Getting 'pinged" for not accepting enough booking requests

[Jodi15]

This is a common chat theme on the FB pages ... "Do I get "pinged" by Airbnb for not accepting enough Booking Requests?"  Four years ago, I would have said "No", because then, Airbnb was all about the Host.  They actually made a point of telling Hosts that you did not get penalised for not accepting bookings that you weren't comfortable with.  You didn't even have to have a reason.  But then suddenly they changed their stance, and you needed to have reasons not to accept requests.  And most recently I received a "veiled threat" from Airbnb that I had not accepted enough bookings on one of my listings and for this reason it could be de-listed.  I had a look back and over the past 12 months I have only refused two requests and had one cancellation (with a guest who potentially was going to be a big problem) and even then it was 5 months in advance, giving him plenty of time to find somewhere else to go.  So what is the official stance ... "Do you get penalised for not accepting enough booking requests?"  In my experience, yes you do.  Would be interested in what others have experienced.

[Kelly149]

@Jodi15 yes, it is true, there is a penalty and yes, this is a change (after the fact, not cool)

Both my listings have IB, so a request is rare, so it will be nearly impossible to move that metric about the accepted requests (I've only ever had requests from guests who said: can we pay for 2 and bring 7 or can we have busy weekend for weekday price? No and No. Why should I have had to have "accepted" these guests?)