Hi! We are new to hosting, and just received our first Booking request, but it doesn't feel right!

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Hi there.... We are from Wollongong, Australia and have just listed our place on Airbnb a few days ago and received our first booking request last night. Initially we were very excited, but something just doesn't sit right. 

The guest's Airbnb profile doesn't have a photo, nor does it include any information or verified details. Although the guest did send a message which included a couple of questions and their first names, but no surname and their names don't match the profile name. 

I responded to their request suggesting that perhaps they were new to Airbnb as they don't have any information in their profile and then asked them if they could supply a few more details. As of yet, I haven't heard back..... It's been about 10 hours. 

[Linda108]

@Michelle-And-Michael0  You did the right thing by asking for more information.  Now you need to decline the request as soon as possible to keep your response rate.  Often travelers send multiple booking requests to find what they want.  It doesn't mean anything bad necessarily.  It is exciting to get booking requests but being cautious will pay off in the long term.  Good luck with hosting!

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Thank you so much for your feedback. My instinct was saying 'decline' but it wasn't exactly the way we wanted our hosting experience to start out. 

I just hope that it doesnt prove negative to our response rating as it is now more than 24 hours since they sent the request. However, It's less than that since I responded with the message asking them to supply more information.

Just out of curiosity, is it a usual Airbnb practice to have profiles out there without photos and little to no information about the person? 

[Helen3]

Hi @Michelle-And-Michael0

Quite a few guests (and some hosts) unfortunately don't use a profile photo or provide details of themselves, particularly those new to Airbnb.

In the last week two of my four requests had no details. Both of these provided details on request.

You did the right thing in declining a guest who doesn't provide details.

I would also only take guests with verified ID (ie photo ID).

I also ask plans for their trip and why they chose my place.

Good luck with your hosting.

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Helen3 Thanks so much for your tips.

We've used Airbnb for travel as guests for a number of years, and have always provided our hosts with lots of information..... it's quite strange sitting on the other side of the fence now, not knowing what to expect! 🙂

[Robin4]

@Helen3 @Linda108

Hey you girls with all your knowledge, can I ask a question. When I go to my community forum profile and look at my activity, some of my posts will have a black tick along side them, some will not! What does that tick signify!

It says....'accepted solution' but, accepted by who and from who's post.....any ideas?

On the thread if a post is regarded as an accepted solution the post thread will have a green solution tick and the relevant post will also have that green tick but many of the black ticks on my profile don't indicate anything....just curious!

Cheers.....Rob

[Linda108]

Hi @Robin4  When you hover over the black tick, it is "accepted solution".  So in one place it is a green tick and another place it is a black tick 😄  I used to think the originator of the post rated a solution as accepted.  Now I think that one of the administrators does that.  Not sure what prompts the designation since many of my post that are correct are not designated as accepted solution.  

[Robin4]

@Linda108

Thanks Linda....this is what I am seeing but I don't know what these relate to....just a matter of interest!

It seems to be once the posts are a day or two old!

Cheers.....Rob

[Robin4]

@Michelle-And-Michael0

Hi to the pair of you and welcome to Airbnb. I really hope that you can have the fantastic run that I have had and share in meeting some wonderful people. You don't realise how many there are out there until you start to invite them into your home.

Now, first up, what did you actually receive? Was it an enquiry or a reservation request. If it was an Enquiry this would have been in an email in a green box which said 'Pre-approve/Decline'....or if it was a booking request it would have been in a red box which said Accept/Decline?

Michelle....or Michael, there is a big difference between the two! If it was an 'enquiry' that is what we call a fishing exercise. The potential guest may have enquired with five or six hosts in your area and is trying to find out if your property is available or simply ask you a question or two. A booking enquiry will come to you as a result of the guest clicking the 'Contact Host' tab on your listing page and inserting dates. You first and foremost must either pre-approve them or decline them, and you have 24 hours to do that. Obviously it is in your interest to do that fairly quickly because the longer it takes you to respond the more chance the enquiry will go somewhere else.

If you pre-approve them that does not commit you to a booking, nor the guest, it does not block your calendar and you are free to take another booking for the dates requested by that enquirer. What it does is open up a message stream with that person and tells them, as of that moment your listing is available. The pre-approval remains in force for 24 hours from the time it was granted by you. If the guest does not proceed to a booking request in that 24 hours the enquiry drops off the system and that is the end of it, no further action is required on your part.

Now, if it was a booking request you must accept that request or decline it within 24 hours If you do not you will receive a black mark against your name for not responding and Airbnb will remove listings if they feel the response time is consistently too negative.

If you accept that request that means the guest has paid their money and a reservation is in force for the requested dates. If you decline the booking a box will appear asking you for a reason for you declining. Simply click the appropriate suggestion and that will be the end of it. Be aware that Airbnb will also penalise hosts who they feel are declining too often. 

To your question, if you did not either Pre-approve, accept or decline that enquiry/request that came to you in the 24 hour time limit then that will affect your response time statistics. The fact that you chatted via message for a considerable amount of time does not count, you firstly have to state your intention to the guest and the Airbnb system.

Now as far as this request is concerned, we all had to start from somewhere and the fact that this guest has virtually no background is not neseccarily a bad thing! How long have they been a member of Airbnb? Have they recently joined or is their profile an old one.

If they have been registered with Airbnb for a considerable amount of time and have no background and you have not had a return response I would contact Airbnb in Sydney on 02 85203333 and ask them to provide more verification on this guest and ask them what alternative arrangements can be made that will not affect your response time if that 24 hour window expires.

Sorry this is a bit long winded but it is important that you understand the rules around reservations. If you do the wrong thing it can have a negative impact on you for a long time into the future.

All the best     Cheers......Rob 

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Robin4 Hello and Wow!! Thank you so much for taking the time in writing such an informative response! Its very generous of you ☺️

Going by what you've described, I think then perhaps it was just an enquiry as it asked us to pre-approve or decline. In your opinion, would it have been better to just pre-approve straight away and then worry about the booking request and lack of ID later?

So many things to learn, and it looks like this community page is a great place to start. Thanks once again for your support! 

I think this Airbnb hosting is going to be a great learning curve for us..... 

[Robin4]

@Michelle-And-Michael0

If it helps in some way great Michelle, that is what anyone here tries to do, and yes, one could just give an 'accept or decline' response but I feel you better understand the issue if you have a bit of background to the comments.....hence the lengthy response! You need to know 'why' you are doing something, rather than just doing it.

Now, to anything that comes to you requesting a response on your part you must firstly 'deal with the business' ...you must pre-approve, accept or decline. Your response time will be affected by what actions you take. If you don't do one of the three you will take a hit!

Once you done one or the other you can chat to your hearts content. If you simply pre-approve a guest, as I said, you are not committed to anything. You can, after pre-approving, find out the guest is not a good fit for your method and when their booking request comes (if it does) you are still free to decline it and state...'The guest will not be a good fit for my hosting' and that's ok, you have responded and you will not be penalised.

If it is a booking request that has come to you and you accept it, you are then committed to it and the penalties for cancelling a confirmed reservation are severe, so if a situation arrises that you you cannot continue with a confirmed reservation call Airbnb and work with them to relocate or refund the guest....do not under any circumstance cancel the reservation yourself.

This whole business around response time is there because, if a potential guest wants some information, they do not want to be left hanging, unanswered for an indefinite amount of time! They want to know where they stand....either it works or it doesn't. So that is why you are encouraged to be as quick as you can out of the blocks.

I had a situation last week where I was not able to respond to a pre-approval for almost an hour after it came in, and when I did the guest thanked me for responding, but said she had booked with another host because they got back to her quicker than I did.

If you are in doubt about any aspect of your hosting Michelle you will dind on every page a 'Search the Community' box. Type a brief comment like 'how do I contact Airbnb' into that box and a list of previous posts relating to that comment will be displayed. There is nothing you can't learn from the Community Centre...

Cheers.....Rob

[Kelly149]

@Robin4 @Michelle-And-Michael0

Hey, Robin, always happy to read anything you've written but one confusing bit for me in this note. You said a pre-approval doesn't commit you to anything and in a way it kind of doesn't (not yet anyway), but what it does do is tells the guest "yes, go ahead and book, I am willing to host you".  If they then take that pre-approval and book, then I believe you are stuck with them. It is confirmed and you can't get out of it short of cancelling. 

Yes/no??? Have I misread what you meant there?

[Robin4]

@Kelly149

Yes and no!  When a pre-approval is required it means that the guest has not requested a reservation with you! It means the guest has hit the 'Contact host' tab on your profile and wants to ask you something.

What a pre-approval says is 'My property is available for those dates, what do you want to know?'

It does not commit you to a booking. In the subsequent conversation you can find out that this guest is the re-incarnation of 'Jack the Ripper' and you can remove the pre-approval, and decline to accept a reservation on any number of grounds with absolutely no penalty.

A pre-approval is not a binding committment, it does not block your calendar and you are still free to take bookings for those enquired dates from someone else......it merely says, 'Hey, I'm here, what do you want to know'.

Many guests will seek pre-approvals from anything up to a dozen hosts in the area they want to stay before finally accepting one! Mind you guests that do that would in my opinion not be worth hosting.

I hope this can help a bit Kelly!

Cheers....Rob

edit....bloody typos, I need some new fingers....or a quicker brain!!

[Kelly149]

@Robin4 That's interesting 

yes, I know nothing is blocked & yes, I could go remove the pre-approval, but so long as the pre-approval is active then I thought that meant that they were approved to book. Puts the ball in their court and the path is cleared for them to book without any other say so from me. Otherwise what have they been approved of?? But I'm on instant book, so maybe I've been misunderstanding the pre-approval function all this time. 

[Robin4]

@Kelly149 Yeah their free to book, but your free to decline if they should book, as long as you state a reason for declining.

Hey I have to get to Meals on Wheels....it's 8.30am and I got to start cooking meals for 70 old folks. I am off till later!

Cheers.....Rob