Response rate

Response rate

Hi all. We're new to hosting and are over the moon that we already have 5 bookings for December. We have replied to all enquiries well within 24hrs, BUT this morning our response rate has suddenly dropped from 100% to 91%. We're puzzled and a bit upset by it. What is happening?

20 Replies 20
Melodie-And-John0
Level 10
Munnsville, NY

@Charles1116  Its good to hear your December is looking busy, If you don't see a missed request in your inbox, seems like a  helpline call is in order, actually even use the message system so your not on hold.  Good luck, JR

@Melodie-And-John0 Thanks so much for replying. There's definitely no missed request in my inbox. What is the helpline telephone number, or where do I find it? Charles

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Charles1116 

Charles, you are not the first one to report this aberration to your response rate here on the CC today.

It looks like those whiz-kid programmers are tinkering with the platform program once again.

Charles, don't worry about it, you will find you are miraculously back to 100% within a couple of days.

 

There appears to be absolutely no such thing as 'cause and effect' to Airbnb where programming is concerned, they just keep on writing these changes into the platform without any form of cross checking and they expect the flack they receive to  iron out where the problems are. 

I have a guest who cannot leave a review at the moment! They had a great stay and wanted to reflect that in the review. They were offered the opportunity to write a review but each time they get to Submit they get hit with the 404 Icecream girl......bloody far out!

Keep your chin up Charles, the programming department is a complete bloody shambles and each day we are faced with more of their incompetent 'wizardry'!

Sit tight and in a few days your response rate will be back where it should be!

 

Cheers........Rob

@Robin4 That's a big relief of sorts, I just couldn't work it out! It sounds like you have plenty of experience of this kind of thing so thanks for sharing it. Charles

I couldn’t agree with you more! The programming department is something’s ng for sure! What’s going on w the inbox as of late? We have a split screen now?

Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

Mine dropped this week as well, @Charles1116 , after eight years at 100%.

I've had a lot of inquiries lately where they enter a far-in-the-future date they don't want in order to ask whether they can come now even though my calendar says they can't. I always answer them immediately, but wondered whether I hit some sort of inquiry limit. Or maybe now we have to pre-approve them for the date they don't want? 

Or I thought it might be all the "awaiting verification" people in the inbox. I didn't think I had to initiate conversation with those folks (and I have no intention of doing it no matter how many percentage points I lose).

Also, weirdly, I have a "reach out" from Airbnb from last night asking whether I am having an issues with my current guest. I hadn't replied, because the message hit my guest (rather than my host) inbox, with no notification, and didn't show up until I stumbled upon it this morning, too late to answer. Case closed, even though there was no case.  I hadn't contacted Airbnb at all. 

But now I'm suspicious of my poor guest.

Anyway, you never know. The rules keep changing, but also, as @Robin4 , points out, glitches keep glitching.

I'm not going to ask about it until I get warnings to pull up my socks.

@Robin4  Thank you, because like @Lawrene0 I suddenly had a 92% response rate, down from 100, and as I couldn't find any unanswered inquiries, I thought I had answered someone late sometime this year or that the three inquiries sitting on my dashboard (and answered) were somehow counting against me...

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Ann72 

Hi ya Ann, this is not only being reported on this site, there appears to many hosts involved and it would be too much of a coincidence that so many competent hosts, many of them Superhosts would overlook something as basic as 'Response rate'!

It hasn't happened to me yet so I have screenshot my current status and will keep an eye on it each day. Here is my current status for the year. Putting it here gives me independent evidence of time and date ......

Superhost stats e.png

And today I have had one booking and an enquiry both of which I have responded to!

*

Ann, If a guest sends you an enquiry......a question, or any kind of message other than a reservation request......via Contact Host, you will have to respond to the enquiry within 24 hours to maintain your response rate. That's all you have to do.....Respond.

If the guest sends you a reservation request, you’ll need to accept or decline within 24 hours to maintain your response rate.

Where it gets a bit blurred is when someone wants to send you a message but, puts it in the form of an enquiry for a specific date. They will tell you it is not actually a reservation enquiry, they just want to know how Boris the cat is travelling.....but it comes as an enquiry. In that situation you can't just tell them Boris got bitten by a snake and leave it at that........ you need to Pre-approve or Decline their enquiry to satisfy that response stats bot, and declining comes with its own set of issues. So best to just pre-approve, have your chat and let it drop off the radar after 24 hours.

Once you have established that no more contact is required you can then go to your dashboard and dismiss the enquiry to stop being pestered with response emails.

 

Ann, have a great festive season possum, hope we can catch up in a zoom some time!

 

Cheers........Rob

 

@Charles1116  @Christine615  @Elliott50  @Lawrene0 

Sorry,  , I don't understand what you're saying here. All Inquiries have dates filled in- it isn't possible to send a inquiry without filling in dates. I've gotten inquiries like you mention- someone just wanting to get in touch and didn't know how else to reach me. I just answer, I don't pre-approve, and it's never affected my response rate. 

Since all Inquiries have dates attached, whether they are actually looking for a booking or not, the bot doesn't know the dif between a real inquiry or one that's just sent to chat with you.

 

Where did you get this idea, which as far as I'm aware isn't correct? 

@Robin4

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Sarah977 

Yes you are right Sarah, but many enquiries will come through an existing message stream where dates and a response are not required as far as stats are concerned.

 

On all new enquiries response time is measured, and if the Pre-approve/decline options are offered you should accept one or the other. If you don't and simply answer the question, you can do it but, you will notice the countdown clock continues to run from the time of the enquiry and you will continue to receive enquiry response emails! Ultimately your response stats will be affected.

Where requests are concerned you must respond within 24 hours with an accept or decline or your response stats will take a hit! 

 

Cheers.......Rob

@Robin4  No, all inquiries are equal, because as @Sarah977 says, all inquiries come with dates.  You can't message a host without putting in a date.  The only reason inquiries still sit on one's dashboard after being answered is because there is no longer an option to dismiss them from the dashboard once they've been answered.  They only go away after the date passes.  It's maddening!

@Robin4  Oh, I see what you mean about an inquiry with no dates.  It would be an inquiry from someone who has stayed or inquired in the past, right?  I see that but don't think that anything more than a quick response is needed even for those.

 

In the meantime, I wish they would bring back the "You've already answered this - dismiss from dashboard" option because now these inquiries just sit there like lemons - and I can't even make lemonade with them!

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Lawrene0

 

I've just had an 'Awaiting Verification/ Checkpoint" with a new user who IB tonight just after I'd updated my listing.

I was concerned they may not be able to go ahead with confirmation of their booking due to my cut off for booking time so in my wisdom phoned Customer Services who advised me to tell my Guests to reply & complete their Verification process so they could go ahead with the booking. Hmmm, I explained as Hosts we don't so much as have phone contact details for new users at that stage to contact them.

 

Customer Services said they are unable to phone or msg them to confirm Verification which I thought was a little strange bearing in mind the Guest indicated they would be arriving btwn 8-10pm.

 

CS also said Verification of details stays until they are verified, or a period of 12 hours from time of booking and then they said 12 hours from Check-in time.

It appears the left hand may not know what the right hand is doing.

Meanwhile the Guest hasn't msgd, nor have I had any confirmation for their 3 day Instant  booking.

Let's see if my calendar will automatically update so someone else can book.

 

It also helps perhaps explain why I had so many random blocked dates with no msgs sent on to me throughout the year which I didn't find out about until after the fact.

They seemed to coincide with when I've updated photos on my listing.

 

Bots or people not been genuine perhaps who are up to unlawful activities maybe blocking off others calendars??

 

Have you checked to see if those awaiting Verification subsequently booked or stayed somewhere else who were new users without Reviews?
Maybe it's something we all need to be more vigilant with in light of the fact some have to much time on their hands and may see messing up people's calendars and blocking dates is a fun thing to do when it's not fun to be on the receiving end of.

 

@Charles1116 @Nikolai12 @Ann72 @Robin4 @Sarah977 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

"I always answer them immediately, but wondered whether I hit some sort of inquiry limit. Or maybe now we have to pre-approve them for the date they don't want? "

 

I don't think so, because some hosts who are seeing their response rate steadily going down have said they've answered every guest message on time. Also they say that their response rate is showing correctly on the listing itself, just not in their Basic or Superhost stats.

 

So check how it appears on your listing- if it's still at 100% there, then it's just the glitch, not due to anything you've done or not done.

@Lawrene0