@Ryan63
Ryan did you grant the guest a pre-approval for the night he 'did not want' or did you simply decline on the basis of his question?
It is unfornunate when this happens and it really needs to be explained to guests by Airbnb that if they simply want to talk to a host then they should click the 'contact host' tab and ask a question to gain a pre-approval. This way a host and a prospective guest can chat as much as they like and 24 hours later if no booking takes place the enquiry drops off the system and does not penalise the host. You can take other bookings for the time the pre-approval is in place or you can withdraw a pre-approval and there will be no penalty to you.
Ryan I feel sorry for you here, you were in all probability doing the right thing within the limitations of the way this person came to you and now you are being penalised in search results.
I suggest that you refresh your listing by adding a photo, or changing a house rule, or even get a friend to contact you via 'Contact Host' and ask some sort of question about your listing that will require you to grant a pre-approval, and these things will raise your ranking. Granting a pre-approval does not commit either you or the guest to anything! It just says that as of that moment your listing is available.
It maybe worthwhile if you take this further Ryan and contact ABB and explain what has happened if only to make sure this is on record so it does not influence your future reservation decisions. ABB can at their discretion remove a listing altogether if they feel a host is declining too often, so every decline is important. As far as this instance is concerned I doubt staff have the capacity to over-ride the program, and I feel all these events are tied up with the program itself and it is probable that the only way you will get your listing up again is 'activity'....that is what the algorithm responds to where rankings are concerned! So the more activity there is on your listing, the higher you will show in search results.
Bad luck Ryan....I hope this can help you a bit.
Cheers.....Rob