want to. I turn my phone ringers off when I go to sleep and if I see a message when I get up, I answer it then.  You have 24 hours to respond to inquiries and requests, you don't need to respond instantly.  

 

With a Inquiry, all you have to do is message the guest back within 24 hours- you don't need to either pre-approve or decline. If you feel okay about the inquiry and want to pre-approve it, so the guest can go on to book, that's fine, but if you don't want the booking, just message back as to why it's not possible- you don't need to click on decline and since all that's required on an Inquiry is messaging back, don't waste declines on Inquiries, as declines lower your acceptance rate.

 

If it's a Booking Request, as opposed to a Inquiry, you do have to either accept or decline within 24 hours, but if you have questions to ask the guest, or things to work out with them, you can message back and forth before deciding whether to accept the booking.

 

So to avoid dings in response rate:  

Inquiry- Message back, or Pre-approve within 24 hours

Request- Accept or Decline within 24 hours.

 

Don't use the terms request and inquiry interchangeably, because they aren't the same thing.

 

By the way, there is a glitch currently happening where hosts are seeing their response rate steadily go down even though they are answering all inquiries and requests on time- it has been reported and supposedly Airbnb is working on fixing it, so if you see your response rate going down for no reason, don't freak out.

@Gisselle10

Also, if you pre-approve an Inquiry, don't be surprised if the guest doesn't follow through on booking- with inquiries, that often happens. Inquiries are just a way for the guest to ask questions without committing to a booking. They might have sent out inquiries to 10 different places.

 

When you accept a Request, Airbnb then automatically charges the guest and the booking is confirmed, although that can sometimes take up to 24 hours if the guest hasn't uploaded all the required payment or ID info to Airbnb yet.

@Gisselle10 

Sarah I want to thank you for taking your time to answer my question was really helpful I really appreciate. I’m learning little by little. I’m sure I will keep having more questions Along the way Have a blessing evening. Stay safe.

@Sepand0 Inquiries and Requests are two different animals, so to speak.

 For inquiries as @Paul0 mentioned, all you have to do is respond.  That said, after responding to questions, Airbnb likes to see a host send a Pre-Approval or Special Offer.  But, if after the back and forth with the guest it looks like you won't be able to accommodate them (let's say they have a dog and you don't accept pets) then a Decline would be appropriate.  Sometimes, though, guests want to think about it or discuss with family and / or friends and it's unclear whether or not you would be able to accommodate them. At that point you can use the Dismiss button.  In any of these situations, merely responding within the 24 hour period is acceptable. 

 

For Reservation Requests, however, you must make a decision: Accept or Decline.  It's even more important to respond quickly since with Reservation Requests, Airbnb has placed an authorization on the guest's credit card pending your decision.  The guest really can't look elsewhere until they hear back from you.  For many people 24 hours is a long time to wait to find out whether you will accept or decline their request to book with you.  That's why responding quickly is so important and why Airbnb blocks dates if you let the request expire without responding.  

 

Failure to respond appropriately to either inquiries and reservation requests takes a serious hit to your response rating.  You don't want to do this. 

 

Here's more information about Inquiries and Reservation Request you might find useful:

 

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/Reservation-Inquiry-or-Request-What-s-the-Difference-A-Communi...

 

Hope this helps clarify things!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does declining a guest also have a negative impact on your listing? I received a booking inquiry to stay at my place at 11pm the night of. I was already asleep. The next day, I saw the message, but I was reluctant to decline the request. My understanding is that your listing takes a hit if you decline too many requests. This puts me in a bind, because I want to respond to the booking inquiry, but I don't want to rack up declines. Will Airbnb take into consideration that the request was made with only an hour to respond?

Erika40
Level 2
Bethesda, MD

I agree that this doesn't make sense if you are in a conversation with a person and it would not be appropriate to either accept or decline.  This often happens to me when I'd like to make sure that the person knows that there is a small kitchen, or that the additional beds are air mattresses.  Sure, I could go ahead and accept but then they risk having a bad airbnb experience (especially if they are new to airbnb.)  On the other hand, it's not right for me to decline since it may be that they will be fine with a small kitchen and air mattresses.  But as long as we are in conversation about it then I don't see why the host should be penalized.

@Erika40  When a guest sends a Reservation Request their credit card is authorized for the cost of the reservation.  The card is not charged until you accept or decline.  That is why you must respond by Accepting or Declining with 24 hours. 

That said, it is not unusual for there to be questions / answers  that drag out the process.  I once had a request, from a Super Host no less (who should have known better!), who really was using the Request to Book to ask many questions.  I asked her to withdraw her request so we could continue the conversation through an Inquiry (Contact Host). 

You can do this too.  Just politely tell the guest that you would like to have the reservation, but that you want to make sure that all the guest's questions have been answered to make sure your place is a good fit.  Tell the guest that you don't want to commit them to a reservation unless they are satisfied that your place meets their requirements.  Your guest will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

 Or, you can decline the reservation.  There is no penalty for doing that so long as you don't do it often. 

Hope this helps! Clare

 

 

Hi Stefano,

 

With regards to maintaining your response rate it gets a little tricky. Answering questions does not qualify as a response. You're expected to take an 'action' (pre-approve/decline/special offer).

 

The best thing to do is to 'pre-approve' and then continue sorting out queries coming from guests. While you're letting them book by pre-approving their request, to make sure you're looked after, please make sure you have the house rules section updated to stay away from any unwanted disputes.

 

Sandesh