Customers who book in - and then don't confirm

[Guy26]

I've just had my first one - guest who was very enthusiastic, exchange of messages, confirmed he wanted to stay. I put him on pre-approved, and then he went quiet. Two messages later, and 8 hours,  he told me he had changed his mind. I'd lost another shorter booking because of him. Is there anyway we can shame people like Glyn, with one verification, so that others don't get the same treatment....

[Amaris0]

No there is no name and shame options and it would be wrong as well since the guest has not done anything wrong.

The guest only made an enquiry, they did not actually book the accommodation otherwise you would have received an e-mail from Airbnb confirming booking. Guest are actually encouraged by Airbnb to liaise with hosts if they have any questions prior to booking; you will find that lots of guest will ask questions which indicate they might want to say in your property  but it will not actually manifest into a confirmed booking. Also guest will contact a number of hosts at the same time with same or similar questions and then decide which accommodation best suits their needs, it’s just shopping around for the best deal.

Guests are aware that if do not book an accommodation they are interested in, that they risk losing it to someone else who books before them; they cannot then blame the host. Likewise host are aware that if they have an enquiry and a booking request at the same time, the booking request is guaranteed whereas the enquiry may not proceed. Therefore as a host, you  need to make a decision if to hold fire and hope the enquiry manifests into a booking or go with the offer on hand; this is strictly your choice.

BW, Ama

[Tora-Birgitte0]

Happens all the time. I find the people who asks a lot of questions and go back and gory generally are either
1 not going to go through with the booking or
2 a hassle
So I'm trying my best to stay away from them if I can
I would never hold a booking as like you say you can miss out on good and easy guests
No way to review them unfortunately

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

The lesson we all learn is to pre-approve all guests we are comfortable with, even if dates are the same or overlap. The person who books first wins....

There is no point in holding dates - you really can't second guess how many other properties they are looking at etc.

[James1]

Absolutely agree! This is the most important lesson I have learned after 4 years as an airbnb host. Also, sometimes you can get a look at other places they may be checking out if they have a wish list in your immediate area. 

[Ed-and-Hugh0]

@Guy26 No one is obligated to book with you. There's no shame in not doing something you're not obligated to do. You do not lose any bookings by pre-approving. Someone else can still book with you.

[Tora-Birgitte0]

I think in this instance the person had made those dates unavailable for other people to book. And my point was it is not worth the risk doing that.

[Guy26]

Many thanks to all of you, good sound advice in there. Only our second week doing this, and I have mistaken sense of fair play, it seems. I have had quite a bit of trouble with pre-approved dates which do not delete properly and have to go back and manually clear them - is that normal too?

[Andrée2]

@Guy26

It sounds as if you might be going into your calendar and physically blocking those dates that get pre-approved. You don't have to do anything after pre-approving a guest. Those dates are still going to be available to anyone else that you pre-approve. In the case that you change your mind about pre-approving them, you can remove your pre-approval offer as quickly as you gave it. 

By the way, the advantage of giving a pre-approval is that, in the  case that they are shopping around, you've already made them feel wanted whereas another host may be too slow to respond. I have lost a booking before because it took me 10 minutes to respond and someone else had been faster. But then, when you get another request for overlapping dates, you can still pre-approve and just let them know that there are others that may be vying for those same dates. 

When someone is taking several days to respond, I may reach out to them to determine if they were still interested. In the case that they use Airbnb to book another host's space, you will receive an email notification stating that they no longer are in need of accommodations. Very infrequently the inquirer will take the time to let you know this themselves.