Declining reservation then penalisedby Airbnb

[Julia1]

There are a number of reasons for declining reservation requests, as a live in host I have a life as well as being a host, sometimes I have an engagement e.g. for theatre in the evening, and therefore cannot check in a guest that evening, it is my home so I do not want a co-host.  I do not want to mark that date as unavailable as a guest arriving in the afternoon is fine.  If ai have a reservation request but have to decline as guest wants to arrive when I will be out I am penalised for refusing, need some way of being able to state arrival not possible between x and y hours on z date.

[Fred13]

Julia, there is a methodology to designate check-in hours; Listings > Edit Listing > Availability > Check-in & Checkout

[Julia1]

Yes I know that but it cannot be set for individual days.

[Helen-And-Mario0]

Yes, I do want to know about individual days setting, does anyone know about it?

[Kate505]

Hi Julia.  Would you feel comfortable about giving guests a code to a keysafe so that they could let themselves in?  Just occasionally I am out and cannot greet guests, so I make sure they are familiar with house instructions and allow them to retrieve a key to let themselves in.  Although I usually manage to arrange my life around  the guests' arrival time, it's not always possible. I have never had a problem with this arangement, and all my guests have been totally honest and grateful.  Good communication is the key I think.

[Julia1]

I absolutely would not want a key safe, I host at my home and want it to remain as such.  Airbnb make a lot of noise about hosts having local knowledge and the personal touch, being valued etc then threaten them with delisting if they have a life.  

[Holly142]

I didn't realize we could be penalised for declining? I recently declined a reservation, because they wanted to bring their family of 4 to my cabin when my listing clearly states only 2 people max. The reason is that we have limited water daily and cannot comfortably accomodate 4 without risking running the cistern empty. I declined but didn't hear anything after that.

[Kathy286]

What I saw was that if you decline, those dates then become BLOCKED which is do unfair

[Huma0]

@Kathy286

From what I;ve always understood, if you decline a booking giving the reason that the dates are unavailable, then the dates will get blocked, but you can go into your calendar and unblock them. If you give one of the other reasons, e.g. the listing does not suit the guest's requirements, the dates aren't blocked. I've not done this for a long time so I don't know if that is still the case or not.

The reason I haven't done this in a while is because Airbnb started measuring hosts on their acceptance rate, which was not a criteria when I started. Now, I avoid hitting the decline button if I can. I firstly try to get the guest to withdraw their booking request. If that doesn't work, I would call up Airbnb and explain the situation.

I did this recently with a guest who tried to book for themselves and their child when my listing clearly states I don't accept under 19s. Even if I did accept them, they were trying to book for one person when it should have been two as the child is over 12. I explained to the guest, who was totally unresponsive. When time started running out, I called Airbnb and the rep cancelled the request from their side. 

So, it worked but really, as hosts we should absolutely not be put under this pressure, nor have to spend so much time dealing with requests from guests trying to book inappropriately. Not having availability when your calendar shows you have is quite another matter. It is the host's resposibility to stay on top of the calendar.

@Julia1Have you tried using Rule Sets? Perhaps there is an option to customise check in times for specific dates.

Also, is this a new thing, but I just got a notification about a pending request (I'm waiting for the guest to respond to my questions as they seem to be under the impression they can check in/out at any hour) that says if I don't accept or decline in time the dates will be blocked. I have never seen that before. Airbnb seem to be coming up with more and more ways to penalise hosts...

[Letti0]

@Huma0  You will need to accept the booking, but do it with conditions. 

I have accepted this booking under the following CONDITIONS being met. Check in is XX:XX to XX.XX only and Check out is no later than XX:XX. If you do not agree with these CONDITIONS, you must immediately cancel this reservation. Otherwise I look forward to hosting you.

Regards,

Huma  

[Huma0]

@Letti0

Thank you. I might try that, but there are other issues (not knowing who the second traveller is, really awful review from the last host, the impression that the guest has either not read the house rules or is choosing to cherry pick which ones apply to them).

Until I've had a response from the guest that reassures me, I don't really want to accept because this is not an Instant Booking so I won't be able to cancel it without losing Superhost status. There's no guarantee that the guest will accept the conditions, nor that they will cancel, nor that Airbnb will help once the booking is confirmed.

It's really tedious, but I might have to call Airbnb about this one because they are more likely to cancel a booking request than a confirmed reservation. However, if this becomes a regular thing, then they might not look too kindly on that either. 

I feel like hosts are really being held to ransom by the Acceptance Rate. We should not have to welcome any guests into our homes when they don't want to follow our house rules, but we get penalised if we don't.

[Kathy286]

Thanks Huma for that extra information. Yes recently seen that I can unblock this dates myself if required. 

I also have been slowly updating my listings to include and make clear some 'rules'/guidelines as well 🙂

Aprreciate your time replying, thank you 

[Betty39]

It would be nice if we could set individual hours to receive guests, for example M- F I work I can receive guests 5-7 Pm. On the weekends I am available all day to receive a guest. Changing my hours to the days a week would be good.

i don’t believe you are penilize if you decline a reservation although I usually make it so that the guest does not choose me. They do let you know that you have declined a number of reservation after awhile. Last summer during my daughters wedding I declined a number of them

[Julia1]

I didn't realise that hosts were penalised for declining reservation requests until I recently checked my stats and saw that it was below the target of 85% and there was a message basically threatening to delist me if I don't up it - I have been hosting for over 6 years and found this very annoying, one of the main reasons I decline reservation requests is that I prefer not to host single men as being a live-in single female I am vulnerable, I don't state '/women only' as mixed couples or gay men are fine but there is not way to state this one the site.

[Fred13]

Having different hours that keep changing would prove very tricky in many circumtances. Right before a guest is to arrive, say 4pm, the host states that in that particular day, it turns out they will not be available after 3pm. Now what? The timing of these last minute changes, can turn into a guest-host hassle. 

I suggest adaptation; as to balancing guest realities and your personal needs, perhaps be more open minded about the use of technology, and not to expect Airbnb to solve all personal host needs.

Necessity is the mother of adaptation.