@Eric16
Eric what exactly did you respond to? There are two ways a guest can come to you!
1/. A booking enquiry........On your listing page there is a 'Contact Host' tab. This is what the guest will use if they want to ask you a question about your listing. On your listing email you will receive a 'pre-approve/decline' message. You can decline and that's the end of it, you don't get penalised. You can pre-approve and that gives you message contact with the guest. It does not commit you or the guest to anything and after 24 hours if a reservation request has not been made, the whole thing just drops off the system....end of story!
Some guests will 'message' a dozen hosts in an area before accepting a particular one. All a pre-approval does is tell the prospective guest that, as of that moment, the listing is available. It's a fishing exercise!
2/. A reservation request......If the guest sent you a reservation request, that is different, the guest has paid his money and just wants to stay and you have 24 hours to either accept or decline that reservation request. If you accept, it becomes a confirmed booking, if you decline it does have an affect on your stats.
In either of these scenarios you first have to state your intention.....pre-approve/decline for enquiries......accept/decline for reservations, and once you have done that you can chat all you like through the message stream!
I hope this answers your post!
Cheers....Rob
