Penalized for refusing booking inquiry

[Yutaka7]

We recently refused some inquiry and our basic requirement performance went down below 88% (level required for Airbnb host). Airbnb only gives hosts 24 hours to respond to the inquiry either pre-approve or decline. We think that it is unfair to penalize a host when a guest's inquiry is not meeting rules of either Airbnb or Host, despite delining of the inquiry.

Examples we experienced and responded with declines are below: 

(1) An inquiry was about a guest who wanted to bring a pet. Our house rules clearly specifiy that we don't accept pet.

(2) An inquiry was about a guest wanting to book our listing, however, the guest profile had no information whatsoever (no photo, no description, no reviews, no government issued ID). 

(3) An inquiry was about a guest who wanted to book for someone else (a third-party booking).

We are confident that other hosts had similar experiences and noticed basic requirement performance goes down. Complaining to Airbnb did not work, and they told us just send a feedback. Is this something Airbnb hosts had nothing else to do, and we just have to ignore and move on?

[Sarah977]

So yesterday I got an Inquiry- it wasn't actually someone wanting to book- it was someone I know who had lost my phone number and wanted to get in touch with me about something else, which was fine with me.

Anyway, I just responded without clicking pre-approve or decline. The message I now have on my account re this Inquiry is "You've already responded to this guest. Help them plan by pre-approving or declining." 

That would indicate to me that just a simple message back counts as a "response". We'll see if my response rate goes down when the 24 hour clock runs out in a few hours.

[Catie13]

As a Superhost we work very hard to keep our status as you do. We are experiencing the same issues. When I called Air B& B I was told she has heard this complaint many times. So she gave me an email to send my request/complaint to the technical department which I have done. No response has been sent back to us. We ask for government ID, yet so many people try to book with just an email as their verification and when I respond by explaining the situation Letting them know if they give their information to AirB&B then may then instant book and nothing happens then it expires in 24 hours. Our complaint with all of this, is why did they think they could “ instant book” in the first place and why are we taking the penalty AND if AirB&B knows it is a problem why are they not fixing it ?

We had a fellow asking if we would book a long term rental ( we specify 4 days maximum stay) and he had only given AirB&B his email. How is this happening ?

it is no wonder the odd listing is having problems.

[Bex9]

I know this is an old conversation, but still causing me grief. If you don’t respond ..your response rate goes down and if you decline your listing goes into a black hole. It is very frustrating. 

[Sarah977]

@Bex9  If you are referring to an Inquiry, as opposed to a Booking Request, you don't need to either pre-approve nor decline. Just answer within 24 hours and your response rate won't be affected.

[Janet331]

I had the same problem and only just now noticed this 'ding' (I hadn't seen it previously, but was just updating my listing). I had declined some previous bookings as they did not meet our high season minimum of 2 nights (as in description), however we are flexible for last minute bookings if we have one night available and also like to be able to work with some guests for one night if 2 nights are impossible - basically, I'm trying to be a great host! My issue is that if I answer, that my nights show as blocked. How long does this 'block' stay on my calendar?

[Dave1074]

With INQURIES, you are merely required to RESPOND within 24 hours.  

You do not have to accept or decline.  At all.  Just "Type something and hit send", within 24 hours.  That is your Response Rate. 

That's it.  You can literally write back, "Thank you for your inquiry" and nothing else.  Then, the clock is not ticking and you can go back and forth as you see fit.