Airbnb Host Acceptance rate

[Jordan-and-Lesley0]

So we have been informed by Airbnb that due to our low acceptance rate, our listing is now almost invisible to most of the searching result.  We are superhost and we are devasted by this news. We always carefully choosing whom to host to ensure we would be able to provide the guests the best expiereince, and now we are being punished for that.  

Could someone please advise where(or even if it is possible) on the site that we can view our acceptance rate? We would love to find out how many requests we need to accept in order for our listing visibility to improve.  We started hosting in April and since then we had 23 acceptance and 25 declines for requests.  Does Airbnb calculate based on that? What about when guests just sent in inquiry? If we don't pre-approve does that matter?

Our listing is https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/9522855

Thank you!

[Sabine42]

the site doesn't have a tracker for that but it seems you kept score yourself (23 accept/25 declines). Why are you declining so many requests? You might want to tighten up your profile/house rules or raise your rates if most guests don't meet your expectations. The only requests i've ever declined are because guests are either not reading my house rules or they ask me to override them (mostly involving pets).

[Blagoje0]

There is no impact for occasionally declining an requests, but frequent declines will push down your listing ranking. You do not have to pre-approve or decline an inquiry, just respond to it.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Looks like you've declined more than you've accepted, which doesn't seem right.  Agreed with the other poster, tighten up your rules and/or raise your price to avoid the riff raff.

What is causing you to usually decline?

[David126]

Is there a reason you are declining so many?

[Raffaele-and-Astrid0]

Hi @Jordan-and-Lesley0

You decline more than 50% of the request, so this mean that you miss half of your potential revenue, that's why you went to the bottom page.

Airbnb is here for make money, so why promote your listing when can promote another listing that accept 99% of the time? 

the position of the main searching page depends from differents factors, you miss the most important: make money.

You are free to decide who and why invite in your home, but remember that this is an bnb service, pepole need a place for their holiday or whatever other reason...

Try to see this from a business prospective, you miss your goal 50% of the time, in my workplace I get fired if I miss 50% of my potential customer.

Try to accept more often, people are good 99% of the time. 🙂

Good luck

Cheers Raf 

[Ken28]

When I scroll through my message history, I see a status next to each message.

In that view, all messages (Inquiries and Requests) are shown.

I have 15 Accepted, 12 Declined, 6 Not Possible.

When I filter by Reservations, I have 15 Accepted, 3 Declined, 1 Not Possible.

If acceptance rate is a real thing on Airbnb (it's not documented anywhere), then what is used to calculate it?

My three "reservation declines" were"

1) A guest wanted to start on a night that I was out of town. I wouldn't have been able to get home to clean up after the previous guest before his arrival.

2) An underage guest wanted to book (which I rejected).

3) A guest wanted to extend their stay, but instead I modified their existing booking, to save them the additional fees.

My other 'inquiry declines' were based on host preferences, mismatched booking dates, scheduling conflicts, or people trying to book on behalf of acquaintances.

So... I assume that the Reservation Decines are the ones that matter. But even so... that number is not a good measure of my acceptance rate, since most of those declines are for REALLY Good reasons.

@Raffaele-and-Astrid0 said:

"You decline more than 50% of the request, so this mean that you miss half of your potential revenue..."

That isn't really an accurate statement at all.

I don't think I've ever lost revenue from declining a reservation. Why? Because there's usually another guest that books the same date, or simply a mixup in the original booking that is resolved with a second request (or special offer). Thus, the so-called 'Acceptance Rate', if it does exist, should be taken with a grain of salt. I don't see why it should matter at all.

[Meta4]

I've received more bookings now since prices suggested by Airbnb is on. I only need 10 nights/month occupancy and if more, all the better. So far, it's been doing that on this first month of the New Year 2019. Looking forward for more although I had to raise the price more as this coming Sunday, someone is paying very low for a week's stay. Thanks for your reminder and positive feedback.

[Alexander24]

I just found this out on my listing 2 days ago. I am absolutely devastated. I have been doing my best as a host for 2+ years. I had no idea they would completely make your listing invisible.

I decline because I haven no choice? The guest doesn't fit the rules of the place what is the proper way ?! Do I just let it timeout after 24 hours? Sometimes they don't even answer my question that I send back and I'm forced to pre-approve?!

[Matthew285]

Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I have never needed to send a decline in response to an inquiry.

When a prospective guest sends a message asking about the listing, I always respond quickly.

But if in the conversation we discover the guest and the listing aren't a good fit, I don't send a decline.

I don't send an offer either; I just talk with them in the messages and eventually we reach the end of the conversation.

I spoke to AirBnB and asked if I needed to send anything else other than the messages,

and they said no, I was doing my job.

I specifically asked if I needed to send an offer or decline, and they again said no.

[Meta4]

I do the same. 

[Jason522]

I’ve an acceptance rate of 88% and every one was because they were asking to break the house rules in the request. Usually small children (clearly not allowed in my listing) graduation party (clearly not allowed in my listing) only want to stay one night (buy they book for three which is my minimum and ask me to send a special offer.

My main problem is my house has a dock that is unsafe for small children. It is very clear in my listing.

[Tueykay0]

I'm experiencing the same issue. However, for me, I'm a long term host. I'm nearly 100% booked year round except for the random 1 week in between guests. Yet, because I don't accept every request, my Airbnb Host acceptance rate went down to 68%.

Realistically, I can't accept every guest request. They are staying 3 months (not 3 days). I have to be sure that we are a right fit as we are basically co-habitating. I shouldn't be uncomfortable nor put myself at risk for a few dollars.