Declining a request seems to have a very negative impact on listing views.

[Ryan368]

I have noticed a significant drop in my listing views every time I decline  a reservation request. I understand that it is AirBnB's job to put guests in houses and they want approvals, lower prices, etc... That said, I only really reject guests who are obviously going to be an issue. For example... The last guest's message was that he was having a 30th birthday party and wanted to use my house for seven of his friends to have a 420 friendly weekend borthday bash. Now everything about my house says that it is in a quiet, family friendly neighborhood and that it is non smoking, and no parties. So, he literally asked for two things that are very clearly not allowed and he had zero rental review history. Why on earth am I being punished for declining something that will obviously not be good for me, my neighbors, or this guest. I'm not judging him. I hope he finds a place to have his birthday party, but my house isn't the right place. It seems like AirBnB wants hosts to approve requests at all costs.

[Sandra126]

@Sarah977, that is exactly what I did with the angry guest. Was offering her an out, but she didn't see it that way, instead seeing it as blackmail.

@Ben551, at least your prospective guests asked! I turned away my first ever guests not long ago, as they booked for two but turned up six, with two young children. Impossible.

[Sarah977]

@Sandra126   Yes, I figured it wouldn't work with every guest, just that it's worth a try rather than having to Decline or Accept a booking you don't want. It could also be problematic if there's a large time zone difference between host and guest- they might not get the message in time to cancel the booking request before you have to click on something.

[Ben551]

@Sarah977@Sandra126@Lisa723I'm going to open the conversation I had with AirBnb again I think.  I just think that, if my rules say (for good reason) that I don't accept children or infants, they shouldn't be allowing guests to send me requests that include them.  We're not talking about a box I haven't ticked, like an amenity, we're talking about a box I have selected "no" against.  It seems silly that I could then be put in the position to filter, a second time, and be punished for doing it.

Hold my feet, I'm going in...

[Sarah977]

@Ben551  Make sure not to hold your breath the whole time. Bet it takes longer than the time it takes for your soap to set up 🙂

Do let us know the outcome.

[Sandra126]

Yes! Well done @Ben551, for the effort. Holding on.

[Ben551]

@Sandra126@Lisa723@Sarah977- aaaand I'm back. 

The short answer is : Instant Book is more awesome than I realised.

The long answer is ....

Because I have Instant Book turned on, any guest who doesn't meet all of the following two categories is required to send me a request:

1. Guest requirements : Airbnb standard requirements, plus any of the options I have ticked (such as Profile Photo, Government-issued ID, and no negative Recommendation from other hosts)
   
   
2. Basic House Rules : Options for Children and Pets are matched against the booking info.

For Instant Book hosts, declining this type of request (i.e. one that didn't pass items 1. and 2. above automatically) isn't considered bad form by Hosts.  The Reservation Reqeust carries a "query" on it in the background that signals that the Requset isn't quite up to shape.  In fact, these type of decllines have zero consequence for search results, or anything else for that matter.  You can decline for any reason at all after that, not even something on the above list. It actually works to give you a bit of a free pass, in a practical sense because your "Decline" is seen to validate the logic of the initial system check - which said there was something wrong with the booking.  All you have to do is respond quickly, so that your response rate % isn't impacted.

BUT... (yes, you knew it was coming)

If you don't have Instant Book turned on and you manually prefer to screen your reservation requests, something dasterdly happens.  AirBnb decides that if a Guest sends you a Reservation Request that meets everything in items 1 and 2 above... and you still decline it... it decides you're a bawdy little monkey and need to think about what you've done.  This is where people are getting slammed in the search engine.  The problem is too that AirBnb CS have no way to manually "flick a switch" to decide, one by one, that your reasons for a decline are reasonable.  It's all lost in the code, which is why arguing with them and complaining doesn't work.

So.  I have written a full page complaint, with examples and rationale (and legal jargon, hey hey look at me!) in the hope that they will see some sense and address this flaw.  I've gone full British at them (I might live in NZ but the Union Jack is still in my passport), which is the best I can do. 

I've used my wording brain for long enough now, so I'm off to blow something up on the Playstation...

PS:  Yes Sarah, the soap set far quicker 🙂

[Sandra126]

Brilliant work @Ben551. I will decline a little now and again. Am not an antsy host but some cannot be done~, as we all know.

[Mariann4]

Best of luck @Ben551.  I think Airbnb turned 10 years last year. No one has listened yet... You might be The One!

Mariann 🙂

[Ryan368]

I would say this is partly the case. I do and always have had Instant Book turned on. I declined a reservation because the guest has the option to request rather than instant book in order to ask questions beforehand. I declined because of the guests questions, and was negatively impacted in the search listing as a result. So, even when you decline for good reason, you still get hit with the penalty.

[Sarah977]

@Ben551  One thing Airbnb fails to understand is that hosts aren't in the business of declining guests- if we decline someone, it's with good reason- we're hosting to get bookings and make some money, not turn people away. Why would we decline Booking Requests for some frivolous reason? And the guests who are declined are declined because they are usually not recommended by past hosts, or they ask for rule-bending or ignore things in the listing description- they aren't good risks and they usually result in problems for Airbnb- complaints, cancellations, refund requests and battles, damage claims. Instead of punishing hosts for declining, they should be looking at guests who keep getting declined and punish THEM. You'd think they'd realize this, but really,. the powers that be seem to have a huge hole where common sense should reside.

[Ben551]

Exactly @Sarah977 - this, and other things, are why I think this needs to work better. 

Under House Rules the only thing that the system can  automatically assess is whether the Request includes children or pets vs. your basic house rules.  There are many, many other requirements and rules that Hosts have, and for good reason. 

For example: Parties.  If you tick "No Parties" in the basic house rules section, there is nothing in a reservation request that asks a guest to answer a question about Parties specifically.  This means they might pass all the automated checks AirBnb have and their request could still contain text such as "We  think your space will be great to hose a 50th Birthday party for 100 guests." 

Only a human being can screen for this level of complexity, so logic says you should be protected for doing a good job of that screening.  But when the system decides "naughty" there is no points score or manual adjustment that customer support can make afterwards.  This is poorly done, hence why I've written in.

[Ryan368]

Agreed, the fact that their CS is incapable of correcting programtic errors is pretty infurtiating. I've had guests fat finger the stars on their reviews a couple times. They wrote long emails to CS about how it was by mistake. The text of their review was also very positive which should have served as evidence of the mistake. Yet, their CS team would refuse to correct it and claimed that it was against policy to change a review for any reason. Ridiculous.