I've only been a host for 3 days so bear with me. I searched but didn't turn up satisfactory results, but I am not familiar with all of the terminology, so again, bear with me.
Twice I have had the case where there was an inquiry in progress with one guest and another guest used instant booking to reserve overlapping dates, making the inquiry "not possible". I understand first-come first-served, so I have no problem with the system behaving this way, but I would like a better understanding of what happens, if for nothing else than to be able to communicate to the disappointed guest.
In the first case, the inquiry came in, we conversed, then I pre-approved which stopped my 24-hour response counter. The guest continued making travel plans but didn't book immediately. A few hours later, another guest used instant book to make a reservation over same time period, making the inquiry not possible and adding the "Decline" and "Send Special Offer" buttons. The guest was confused, and both I and the guest I found conflicting information indicating that the pre-approval holds the dates for the inquiry and that it doesn't. It apparently doesn't, but I don't see the message that the guest received about pre-approval and he thought that he had until 24hrs from the original inquiry to complete his reservation.
In the second case, the inquiry came in asking for a very large discount to which I replied no and also asked if the guest still wanted to make a reservation at the regular rate (the guest never responded and after researching their reviews, I would have declined). While waiting for the guest's response, another guest instant-booked an overlapping reservation, changing the inquiry to not possible, stopping my 24-hour countdown, and again leaving the buttons for "Decline" or "Send Special Offer". However, the inquiry was still on my dashboard the next morning with "0% Response" by it. I didn't want a ding because of no/late response, so I thought the simple solution would be for me to decline because the dates were unavailable due to a conflict with a confirmed booking. There is an option to decline because the dates are no longer available, but it says that choosing this option will block the dates for the inquiry, which is not what I want because the instant booking was only a partial overlap. I selected "Other" and wrote in that the dates were reserved by another guest through intant booking. This also immediately removed the inquiry from my dashboard.
These are my questions:
1. Regarding the pre-approval, are guests clearly notified that it doesn't hold their dates?
2. When an inquiry is not possible, why even bother with having the "Decline" button?
3. If there is a need for the "Decline" in this circumstance, why isn't there a selection that indicates "overlap with a confirmed booking" (which the system is already aware of, going back to question #2)?
4. Why did Airbnb show "0% response" for this inquiry after I responded and after it was not possible?