Pre-approved reservation goes wrong as a guest

Emilio11
Level 2
Panama, Panama

Pre-approved reservation goes wrong as a guest

Some weeks ago we were quite busy trying to find an AirBnB in Barcelona and because it was a popular destination for summer prices were going up fast and choices going down fast, not good when you have a budget.

 

For our first choice -now we are glad we found something much better- the host was not responding fast enough because of the 7 hour difference. When we finally got a pre-approved reservation four our 3 night stay we opened it as soon as we could (time difference) but to our surprise even though it was PRE-APPROVED the listing was now showing NOT AVAILABLE.

 

How can the place not be available within hours when you ALREADY been pre-approved??? when I looked into the listing calendar I noticed that the host had already committed (after pre-approving and PRIOR to the offer expiration) one of the three nights to another guest (ALL were available at the time of the booking).

 

We were not happy at all, got no responses from the property owner and no responses from AirBnB regarding the anomaly. Luckily after a few hours we managed to find another listing, slightly more expensive but much better.

 

Personally I think that once you are pre-approved the host should not be able to re-book part of your pre-approved stay to another guest UNLESS the pre-approval has expired. In our case it has not expired as we tried within 8 hours of the pre-approval (time zone differences).

4 Replies 4
Andrew90
Level 10
New York, NY

There can be multiple pre-approvals and its on a first accept bassis.

The element I find frustrating is that a booking request (where guest provided payment details) will automatically cancel any and all pre-approvals. As a host this means I might potentially loose a guest who I has beed communicating with and reached an agreement via messaging)

As a guest, after losing my preferred place in Edinburgh for the festival, what I know do is pick my preferred place and submit a booking request knowing this will push me to front of the queue and not let anyone else offer until host accepts or cancels.

Note : Never has a host cancel yet. Probably something to don't with the way I start my request. "Fellow Airbnb host vacationing with my family. ... "
Andrew - see community help guides for many great FAQ
Allison2
Level 10
Traverse City, MI

I can see how frustrating this would be from the guest's perspective.

 

From the host's perspective, I might get several inquiries about the same dates (or overlapping dates, in some cases) - everyone seems like good people, and I'd be happy with any of them staying in my home, so they each get a pre-approval.

 

Guests use this as a way to see what their options are without having their $ locked into a single reservation request (where the host has 24 hrs to respond). Maybe one of the people I pre-approved will book, but maybe none of them do. It would be unfair for other guests (and the host) to have a calendar blocked off on the chance a pre-approved person *might* reserve. What if they send inquiries to 10 hosts in a town? That's half the hosts in my town. That's an awful lot of calendars held up, and artificially removes options for other guests who are trying to find accomodations.

 

I've had extensive conversations with people who never end up booking, despite their intention to do so "tonight", "tomorrow", "in a couple days" - until somebody has enough interest to put their money down, it's silly to hold dates for anyone. If you're very serious about a place, send through a reservation, not an inquiry.

 

A reservation request will override any pre-approvals that are already in place. The host would have to decline "a bird in hand" in the hopes that one of their pre-approvals was serious enough to actually book.

 

Perhaps there is a better solution than what they're currently doing, but holding dates for a pre-approval wouldn't be one of them in my book.

 

Gerry-And-Rashid0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Look at it from a host's perspective - it's a busy time, you get lots of people enquiring but you know that many of them are also looking at other properties. You pre-approve those you are comfortable with and then it's first come first served. It means you should be really quick off the mark if you see a place and want to book it. 

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

@Emilio11, if memory serves it used to block the dates for 24 hours. Annoying if you are trying to fill the space as a host, good for the guest as you can take your time waiting for other hosts to respond. As a guest, you should be made aware that it only means the host is committing to accept, should you make the reservation whilst still available. Perhaps if Air changed the pre-approve to not being 24 hours? After all, since it doesn't hold the reservation there is no need for a time limit. It just means ''Yup, I am fine with you staying.''