PLEASE, Remove Approve or Decline on Inquiries for Instant Book Spaces, Because...

[Nancy67]

I have instant book on one of my 2 spaces. Yesterday I received an inquiry for the  IB space by a New Community Member. His initial request was for 2 days I had available on the Calendar, however they wanted to add a  3rd, which was not available, and he didnt understand why. I told him we would be happy to host him and his guest, however the 3rd night he was inquiring about was already booked on the calendar. 

I then checked my other space, calendar and directed him to it, informing him that his days were available but the space does require a request, and I would be more than happy to approve it, if he chose that one instead.

At the end of the convo, It was necessary for me to choose, "ACCEPT, DECLINE or SEND SPECIAL OFFER" on the unavailable space.

If the space is Instant book, why is it necessary for me to pick one of the above? In order to be in responce compliance, I HAD to choose one, even though his travel dates were unavailable. This was a same sex couple, which is NOT an issue, however sending a DECLINE (which was appropriate in this case because of current availability issues) might have sent him the wrong message-- especially in the case of a new member of our community. I was shaken, because the responsiblity landed squarely on me, and I didnt want to be accused of being discriminatory or rack up a DECLINE against my response rate. Bad form.

I propse eliminating these link buttons when a property is INSTANT BOOK-- It is redundant & confusining. If they want to book, book. 

It might also be helpful to have a simplified version of inquiry-- I have many potential guests who have questions to make a decision about booking. Sometimes the space isnt (spacially) appropriate, and we both know that after a freindly conversation. Sending an approval is confusing after we both agree its not what they are looking for. By sending a "decline," it can be misread as an insult to the potential guest, and can count against me if I decline too many, not for the wrong reasons, but the right reasons. (Matching a guests own criteria aginst wht I actually, physically provide.) 

Simple fix, Airbnb team.-- Simply responding to the request with the answers sought, should trigger the mandatory Host Response criteria in the algarythem on the platform WITHOUT having to choose a link button, plus the actual language of the response is trackable, in case any (discriminations) violations actually are occuring. I know Airbnb team listens and considers  when proposed ideas receive enough Thumb Up, please, if you agree, lets get this idea to the right places?

Thanks for listening!

[Toni30]

I completely agree with this host as I have had similar situations and do not think hosts should be penalized for having to decline in these situations and those where guests try to change their dates after initial inquiries when the additional dates cannot be accommodated .

[Rachel132]

I have asked Airbnb in the past and they said declines don't count against you. I don't see how it would offend the guests since they are aware there is a conflict or they requested something that didn't actually meet their needs. If you include a comment about why you're declining, I don't see an issue. Is there something that says Airbnb is tracking declined requests and holding it against hosts?

I think the guests should totally understand when you explain the place isn't available on the days they want. In fact they should be the ones to cancel the request. However there have been a few times when I decline and let them know that since I didn't get a solid answer from them I had to decline otherwise it would count against me but they were welcome to resubmit their request once they had a better idea of their plans.

If the guest doesn't understand this, frankly I don't want to deal with them as a guest.

[Nancy67]

Declines are trackable--and yes they do eventually count against hosts, It is because of the new and improved Discrimination Policies- which, I am totally down with.

If a guest doesnt understand, it is most likely a situation where they are new, and not neccessarily because they should be construde as difficult.

[Helen3]

I'm sorry but this is crazy. The majority of guests I decline are because my property isn't suitable and they haven't bothered to read the description

children - no it says not suitable 

pets - no it says I don't take them

three people - not in a property with one bed

one night booking at weekend - no my setting is a minimum of two nights.

Why should I be penalised for declining unsuitable guests

[Andrea9]

@Nancy67

This whole straight jacket of limited options is becoming extremely stressful.

Why don't you put a version of this as real suggestion on Host Voice. I think you have a good chance of getting 20 thumbs up within a week of posting, which will give it the 'popular' status by one of the Airbnb operatives and hopefully put it in the pot for consideration of implementation.

There's less chance of this happening on Community I dare say.

[Lucia152]

Could you provide a link to Host Voice? Thank you!

[Melinda19]

I often do not click those buttons and according to my stats I have a 100% response rate. I think they are tracking how quickly you respond and a typed response counts as much as pressing a button. I'm not certain, but that's what it looks like to me.

[Tania-and-Andrew0]

Replying to a message also counts as part of your response rate. I am sure I read that somewhere a while ago in one of the FAQs, since Airbnb knows some guests just say something like "hi, wanna book" you are in your right to reply and ask more questions, usually the 24:00:00 count-down stops when you reply. Only if it's a booking request you have to either approve or decline. And yes, declining affects your stats. Especially if you don't choose why you're declining or use "other". If I get an inquiry by someone saying something like "I would like to book, please contact me at my number XXXXXXX, where is your house located" I answer them that this is not Airbnb policy and flag them as users trying to chat off Airbnb. Sometimes I get requests with the wrong dates, (ie. the request is for October 7th, and the message says something like "Are you available on January the 3rd?"). 

[Nancy67]

I did respond with a few nice back and forth messages-- however that <expaltive> clock wouldnt stop ticking. It was just staring at me clicking off the seconds to sure doom-- ha! I finally just aproved it. Ridiculas... Isn't this a quick fix to end the maddness? I mean, ABNB is making lots of changes to the website-- some I get, and others just fall into the catagory of "Whaaaat?" BTW the "other" button with all the interesting reasons, options for declining, seems to have gone by the way of the Dodo. <sad face>

[Ange2]

@Melinda19 I don't click them now either.  In the past when I did my listing did suffer, as confirmed by Airbnb, although they said it might be a glitch.  But, a few "message only" responses to inquiries, well within the 24 hour time frame do appear in my  late/no response box, despite Airbnb stating that a "message only" response to an inquiry will not impact response rate.

@Nancy67   Having to click any response buttons for an IB sounds like a glitch, I never saw that the few times I did IB.  On the site it says IB means "not having to wait for the host to respond", so it's crazy to have a button that the host has to respond to! It could be a new Airbnb work in progress, that has yet to progress past confusion.

I did read a post recently where a host received a message to review themself as guest and vice versa!

[Scott80]

You can submit a response without choosing 'approve' or 'decline,' it counts as a response for AirBnB's responsiveness metrics. When I get an inquiry that suggests that the potential guest is potentially not a good fit but I am not sure, I will respond with a message but not click approve. An example of this is when a guest asked if there was one bed in each room. Since my unit is described as a studio it was apparent that the prospective guest did not understand my use of the word 'studio,' so in my response, I said something like the beds are both in the main room of the apartment, it is like a hotel room.

I did not want to approve because it could be interpreted as an affirmative response to his question, but I did not want to decline, because if he was ok with two beds in the main room of the unit he could book.

[Quinn-Martin0]

Completely agree.  Stop asking / pressuring hosts to send a useless message during the booking process when during the conversation, it is apparent that the space is not what the guest is looking for.