I turned down an inquiry- how does that affect my status?

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Brynja0
Level 4
Akranes, Iceland

I turned down an inquiry- how does that affect my status?

I´m a little confused.

 

Yesterday I declined an inquiry from a person that wanted to rent two of my cottages for 16 people although the listings are only for maximum 12 people. There is no way 16 people could fit into those cottages and so I declined. I had to give a reason and marked that there was not fit to the peoples needs.

 

Then I got a message from Airbnb that I should look at my listings and make sure that they are rightly decribed. In this case it´s the guests that have not looked at the listings and I get this message! Will this affect my status?

 

I´m wondering, is Airbnb punishing me for declining something that I from the start was not ok with?

1 Best Answer

@Brynja0

My strategy for those types of guest INQUIRIES would be a message along the lines of........" I will approve your inquiry with the assumption you clearly understand and accept my listing allows max 12 people. To reiterate, I do not allow groups that exceed 12 people. Also you MUST provide a guest list with full names and ages for all 12 guests including yourself. My listing cannot hold 16 people - there are safety issues and so the limit is 12. This is non-negotiable. I will also assume that if you book with me and you bring more people than allowed or someone not on the list into my listing at any time during your reservation, you agree to the fact and will accept the consequences of contacting ABB to initiate a guest cancellation with no refund. If you decide not to book with me  please let my pre-approval expire. Thanks for your inquiry." 

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27 Replies 27
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Assuming it was indeed an ~Inquiry~, it will not influence your status . Perhaps next time, just 'Reply' to such an inquiry, which also eliminates the 24-hour timer.

In my experience, replying to inquiries has not stopped the timer.

 

For whatever odd reason, twice in the last two days someone with no good credentials has been trying to boook one of my rooms. Each time, I wrote a response; each time, Airbnb said, in my words, "YOU MUST ACCEPT OR DECLINE BY XXX O'CLOCK OR THE ROOM WILL BE BLOCKED. I offered solid, reasonable explanations for each decline--and I hate to decline, but more so I hate to have something "unknown" show up at my own home--

 

I do not know if this affects my status or not. I always get this bright red box that tells me "YOUR DECLINING MAY BE UNDER REVIEW." Scary.

Hello @MaryBeth22,

 

If you declined and Airbnb told you that you must either "accept" or "decline" then what you declined was a reservation request not a reservation inquiry. You must either accept or decline requests within 24 hours or your response rate will be adversly affected. Declining many requests will affect your ratings and search result placement.

 

If a guest sends a reservation inquiry the options you have are "pre-approve" or "decline". You can do either of those or simply send a message to the guest within 24 hours to keep your response rate. Declining inquiries doesn't affect your ratings.

Fred's second reply below summs up the option differences succinctly.

 

A guest who sends a request is ready to book so there's time pressure to accept or decline so they can have certainty. A guest who sends an inquiry does so as they are not ready to book and want to ask some questions.

 

Difference-between-a-Reservation-Inquiry-or-Request-A-Community-Help-Guide

 

Steve.

 

 

I was told directly about INQUIRY (we are not taking about a request) that NOT doing either Pre-approve or Decline but by only REPLYING to the message will count as NOT REPLYING that you have to do one of the first two becuase airbnb wants to send them info on other places like yours and if you do not decline or preapprove they do not know to send them other offers. it's so so messed up. this is direct from them this morning...

 

Airbnb Support
10:03 AM
I would advise to not ignore the inquiry because that will negatively impact your hosting stat. It would be best to deny the inquiry.
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@John-and-Shasta0

I never use "decline" on inquires, i simply answer the question. If it does not result in a pre-approve, i remove the inquiry after finished communication from dashboard. Never experienced negative impact on my hosting stat. However, it is important to reply within the time limit, oherwise it will have negative impact on your respons-rating.

Best regards, Emiel

 

BTW

If the message quoted is from Airbnb, probably someone started on his first working day.....


@Fred13 wrote:

Assuming it was indeed an ~Inquiry~, it will not influence your status . Perhaps next time, just 'Reply' to such an inquiry, which also eliminates the 24-hour timer.


Are you certain just "replying" to an inquiry eliminates the 24-hour timer?

I always reply within 24 hours and have a 94% response rate. But I DO NOT  decline or preapprove every inquiry. The ones I need to decline I leave open (although I've replied to them) because they want different dates, or are members of an already booked group that just want to ask me a question or they want to have a party that is against my house rules etc. Mainly, I'm concerned that declining an inquiry will negatively impact my stats so I leave them open but I think that's why my response rate is below 100% and suffering

Amy38
Level 10
Nashville, TN

Hwhen I get impossible booking requests, I just reply as to why it is unsuitable, wait 20 hours and accept the guest who has moved on by then.  Accept theguest, refuse the booking.

That is an interesting technique.  I used it once on an inquiry.  I took a very long time to answer a question and by then the guest had found another location.  However, it is sad that we have to resort to these tactics.  I wish Airbnb would listen to hosts concerns and provide a system to decline requests that don't meed Airbnb rules to not be held against the acceptance rate.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@John2273

For the first year or so I was of the opinion you had to either pre-approve or decline an enquiry  before you got involved with chat.....and I got roundly criticised for that. I was told by many here on the CC all you had to do was return a message and all was good. That was counted as ' responding' I am talking here about an inquiry, not a reservation request!

I had recently an inquiry for an entirely unrelated issue to actually staying and I just returned a conversation dialogue without either pre-approving or declining. 

This inquiry still sits in a red field on my inbox which I can't delete or do anything with and I have been emailed that I have to respond to guests inquiries and either pre-approve them or decline them so the platform program make required adjustments for the inquired dates! 

I am going back to where I was a couple of years ago, I will either grant a pre-approval or not first and foremost and then I will think about having a chat!

 

Cheers.....Rob

Jeff158
Level 10
Caernarfon, United Kingdom

 @Robin4 thats strange, I sometimes wonder if the system is different in other countries.

If the enquiry is not acceptable, I just message the guest that its not possible, the last two enquirys are below, top one wanted 28 people to stay(not a chance) and the bottom one wanted a 1 night stay. No messages from airbnb or red field in my inbox.

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Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

A - Pre-Approval/Decline/Reply are the choices when receiving an ~Inquiry~.

B - Accept/Decline are the choices when receiving a ~Request~.

Rebecca181
Level 10
Florence, OR

@Brynja0 When I was new to hosting I called Airbnb about this same concern and was told it would not effect my stats or ranking negatively - Only cancellations would. I also got those notices to 'check my listing' for accuracy or something like that, and, as with you (and many hosts here), it was not my listing description that was not accurate but the person inquiring who had not accurately read my listing! 

 

If I ever got something that seemed like a genuine warning from Airbnb, I would call them right away and protest. I have proven myself as a host (now a super host) and until if and since it is unlikely Airbnb can ensure people inquiring  are actually reading the key points of a listing (like maximum occupancy) we hosts are going to have to keep fielding these types of questions. 

 

What I did on my listing was put the max occupancy and who my cottage is best suited for in the Summary at the top of the listing. I also say there that the Cottage comes with a 'kitchenette' - not a kitchen. So that helps weed out families of 20 who want gigantic kitchens with stoves. I figure most people at least read the summary, so that may be a tactic you want to consider to help avoid this in future.

You offer some good suggestions on adding restrictions to the summary.  I'm just reluctant because I don't want to seem off-putting to the Airbnb community. However, I keep getting requests to waive my "no pets" policy.  I've also had requests to violate Airbnb rules (such as no third party bookings). Thank you for your idea.

@Brynja0

My strategy for those types of guest INQUIRIES would be a message along the lines of........" I will approve your inquiry with the assumption you clearly understand and accept my listing allows max 12 people. To reiterate, I do not allow groups that exceed 12 people. Also you MUST provide a guest list with full names and ages for all 12 guests including yourself. My listing cannot hold 16 people - there are safety issues and so the limit is 12. This is non-negotiable. I will also assume that if you book with me and you bring more people than allowed or someone not on the list into my listing at any time during your reservation, you agree to the fact and will accept the consequences of contacting ABB to initiate a guest cancellation with no refund. If you decide not to book with me  please let my pre-approval expire. Thanks for your inquiry."