Request response time

[Ellen97]

I am out of the country part of the winter every year. My listing is adjusted for that, making the whole house available instead of the suite. I have a house sitter/manager while I’m gone. I need more than 24 hours to get the information to her to give her approval before I approve the request. Is there a way to ask Airbnb to extend the 24 hours during that time in order not to lose ratings?

[Ben551]

Hi @Ellen97 - I think I can help you with this.

I'm not aware of any means of asking Airbnb to relax their platform rules, so I recommend focusing on a way that you can reply within an hour, using automated response tools (like many of us do).  There are a number of tools out there that allow you to programme a pre-prepared automated response to any enquiry or reservation request. 

The reason this would help you is because your response rate is driven from your first response, not the time it takes you to come back with more detail.  So, as long as your automated response says something... anything at all.... you will maintain a perfect response rating.  This is true even if it's just a simple "Hey, I received your message and I'll look into it right away and get back to you."

I use Superhosttools and my automated first response goes like this:

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Hi {{Guest Name}},

Thanks for enquiring about the Pāua Cottage!

I just wanted to let you know that I received your message and will respond as soon as I can.  If you have any questions, please feel free to fire them on over and I'll come back to you with everything as soon as possible. 

Speak to you soon!

~ Ben

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Even though the automated message hasn't answered any questions, it has bought me time.  It is programmed to send within 5 minutes of receiving an enquiry or reservation request.  So even if I'm asleep, I maintain that "responds within an hour" tag under my profile.

I highly recommend setting this up to take care of the worry!

[Ellen97]

Thank you Ben. I did send a personal message within an hour (even thought I’m in a completely different time zone). I thought that the time was marked by my actual pre-approval or decline, not by the start of a conversations with the guest. I will try the timed response as insurance that I respond in time.