Thanks for all the replies. I was sloppy with my terms, inquiry and request to book so thanks for the clarifications on that. I'm glad to confirm guests can't put in offers on stays.
I'm saying guests are secretly blocked from auto-booking b.c. abb doesn't disclose to the host why a potential guest is sending a request to book rather than just booking. You can see that in this thread as people try to guess what it might be, bad ratings, because they chose to, a lack of ID, something else?
I do know my guest requirements and a photo ID is definitely required. That setting doesn't really help me b.c. when a guest is requesting to book I have no idea why. When I called in, abb wouldn't/couldn't disclose it to me. Perhaps the guest knows based on a message they got when trying to complete an auto-book? I have resorted to asking guests before but they rarely have any idea.
I say my rates are hidden because they are, so are yours. All you can see after someone books or even requests to book is the payout which is not the same thing. Different nights of the week might have different rates and there might be fees added (cleaning fee, extra guest fee) but all of that is hidden including your nightly rate. The payout is an amalgamation of those things all rolled into one and divided by the number of nights. Once someone requests to book your nightly rates for those dates are lost unless you decline the booking. The same thing goes for an actual booking. The nightly rates are immediately removed from the calendar and the only thing visible is the mystery payout. I can figure out the fees by determining the number of guests, etc. but I can't ever learn what the nightly rate was when they booked.