Does declining hurt your host status?

[David-and-Annie0]

I have been operating under the belief (I remember reading it somewhere) that the more booking requests I decline, the closer I get to losing my “superhost” status and the further down in the search our listing will go. Is this correct? 
I was just talking with a friend who is also a host and he said, “no,” that he declines all the time for different reasons, and that it doesn’t affect our status at all. 
I really hope this is true! I have been bending over backwards, asking people very nicely to withdraw their request whenever it is not a good fit, or I have a bad feeling, or whatever—essentially whenever I want to decline them but am afraid to. 
What say you? Does it hurt us when we decline a request? 
—Also, has anyone else noticed a quick flash of a camera symbol when you do decline someone—right after you click decline and before it goes to the next screen? (This is when I’m on my phone.) Is Airbnb taking a picture of me? It’s just strange. 
-Annie 

[Anonymous]

@David-and-Annie0  The criteria for Superhost status are clearly displayed on your dashboard, and Acceptance Rate is not one of them. It's possible that declines have some impact on search results, but unlike the Superhost criteria, the search rank algorithm is not public information.

Don't let yourself get pushed around by the scare tactics. The consequences for declining a booking are negligible, whereas the consequences for taking a bad one can be devastating. 

[Sarah977]

While Acceptance rate isn't counted towards Superhost status, hosts have reported here that they got warnings from Airbnb for declining too many requests. How many or what percentage of your overall request numbers the algorithm considers "too many", or what the consequences are, I have no idea.

[David-and-Annie0]

@Sarah977, mmm, yes, that’s why I’ve been concerned. But I am getting tired of delicately putting everything and crossing my fingers that they will follow my instructions and withdraw their request. Sometimes I just want to flat out decline someone and not spend a lot of time messing around. Maybe I’ll start taking my chances more. Thx.

[Joshua638]

Is there a difference between declining an inquiry vs declining an actual booking request?

[Suzi164]

I think it’s frustrating that Airbnb don’t have a decline option you can choose that says... booking does not meet your house rules. 
I didn’t realise that I can decline and not jeopardise my superhost status. Mind you, I had to cancel a booking and I lost my SH status but it did not affect my bookings at all. 

[Sam4395]

Declining a booking and declining a request shouldn't effect your super host status. It is great that you spend the time to direct non-ideal guests through the process of canceling their booking or inquiry. However, as mentioned before declining someone that has red flags is much better than having them stay in your home and risking a bad review that could actually tarnish your super host status. That being said, do not decline too many guests or this may cause Airbnb to give you a warning.  As for the picture animation that flashes on your screen when you decline a booking I would contact customer support for that because I have never noticed that on cancelations in the past.