The Difference Between Inquiry and Trip Request/Request to Book

The Difference Between Inquiry and Trip Request/Request to Book

Regardless of whether you receive an inquiry or a trip request, you have 24 hours to click on one of the two options: quickly click "approve" or "decline" so that the algorithm understands that you are interested in hosting. This helps improve the positioning of your listing in search filters.

 

It's not enough to just chat with the interested person; from there, it works as follows:

 

"BOOKING INQUIRY"

By clicking "pre-approve," your approval is active for 24 hours and appears as "invitation sent."

The interested party has 24 hours to decide whether or not to confirm the booking. If payment is made to Airbnb, the information that your invitation has been accepted will appear, followed by "booking confirmed."

If they do not confirm after 24 hours, it will automatically appear as "invitation expired."

Only in the case of "booking inquiries" can you accept multiple requests for the same dates. In this case, whoever makes the payment first gets the booking.

 

"TRIP REQUEST"
When you click "approve," it will instantly appear as a "reservation confirmed," meaning the interested party has already decided to stay at your property and has pre-approved payment with Airbnb.

 

Can I decline?

Yes, you have the option to decline both an "inquiry" and a "request" for reservation. In case of refusal, Airbnb will ask for the reason. The fewer refusals you make, the better for the algorithm to understand that you are interested in hosting, keeping your listing well-positioned.

 

After refusing a reservation request, Airbnb will ask some questions to understand the reason for your refusal. Normally, after a refusal, the corresponding dates will be unavailable on your calendar for 24 hours, being automatically unlocked after this period.

 

If you receive an alert message from Airbnb regarding a specific inquiry, it may be that the AI ​​has identified that the person is trying to provide some means of contact to negotiate outside the platform.

 

If someone tries to exchange contact information outside of the platform, REPORT THEM, because neither you nor your property have any guarantee that this person has good intentions.

6 Replies 6
Guy991
Top Contributor

Hello @Christian3161 

Thank you for bringing up this topic; it is one that definitely deserves to be revisited often.

 

With all the changes Airbnb is making lately, you might be right that things are shifting, but with all due respect, I think you are mixing these two processes up a bit. They should be handled differently in practice. The interface for inquiries is unnecessarily heavy, and it is important to note that "pre-approving" is often meaningless.

 

I suggest searching the community to see how this actually works. For an inquiry, simply sending a message stops the 24-hour clock for the algorithm. You do not need to click a button. Pre-approving can complicate the calendar unnecessarily, and declining an inquiry, which is not even a real reservation, has an unnecessary negative impact on your ranking. I would strongly recommend treating inquiries differently than formal booking requests to avoid these issues.

@Guy991 

bom dia,

 

Respeito seu ponto de vista, porém em minha postagem a intenção foi exatamente explicar que há diferença entre consulta de reserva, que como o próprio nome resume, trata-se apenas de uma consulta, não significa necessariamente que o consultante prosseguirá com o pagamento e confirmação da reserva, caso o anfitrião clique em pré-aprovar.

 

A aceitação ou recusa de uma consulta de reserva, nao impacta em bloqueio de datas no calendario e permite que sejam aceitas várias consultas de reserva, para uma mesma data, onde após a pré-aprovação, quem efetuar o pagamento primeiro, fica com a reserva.

 

Diferentemente do pedido de reserva, onde o consultante está decidido em se hospedar no imóvel e aguarda somente o aceite do anfitrião ou recusar, que também é de direito, sem penalização, caso seja feita.

 

Reafirmo que toda ação feita pelo anfitrião, alimenta o algoritmo.

 

Se o anfitrião tiver um anuncio mal configurado, isso fará com que recuse muitas consultas de reserva, por discordar nos valores ou disponibilidade de datas de seu calendario o que poderia ser evitado, caso seu anuncio estivesse bem configurado.

 

A partir do momento que se tem um volume considerável de recusas, o algoritmo entende que o anfitrião não tem tanto interesse em hospedar, refletindo negativamente no posicionamento do anuncio nas paginas de busca.

 

Ao invés de pensar que o algoritmo irá diminuir a exposição de um anuncio, baseado no volume de recusas feito pelo anfitrião, vamos pensar diferente:

O mesmo algoritmo, irá posicionar melhor anuncios bem configurados, onde o anfitrião aceitas todas ou a grande maioria das consultas de reserva, porque entende que este anfitrião tem interesse em hospedar.

 

Se 50 anfitriões agirem desta forma com seus anuncios, será 50 anuncios se posicionando à frente do anuncios que tem muitas recusas, resumindo, o resultado final é o mesmo, porem mudou apenas a forma de pensar. 

 

--

 

good morning,

 

I respect your point of view, however, my intention in my post was precisely to explain that there is a difference between a reservation inquiry, which, as the name itself summarizes, is only an inquiry and does not necessarily mean that the inquirer will proceed with the payment and confirmation of the reservation if the host clicks on pre-approve.

 

Accepting or rejecting a booking request does not affect date blocking on the calendar and allows multiple booking requests to be accepted for the same date. After pre-approval, whoever makes the payment first secures the booking.

 

Unlike a reservation request, where the inquirer has decided to stay at the property and is only waiting for the host's acceptance or refusal, which is also a right, without penalty if done.

 

I reaffirm that every action taken by the host feeds into the algorithm.

 

If a host has a poorly configured listing, it will cause them to reject many booking requests due to disagreements over prices or date availability on their calendar, which could be avoided if their listing were properly configured.

 

Once a considerable volume of rejections is received, the algorithm understands that the host is not very interested in hosting, negatively impacting the ad's ranking on search engine results pages.

 

Instead of thinking that the algorithm will decrease the exposure of an ad based on the volume of rejections made by the host, let's think differently:

The same algorithm will prioritize well-configured listings where the host accepts all or the vast majority of booking inquiries, because it understands that this host is interested in providing accommodation.

 

If 50 hosts act this way with their ads, it will mean 50 ads ranking ahead of the ads that have many rejections. In short, the end result is the same, but only the way of thinking has changed. 

 

Translation added by Community Manager

 

 

 

Hello @Christian3161 ,

 

 

A couple of quick observations:

 

Firstly, this is an English-speaking community. If you prefer to communicate in Portuguese, please consider joining the Portuguese community. You can reach it by clicking the globe icon at the top of the screen and selecting "Português."

Many hosts use more than one community, so feel free to check that one out as well.

 

I don’t quite understand your motivation for encouraging hosts to use pre-approvals. If the feature is meaningless, why does it exist?

 

I truly hope the algorithm performs better than your explanation of it. For example, if a host in a tourist area rejects 10 requests for bachelor parties, it doesn’t mean they don't want to host; it just means they are being selective.

 

But let’s leave it there. Firstly, because it’s Carnaval and you should be out dancing in the streets! Secondly, I don’t think we are quite on the same page.

 

Happy Carnaval!

@Guy991 

 

A Central da Comunidade é um canal sério, onde devemos prezar pelo respeito às opiniões mais diversas e estar dispostos a contribuir de forma construtiva, auxiliando outros anfitriões com suas dúvidas, não somos detentores da verdade absoluta, como disse acima, respeito seu ponto de vista.

 

Opinião, cada um tem a sua.

 

O fato desta postagem estar em uma comunidade de língua inglesa, não demonstra qualquer falta de respeito com nenhum anfitrião, independente da nacionalidade, mesmo porque o próprio sistema faz a tradução automática, de acordo com a língua selecionada.

 

Vale ressaltar que minha postagem foi compartilhada inicialmente no Brasil, logo depois fui contactado pela moderadora  @Bella , solicitando permissão para compartilhar a mesma postagem em outras comunidades do mundo, inclusive de língua inglesa, que é a maior comunidade do Airbnb no mundo, caso tivesse feito uma postagem com informações falsas, imediatamente teria sido removida pelos próprios moderadores.

 

A postura em direcionar o que devo ou não estar fazendo pelo simples fato de que estamos no período de Carnaval, demonstra no minimo, preconceito, que nada mais é que a falta de conhecimento com a cultura de um país que, onde milhares de pessoas trabalham arduamente ao longo do ano, para celebrar essa festa que atrai milhões de brasileiros e estrangeiros do mundo todo.

 

Não é só de carnaval que o povo brasileiro vive!

 

--

 

The Community Hub is a serious channel where we must value respect for diverse opinions and be willing to contribute constructively, assisting other hosts with their questions. We do not hold the absolute truth; as I said above, I respect your point of view.

 

Everyone has their own opinion.

 

The fact that this post is in an English-language community does not demonstrate any disrespect towards any host, regardless of nationality, especially since the system itself provides automatic translation according to the selected language.

 

It's worth noting that my post was initially shared in Brazil, and soon after I was contacted by moderator  @Bella  , requesting permission to share the same post in other communities around the world, including the English-language community, which is the largest Airbnb community in the world. If I had made a post with false information, it would have been immediately removed by the moderators themselves.

 

The attitude of dictating what I should or shouldn't be doing simply because it's Carnival time demonstrates, at the very least, prejudice, which is nothing more than a lack of knowledge about the culture of a country where thousands of people work hard throughout the year to celebrate this festival that attracts millions of Brazilians and foreigners from all over the world.

 

Brazilians don't live on Carnival alone!

 

Translation added by Community manager

 

Hello @Christian3161 ,

 

Relax, my friend. It is quite the contrary; I intend this with admiration, not disrespect. I am involved in several Carnival events here in Portugal and only wish I were in Brazil at the moment.

Regardless, as I mentioned, there seems to be a misunderstanding in our communication. So, let’s stop here.

@Guy991 

Ok, concordo com você.

 

Já gostei muito de carnaval, hoje tenho muito respeito e admiração por quem faz dessa festa uma celebração que atrai o mundo todo, porém infelizmente muitos veem o carnaval do Brasil, como uma celebração voltada a exploração sexual ou de uma minoria que só pensa em curtir e infelizmente, não posso negar que existe.

 

Forte abraço 

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