What to do if you're emailing with a potential guest and another booking comes in?

What to do if you're emailing with a potential guest and another booking comes in?

Is there protocol here?

 

thanks!

7 Replies 7
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Brian1086  If you use Instant Book, an Instant Booking takes precedence. You'd have to cancel the IB and you don't want to do that- cancellations by hosts are treated quite punitively by Airbnb.

If it's a Booking Request, the first guest you are messaging with should take precedence over another Request that comes in after-  it's up to you which one you want to accept, but you would need to make a decision quickly, because you only have 24 hours to either Accept or Decline.

If it's Inquiries, I wouldn't hold the dates for that, as most Inquiries don't result in bookings, but if it sounds like a guest you'd want to host and you have a sense that they are serious about booking, then pre-approve their inquiry and let them know that they need to book ASAP, or you'll have to accept the other potential booking.

Basically, it's first to pay gets the booking.

OK thanks.  We're new to the platform so we're not yet on instant booking.

 

In this instance, I was chatting with a couple who is looking at the home and they have 4 great reviews and said they are very interested and I  pre-approved them.  As of this morning they said they would probably book the home.

 

Then 30 mins later, I  get a booking reservation request from a person visiting SF from China with no reviews,  and who overlaps the other couple by a couple of days and wrote this note - "

Hi Brian, I’m traveling to San Francisco from China. I really like your listing and look forward to staying during this time."
 
So that's why I'm conflicted 🙂
 
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Brian1086 

The 2nd booking request will reserve the dates (and so make them unavailable for the 1th inquiry).

It is an annoying situation i faced many times. As @Sarah977 added allready all the usefull information, i add my personal "trick" to resolve such a situation, which means "reserving the dates temporary". It works only when using the mulitcalender. I created a special rule set (i named it "reserved"), which has same very long minimum and maximum stay. I apply this rule to the dates i want to "reserve". The effect is: very less change somebody will book, but dates are not blocked. The ruleset can be removed anytime to revert to normal settings

Best regards,

Emiel

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Brian1086  I'd message the first people and tell them you have an actual request for some of those dates, so that if they are serious about booking, they need to actually book right now or you'll have to accept the booking that came in right after. Mention that you aren't trying to pressure them at all, but that you are required to either accept or decline the request in a short period of time or face penalties. If you don't hear back from them fairly quickly, or see that they've actually booked, I'd go ahead and accept the request. But in the meantime you could message the booking requester and explain you had a request just prior to his that you need to wait a few hours to see if it goes through and that you'll get back to him ASAP. And you could use that message to also ascertain whether he has thoroughly read through your listing description, and ask him any questions you might have so as to guage whether you'd want to accept him  if the first folks don't follow through. You could also check the requester's reviews, if he has any.

Great feedback, Sarah - thank you!

@Sarah977 It won't possible for the guests who made the Inquiry to book those dates unless @Brian1086  declines the Request. Requests block the dates to other users until the host acts on them.

 

It is possible to decline a Request for now, but send a Special Offer to the requester later if circumstances change. Of course following this process carries the risk of neither booking being confirmed.

 

Luckily a San Francisco location has a very, very high chance of being booked - so if you prefer the Inquiry guest over the Request guest, it's probably not too big of a gamble to decline the latter.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Anonymous @Emiel1  Thanks for the correction- it slipped my mind for the moment that the request would block the dates even before it was accepted. Sorry, @Brian1086  that I forgot about that important detail.

What I tend to do with Inquiries is after answering a guest's questions, if it's a guest I would like to host, I pre-approve and mention that if a booking request comes in before they make a decision, I'd have to accept the request, so if they are serious about booking they should do it ASAP before they get pre-empted.