Declining the same guest for the same dates twice

[Monica4]

I had had a reservation request for one person for two nights (my minumum) but it the message the guest wrote that it would actually be 8-10 people for one night - members of a competative road bicyle team. He felt I should consider this request because he was a good guest in the past. I declined because 8-10 people for one night is a lot more work than one person for two nights. I also mentioned that I had given them a good review before I realized that the black marks on my hardwood floors could not be removed. It turned out that they had brought their bicycles into the house rather than putting them in the lockable workshop behind the house. When I declined I stated both reasons to Airbnb as well as to the guest. About an hour later I get another booking request for the same dates but this time for 8 guests. I declined again, and Airbnb asked for another reason. I blocked the calendar for those dates so that I would not get yet another request and get dinged by Airbnb. Why is it possible to decline a guest and then have another request come from the same guest for the same dates?

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Monica4 - I understand your frustration and wonder about the logic of Airbnb's search and request options frequently. Plus, Airbnb doesn't allow for guest "blocking".

But I have to ask, if they are willing to pay for 2 nights for 8 people and agree to not bring the bikes inside, why wouldn't you book them?  Your minimum is for 2 nights, they have to pay for 2 nights. In this case one of those nights you'd actually be empty and still getting paid.

Even if you don't have a security deposit on your property (you probably should add one for incidental damage), you can still ask for compensation if they ruin anything - including marks on the floor that are not removable.  In this case, you could use the funds from the second night to maybe have the floor repaired.   

[Monica4]

From past experience, including this group of guests, if they start to haggle about the price they will be nothing but trouble. They gave a good review last time, but complained that there were not enough beds for all 8 guys to have their own bed (didn't read the description) and complained about ladybugs in the house. Now that it appears that my listing is the cheapest in the area and they cannot find anything else, my listing is good enough. I would have had problems.

[Monica4]

Security Deposit? There is no point. Airbnb isn't likely to rule in the host's favor anyway, and if they do it is only a fraction of the cost of damages.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

For me, some money from a security deposit for damage is better than no money at all but I respect your decision not to have one.   

[Lawrene0]

@Monica4, I really love @Alice-and-Jeff0's advice here, but you are going with your instincts on this, and that's good, too. It's your house. I have blocked dates for something very similar, and it was worth it for the anxiety relief. I get that you are frustrated with a system that lets someone you have declined keep asking and asking, but it sounds like you are handling it in the only way presently available. 

[David126]

I always wondered if you pre approved them and then removed the pre approval if as far as the system was concerned it would not penalise you?

Not sure if there is anyway of knowing.

The main benefit with the SD is that many guests will not know it is useless.

[Monica4]

Not as far as I know. I have preapproved guests and then received bookings from other sites before the guests accepted, so I removed the preapproval. One time when there was an Airbnb site glitch there was no button to remove the preapproval! In that case I was lucky and the Airbnb guest didn't accept the preapproval. It only makes sense to me that you would not get penalized for removing preapprovals. Many of us have our listings on other platforms as well. A booking request is different. It is an immediate reqest for a booking. If you decline too often Airbnb will ding you.

[Monica4]

I wanted to bring up something else with this thread, and that is the fact that many guests do not realize how much work is involved in cleaning a house after hosting the maximum number of guests. In my case it is 10 guests. I often have just two guests and they use the downstairs part only....only one double bed to strip the sheets, wash and make up again. Small groups of two people are usually very clean. I seldom need to scrub out the oven or the fridge, or wash all the floors in the house and wipe all the smudges from the glass panes in my doors.  I can clean within 3 hours for a small group. For a large group it takes about 6 to 7 hours. What these guests wanted was to have all 8-10 guests stay in my house for one night for the same price as one guests for 2 nights.  That is comparing blueberries to watermelons in the amount of work involved. I did not find that to be a very considerate request, and it should therefore be no surprise that they had no misgivings of bringing their bicycles into the dining room and checking out their brakes....leaving long black marks.

I am very relieved not to host them. I am leaving those dates blocked in case one of the other team members registers with Airbnb and wants to book it. Sadly, I will likely miss out on other teams that want the house for that weekend. Such is life. The stress is not worth the money.