Airbnb Plus accepted reservation rate issue

[Theron6]

I know this has been written about before, I've read a few threads about this, but I wanted to throw in my issue.

Nashville recently added Plus listings and I wanted to add my propterty to be included but my reservation % was too low. I get that Airbnb wants every request to be accepted becauase it keeps them in line with the hotel experince ofavaliablity on demand and keep users around if the place they want to stay always says yes.

My concern is that many of the requests I denyed were from folks who:

- Folks asking to stay at my house for free in trade for blog exposure, which I have to decline. Not just an inquiry, just requesting the dates and asking for a lower rate

- Someone requesting to book 2 days but in their message they are actually asking to book for 6 months outside Airbnb, which I have to decline

- People asking to bring (4) 100lb dogs, which isn't a good fit for my property and I had to decline. I am pet friendly and I ask folks to disclose but how do I cover every pet situation? Airbnb really doesn't give space to handle that with ease

- People asking if they could have more than 4 folks stay in their booking request, which I have to decline because my property hosts 4 folks max 

I understand Airbnb's goal, but there's a lot a few ways this % has been manipulated artifically lower by guests stepping outside an honest booking request

[Sandra126]

@Theron6I would have accepted four out of those four. BUT! I would have said:

1.You are welcome to come and stay, but I don't offer exchanges like this. ACCEPT.

2.You are welcome to stay for those days specified.  ACCEPT

3.You are welcome to come and stay without the dogs, but I cannot allow them sorry. ACCEPT

4.You are welcome to stay with four guests, but the property cannot take more due to regulations and insurance policies.

At the end of each acceptance: If this doesn't suit you, you have 48 hours to cancel penalty free.

100% acceptance.

[Larissa112]

Thank you for bringing this up!  We are new to hosting and have already had to deny several requests - people wanting to trade, a discounted rate, or just sending a message asking a quesiton via a request. 

I didn't even thing about accepting and then leaving it up to them to cancel!