Decline a fake booking request

[Robert1142]

New to Airbnb, got amazing responses from people looking to book my place.

Got a query from someone looking to book, he picked a few dates.   Problem was, he does not actually want to book.

He just selected some random dates, so he could contact me asking to take my property off Airbnb so he could do a long term rental.

I sent an email back (through the platform) that the unit is not available for long term rental.

Now I have the platform pestering me to approve or reject the booking.

I don't want to approve, because it is fake - he did it just as a means of contact.

I don't want to decline, because Airbnb says declining hurts my ranking in searches.

What am I supposed to do in this situation?

[Syl11]

@Robert1142  Just keep responding to him and ask him questions etc, eventually he will drop off. If he had already enquire with a set of dates, and you need to approve or decline, contact helpline, they can read his messages and they can delete him off. There is security that look for fake emails, you may need to contact airbnb. See helpline by Dave & Deb in the HELP forum, page 1. If he is genuine, he may still want to book the first week or so then he will probably try to get long term rental. Its not unusual.

[Sandra126]

Personally I woiuld accept the dates he is proposing. He is unlikely to book them,  since he is using random dates. If you decline, rest assured it is not a good thing if you want listing visibility.

I just accepted a booking enquiry where they asked to bring a cat. I hit ''accept'', saying the couple were welcome but they could not bring a cat. Clears me of declining a silly request.

[Ute42]

.

@Sandra126, very good solution. I do the same all the time.

[Letti0]

@Robert1142  I do like @Sandra126 I just send the pre-approval which conditions, they don't accept and AirBnB is happy with me. I had one clown send me a cleaning offer on an request to book. I accepted, it was for one day. I got the full booking price for my rental for the Saturday night including cleaning fee and tax on HA/VRBO for the night $425.93 without their fee's included those brought his cost to over $525. I have a no cancallation refund there. This was in May I have yet to get a chargeback from this fool which I figured was coming at anytime. HA/VRBO dings you just like AirBnB for declining an actual booking request I could loose my Premier Partner status their version of SuperHost. This fool pissed me off requesting to book, not an inquiry, so I would have been dinged for not accepting.   

[Alexandra316]

@Letti0That's funny! Maybe it was a good (if expensive!) way for him to learn his lesson so he doesn't spam other people in future. 

I do the same as everyone else in these situations: I just send them a message saying no, I don't accept long term bookings and hit accept. They're not going to complete the booking anyways, so no harm, no foul. 

[Zappa0]

Happens ALL THE TIME. tons of people moving to the area and can't find a place, people who want to barter a stay, some people who message me just to find out more on how they can do what I do in their area (rent boats as accommodations). 

It's in the details...is it an inquiry or a request? If it is an inquiry, my understandinf is you just have to respond. I never decline those. 

If it is a request maybe say "should I accept this booking? If I do your card will be charged. If you don't want to stay these nights please cancel your request and iron out that dates you are interestes in for a short term booking before resending" something like that

[Ange2]

@Robert1142   is it an inquiry or a request?

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/VIDEO-Inquiry-vs-Request-What-s-the-Difference/m-p/77153...

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Robert1142

There is no harm in pre-approving the inquiry - which is what I would do. Just like many other hosts have mentioned above..... @Sandra @Ute42 @Alexandra316 @Letti0

If it is a booking request, if you accept the guest will be charged so in this case I usually tell the guest if they don't cancel the booking request and I accept, they will have to go thru the bother of getting a refund and that Airbnb is famously SLOW about processing refunds. I explain that hosts are penalized for declining, therefore I will accept within the next few hours. If they don't want those dates booked for real, the GUEST has to withdraw their request ASAP. 

[Robert1142]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.  It was an inquiry, so I just approved it. 

The system says the guest now has 24 hours to book, which I seriously doubt they will.  So that should hopefully be the end of it and I know what to do going forward.