Guest hoping to book during a blocked date

[Rich-and-Yan0]

Hello fellow hosts,

This morning I awakened to a peculiar booking inquiry. Our place is quite large and we do not live there full time, and so our house managers requested that we leave a full day before and after each booking to give them sufficient time to clean and prepare the house properly. And we were happy to oblige them.

Today, however, a guest sent an inquiry that overlaps into the preparation day. It would also be just one day prior to when another guest, who has actually booked with us for TWO one-week periods over the winter, is arriving.

Now, we're still relatively new to hosting, and so I'm wondering what to do here. I did write to the guest to explain the situation, and also because she does not meet any of the criteria we had set as prerequisites to booking our villa. For instance, she has no previous history on Airbnb, no government ID, no photo provided, and no email address or phone number provided. She hasn't even listed her city of residence.

If I decline this inquiry, or if I simply let the 24-hour period expire, will this hurt me on the website? I've been reading a lot about how hosts who decline inquiries and booking requests, or who don't respond at a rate that the Airbnb algorithm approves of, can see their listing go down in the guests' viewing window. Would that actually apply in this case, do you think? When we have specific criteria for booking listed and the day before blocked?

We would appreciate any feedback you have on this, especially from you experienced hosts. Thanks a lot. 

[Sarah977]

@Pat271  The OP here said that his house manager requested no back-to-backs and that he is happy to accommodate that request, as it appears that he values these people and doesn't wish to have a situation where he might lose them. He also indicated that they are house managers, so I would imagine they handle all hands-on tasks as well as dealing with the guests during their stay. He never said they were "housekeepers", nor that they "prohibited" back-to-backs.

You are comparing what appears to be a friendly and mutually respectful relationship to a strictly employer/employee, "I'll fire you if you don't want to do as I wish" situation.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Sarah977 Yes, that's right, they are "managers" in every sense. They do the handle the cleaning, but they also prepare all the little amenities that we give our guests; check guests in and out (when they can--we have a lockbox for the rare times that they can't); replace things that are stained, broken or the like; and shop for us if we ever need to restock our supplies. Plus, the wife in this couple was in charge of the decoration for our villa.

So yes, they are far beyond being mere "housekeepers"--and if they ask for an extra day before a set of guests check in, then we are more than happy to oblige them. On top of being managers, we consider them friends, and we want to treat them with the respect that you should show your friends. We also think they are irreplaceable, and since they are happy to be doing all these things for us under the current arrangement, then there's no way that we would ever want to change that just to make a bit more money.

Again, I do understand why some hosts do things the way they do. If that works for you, then hey, good on ya. But for us, this is the most practical, sensible and respectful way we can do things. Everyone in this arrangement is happy with it, so why rock the boat?

Thanks again, @Sarah977, for your logical viewpoints. 

[Sarah977]

@Rich-and-Yan0  Sounds like you were lucky to hook up with these folks.  So important to have someone you trust when you don't live nearby. I property manage a small house in my town- I used to rent there until I bought a lot and built my own home. When I was ready to move, 11 years ago, they asked if I'd consider property managing for them, which I accepted. Months can go by where I don't do much of anything, as it's rented long-term to a very responsible tenant. But I pay their property taxes and water bill, drive by to take a look every so often, fix little things that go wrong and take my power washer up there once a year after the summer rains to clean up the black mold that always forms on the walkways and stairs, send them photos of neighborhood construction, etc, and am generally on call for anything they might want me to do. They have always been super generous with me and always verbally say how much they appreciate my help, that they wouldn't be able to own a vacation home without it. It's always been a great and mutually beneficial arrangement.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Sarah977 Yeah, you are to them what our house managers are to us. We are so grateful and fortunate to have them, and so no way in a million years would we ever want to tick them off. They asked for a day extra to prep the house and we immediately got that, as on top of the cleaning, they take care of all of the "little things" that you just mentioned which a lot of hosts who don't live on site might take for granted. For instance, we just had our first set of bad guests, people whom we treated very well (e.g. we let them check in early AND THEN let them check out extra late, because no one was booked in the days behind them) and yet who totally disrespected our home--and our house managers, while obviously upset about this, did all of the extra clean-up and fixing of things, and refused to let us pay them any extra!

So yeah, when you have a good thing, you don't mess with it. There is potentially more money to be made, of course. But when you have good relationships with good people, then THAT should be the priority IMO. 🙂