Booking request declined by a host

[Mike1034]

Dear Hosts,

Recently I booked a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim. I booked the townhouse which is very close to Disneyland theme park. The booking is for four nights starting from Friday. The nightly rate is $325. The host does not have instant booking turned on.

When I made the booking request, I saw that the dates are open from Friday. My travel plan has already set up between Saturday and Wed. I booked from Saturday to Wed. But the the host declined my request because Friday would have been left open if he had accepted my request. He has a minimum length of three nights stay.

Just a question for hosts, do you think that it is reasonable to decline a request like this? And do you think that this host is greedy? As a host myself, I have never declined a booking request because a request will leave me with one or two days which could not be booked. I have Instant Booking on by the way.

[Linda108]

@Mike1034   You met the three day minimum but wanted to check in on Saturday, not Friday.  Is that right?  If so, then the host prefers to accept back to back bookings to maximize return during the high season for his area.  Greedy, yes.  Or, that is how he chooses to make a buck.  Not my style and apparently not yours either.  I wonder what quality of experience you would have if you had stayed there.  

I believe Anaheim has instituted some fairly difficult restrictions regarding short term rentals, so it might impact how hosts respond.  I wonder if you looked at a different nearby city if you would have better luck.  Just a thought.

[Mike1034]

@Linda108Yes, airline tickets have already been booked for arriving on Saturday. This was prior to mid of May. The demand was not as high as now.

But eventually I booked a townhouse which is in the same community. It was not a big issue for me. I just felt the host was unreasonable. We did have back and forth communication a couple of times before he declined. I was hoping that he could accept my booking request because I know that a host could only reject a few requests before he is penalized by Airbnb. Definitely this will affect his chance to get Super Host, which he might not be care since he was not a Super Host anyways.

[Mj48]

my attitude is, that host is allowed to do things the way he wants...thats the beauty of airbnb.  You really don't know if what he did was unreasonable or rude because cultural backgrounds are so different and this person has set up his airbnb to work for him from his own set of principles...you know what I mean.  Best rule of all from The Four Agreements.....Don't take ANYTHING personally!  Luckily here in SoCal you have SO many choices!!!  Happy House (I named my house lol) is only 30 min from Disneyland so next time stay with me!

[Sarah977]

@Mike1034  I'd agree that it is a quite rude and unprofessional way of doing business. It isn't the guests' responsibility to make sure a host has every day of his calendar filled, only to make sure they are booking at least the minimum days allowed that are available on the calendar. I'd almost be inclined to report him, at the least to send him a message to that effect.

[Mark116]

I can see it would be mildly annoying but if he wants the whole weekend booked, I mean, it's his place, he can hold out for a 4 day booking, it's not as if he accepted and then cancelled or something.  

[Mike1034]

@Mark116 Purely from a host and business perspective, you are correct. But thinking from a guest perspective, a guest spent time to do research and find a good fit. Unfortunately the decline was just because of a one day gap, which the host may or may not get filled. And then the guest has to spend more time to do research in order to find the alternative.

[Mark116]

@Mike1034  But that is the way it always is for a booking request, if the guest doesn't want to have any delay in acceptance or a possibility of decline, this is what instant book is for, so you can search and book, like a hotel, no time lag.

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[Marie82]

@Mike1034  @Linda108 I think u have been too harsh greedy, yes nothing wrong with it otherwise many hosts will give their space free of charge, sometimes we make mistake on setting calendar it happened a lot to me, having a Friday empty during weekend it is a nightmare because not only u don't want to let 1 night of the busiest   week alone u lose money. And will many hosts barely covering cost during low seasons u count on your hight seasons to make the most of it? And I think it is wrong to say u won't have a good stay because the host wants to make a viable business.

If a host decline your request  @Mike1034  don't make it personal just move on.

[Mike1034]

@Marie82I don’t understand why you accused @Linda108 and me being harsh greedy. Did I gain or lose anything wether she accepted my booking or not?

Airbnb is a business income source for some hosts. But I don’t agree with some hosts’ way to handle a reasonable request such as this one from guests. 

After I read your comments, you might have made mistake handling your listing and being taken advantages by some guests. In this situation it was different because there was nothing wrong with the hosts calendar and pricing. It just happened to be a Friday left open when I booked. And the host did not have price difference between a Friday and a normal week day. It is because of the location where each day has about the equal chance being booked.

[Anonymous]

@Mike1034  A host's acceptance rate doesn't directly impact his eligibility for Superhost. You can fall well below 88% in the "Basics" target and still get your badge. Here's the perverse thing about this system: hosts who care about their orange badge often find themselves screening out guests who they suspect might give them a rating less than 5 stars. Guests who are also experienced hosts, and guests who seem a litlte pushy in their initial correspondence, are right at the top of that list. 

I don't know whether this host was genuinely holding out for a Friday check-in or chose to decline you for undisclosed reasons. If his explanation was honest, I don't think it was unreasonable; rather, it was just gauche for him to admit it. There are a few ways he could've adjusted his calendar settings (custom minimum stay for specified date range; check-in only on x date, etc) but I doubt the majority of hosts know about all these options.

Maybe he wanted more money for that weekend. Greedy? Well, we don't know what his financial situation is - maybe he can't afford to lose that day of occupancy, so it feels rather callous to judge. And at any rate, he took a gamble since there's no guarantee the dates will be booked at all. You found another property that suited your needs, and the host didn't get stuck with a booking he didn't want, so it sounds to me like the situation is resolved well for everyone. 

[Mike1034]

@Anonymous As I mentioned that we had message exchanges, I asked the host why my request was not accept after more than 12 hours waiting. And she told me that there would be one day gap if she had accepted my request. 

[Lisa723]

@Mike1034 I don't see how judgements about the host's character are relevant. You submitted a request, they declined. They're perfectly within their rights to prefer bookings that don't orphan a high-revenue night. Move on.

[Mike1034]

@Lisa723 Thanks for your inputs. I understand that it is a host's right to either accept or decline a request. 

The purpose of my post is to get hosts feedback how they would handle this kind of situation. By rejecting my booking, the host actually had the risk of those dates would not be booked at all. And also I as a guest had to wait for about one day to get the host's response before I could book other place. To book other place, I had to spend a little more time to find appropriate ones. In addition, my post is from a guest perspective even though I am a host myself.

[Lisa723]

@Mike1034 what do you mean by "this kind of situation"? If the host makes an informed business decision that they'd prefer the possibility of not booking to the certainty of an orphan night, that's their business. I do instant booking but during high season I set up booking rules to prevent reservations that create one-night gaps for exactly this reason. As Andrew has pointed out if you didn't want to wait you could have withdrawn the request and chosen a listing with instant booking. Frankly I do not understand the purpose of your post. You seem to be looking for a reason to feel aggrieved.