Response time and middle of the night

[Julie1525]

Hi everyone! I'm in my first week as a host and have my first 2 bookings. Yay! Especially considering we are rural. 

The first person to reserve had a problem with verification, which he rectified, and then he reserved. He lives in Florida and I live in Washington State. At 2 a.m. my time he requested a reservation. I was up 5 hours later, saw the request an hour after that. The result is that even though I've not even hosted before, my response rating dropped to 4.7. Is it assumed we'll respond in an hour or so even in the middle of the night? Isn't that a bit unfair?

Julie

[Cathie19]

Hi @Julie1525. We all deal with this dilemma, and in the beginning, I did have notifications turned on and would respond. Generally I still do. But I also have instant book turned on (with every proviso and condition set) which is another layer where my response can be delayed.

If I’m very tired. I just switch my phone to silent and hope for the best. You will find that the percentages of varied time zones will be limited. So don’t despair...

🌻

[Julie1525]

Thanks, Cathie. I guess stressing too much about nighttime notifications will be more detrimental to my psyche than a 1/10th star reduction.

[Ana1136]

@Julie1525 you have 24 hours to respond and that is plenty of time, you don't have to respond in the first hour. I don't know how you got 4.7 for your response rate since it is measured in percents and you must be above 90% in order to be able to become a Superhost. You can see your responce rate under "Progress". Most hosts respond up to 12 hours after the request is made. 

[Gordon0]

It's not something I worry too much about, especially, like @Cathie19, I have IB on. I'm an early riser so normally find I have my bookings from north America when I wake. 

[Rosemarie9]

Don't worry too much about the response rate, I have instant book on now but when I started I didn't, and those late night queries I would answer in the morning. The rate seemed to adjust after a while. Most of my guests are from the U.S, so having the phone alerts coming through up to four times a night was giving me insomnia. I figured that becoming Pavlov's dog was not doing me any favours, and we have enough to do as hosts already.

[Julie1525]

You all are so terrific, giving me hope that this may actually work after all. THank you!