Potential guest asked for lower price and then agreed to full price. I'd like to decline

[Maria1595]

Hi! I am a new host and I have a situation which you probably have been in already. Someone sent a request to book in which they asked for a discount. I declined explaining that the rates are not negotiable. They then agreed to the initial price and sent another request.

I feel inclined to decline their request on the basis that 1) I think it's a red flag (them asking for a discount. My prices are not high for the area and season. And there are plenty of cheaper options in that town. So I am projecting that they will be a one hard to please group);

and 2) they want to have a family reunion in my home. It's a 9 people capacity and I feel that they will try to bring  in more people, AND it sounds awful lot like a party and I don't allow parties there. 

The guest has only one albeit positive review, and worded both his messages very politely. 

So my question is basically how do I gracefully decline that second request? 

And I am wondering whether you guys would accept a guest in such circumstances?

Thank you! 

[Emiel1]

Hi @Maria1595 ,

You can decline with reason that you feel uncomfortable with the guest, as you fear parties or more people bringing in then allowed. Probably the answer you made up yourself allready...

Or

You can do some more communication and express your concerns and wait how the guest responds on it.

At least the guest must confirm: no parties and no more then max. amount of people in the house. You could also ask some details about the group. And then you can still decline if you are in doubt. 

Best regards, Emiel

[Andrea9]

@Maria0 Your listing House Rules clearly say 'no events'. If you retroactively allow them, you'd be breaking your own rule. Stand your ground.

[Maria1595]

Thank you, @Emiel1 and @Andrea9

Would it look like I'm trying to make up a million excuses not to host them since I already declined the first time on the basis of the lower price?

I wouldn't want me refusal to look like any kind of discrimination which it is definitely not. 

[Andrea9]

@Maria0, Look at it this way - if a hotel refuses to give a reduction, and then points out a guest is not allowed to do something because it's against hotel rules and policies - would that be discriminating against the guest? No. You are simply not being a push-over and sticking to your pricing policy and house rules.

[Maria1595]

Thank you!! 

[Fred13]

 You declined because they wanted for a discount, as many of us would do. Then they accepted the price, back to normal.

   Then a separate consideration arose, about a 'family reunion' (aka potentially a large group of people) which doesn't make you feel very comfortable. That should be the reason (party possibility) given for not accepting them a second time, if that is how you feel. Meaning, follow your instincts.

[Christopher305]

but now the problem is that in the hosting basics you need to accept 88% or more to meet up with the stander, or your listing could be removed. I had people asking wanting to have regular "audlt evenning" in my house, I have a 13 year old child living in the house, i can't let people to have audlt evening in my house. and people just trying to book in with baby which i clearly stated that no guests under 13 years old.

[Sarah977]

@Christopher305  You can cut down on the potential of having to decline guests by not using IB, if you think that would work for you. And you can message a guest who is asking for things that are clearly outside of your house rules or listing description to point out that you don't offer those options (babies, extra guests, parties, etc) before accepting or declining (just get that happening well before the the 24 hour window) and they will often just decide on their own not to follow through on the booking.

[Christopher305]

@Sarah977 thank you for your message.

I am guessing IB = instance booking.

I don't use instance booking at all, and now that is a basic requirement: accepted reservations it says: your listing could be removed if you consistenly fall below the target, which is 88%. also if you don't accept or decline, won't that count to your reply rate?

what about people trying to book, but they have no review, no profile picture, no profile at all with short message saying: we will be there at 5, I usually decline those one too.

so do guests have to cancel the request before they book other places?

[Sarah977]

@Christopher305  IB is not a basic requirement, at least not yet thank goodness, but does put you farther down in the search listings, and I'm pretty sure some guests don't realize that that they have to turn the IB filter off to see the non-IB listings.

My experience is that guests will just let the booking request expire (they don't have to cancel, as it's not a confirmed booking, it's just a request at that point and they haven't actually paid) if you simply answer in a way that is polite but lets them know that your place is not appropriate to their needs. Then I'll get a message from airbnb saying " XXX no longer needs accomodation for these dates."

I've always managed to message back without accepting or pre-approving well within the 24 hour window and haven't gotten dinged for response rate yet, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen anytime, like even tonite, as airbnb seems to change policies fairly often without notification.

[Christopher305]

@Sarah977 by doing that, they might as well just force to put instance booking on for everybody. I feel like that is a no way out I you feel unconfortable with the booking or your trying to accmodate the current guests that indecated that want to stay longer.

[Sarah977]

@Christopher305  I've never really had those kinds of problems, but am really paying attention to all this, because there is no reason that I might not have the problems in the future.

I pretty much have felt comfortable either pre-approving or accepting most guests after reading their first message, but my listing description seems to filter out a lot of the inappropriate potential guests from the time they start looking for a place. For those I'm unsure of, like I said, a somewhat discouraging, or "more info please" message from me usually results in them withdrawing the request or letting the request expire.

I had a 100% response rate until airbnb text notifications suddenly stopped one day, causing me to miss responding within the 24 hours. That guest ended up booking anyway, once I did reply to her, but airbnb dinged me down to 96% for THEIR glitch. I'm pretty p.o.ed about that.