The old wisdom about not needing to Pre-Approve or Decline Inquiries has changed

The old wisdom about not needing to Pre-Approve or Decline Inquiries has changed

In the past, for new hosts who were worried about maintaining their Response Rate,

experienced hosts told these new hosts that a host did not need to either Pre-Approve or Decline an simple Inquiry (as opposed to a Reservation Request).

In the past merely sending any sort of message back to the guest was enough to fulfill your obligation regarding Inquiries.

 

This has now changed.

 

Sometime recently, AirBnb modified its policies so now hosts DO have to either Pre-Approve or Decline Inquiries to maintin their Response Rate.

The new policy is outlined here:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/430/what-is-response-rate-and-how-is-it-calculated

 

I have contacted Host support to specifically ask about the policy change, and they did verify that the currently active policy is different than it was in the past.

 

So the new advice is this: hosts DO have to either Pre-Approve or Decline Inquiries within 24 hours to maintain their Response Rate.

(Just like they have to with actual Booking Requests.)

 

 

85 Replies 85
Oomesh-Kumarsingh0
Level 10
Pamplemousses, Mauritius

@Matthew285 It would also be great if Airbnb could prevent unverified guests or guests without any display picture of themselves from sending inquiries or booking requests.I have recently received many inquiries from guests who did not have any photo none of which has replied or bookafter i send them the preapproval and a message replying to their inquiry.Airbnb work with me not against me!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Matthew285 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Cor3  @Kelly @Fred @David @Marit Anne  @Ria @Marzena and anyone else I may have missed out!

 

I prefer not to make a defintive comment on this any more!

I have worked in support and I have seen at least five changes in the wind direction as far as this topic is concerned over the past two years and each time I made definitive comments it has come back to bite me in the butt!

Originally, from my own experience, the only way l could stop that response clock from ticking was to either pre-approve or decline the enquiry, up front...before you did anything else. Then about a year ago that changed, all I had to do was make a statement related to the enquiry. Each time I gave out information to other users based on my experience, and the precious little 'updated' information that happened to filter down to us hosts or support personnel!

I have been made a goose of too often Matt....my own feeling....absolutely nothing to do with the company is, make a committment, either pre-approve an enquiry or decline it....you can then chat away to your hearts content knowing that you have at least satisfied the systems requirements!

 

All I can tell you that I think will stand up, once you give a guest a pre-approval they have an automatic right to book and do not need to meet any further hosting requirements!

Years ago it still stated that the guest still needed to satisfy your hosting requirements in order to book but, I can't seem to find any evidencve of that any more!

 

Cheers......Rob

 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

   I know, from here onward,  I will be taking a most 'radical' direction, by today's new standards. I will continue to use the 'Reply' button till is no longer available. My main objective is to not get guests that do not fit in the first place or people I do not want to host by virtue of their unpleasant nature; life is too short.

   Let their Response Rate do what it wants to, so can the rest of my stats, titles, badges and trophies for that matter.

 

(Disclaimer: I got up quite huffy this morning for some unexplanable reason, despite the fact it is a gorgeous day, bright sunshine and a calm sea. 😉

@Fred13 I have made the same decision. I have been hosting for 10 months - Having great success - sold out every month so far, and appreciated making Super Host early on, and have truly appreciated Airbnb, the services they provide, and the mostly wonderful guests that have been brought to my property's door. But I have worked for myself for 12 years now and I don't like this feeling I am getting that I am being slowly and intentionally inoculated (like a frog placed in cold then eventually boiling water) into a system designed to make me a 'slave to the (corporate) Machine' - and my beautiful Cottage into a hotel (it's not, nor am I a hotel manager). I'm going to continue to run my home sharing / vacation rental business as I always have, and let the chips fall where they may, the devil be damned.

 

 

@Rebecca181 Golden words!

I feel like we have this policy hashed out like twice a year.  Based on the figures in my dashboard and my behavior in achieving them: 

 

Response RATE: Is determined by the amount of time it takes a host to act in some way on a new reservation request or inquiry.  This action must be within 24 hours.  Acceptable actions (to stop the 24 hour clock) are different based on if it is a request or an inquiry.  

Acceptable responses for an inquiry:  (1) reply to guest, (2) pre-approve guest (this is a conditional approval), (3) decline

Acceptable responses for request: (1) approve, (2) send special offer (this is an approval), (3) decline

 

A pre-approval for an inquiry will be subject to any auto-conditions you have regarding guest booking.  SO if you require that the guest be verified, they will need to be verified before they can accept.  If you require that a guest have positive reviews before booking, they cannot send you a REQUEST, which is why you are receiving an inquiry.  If you pre-approve a guest and require a review, you are OVERRIDING your own requirement.  

 

Declines only count against you when you decline a reservation REQUEST, not an inquiry.  

 

Response TIME - is what appears to have changed.  Now it appears to include all new incoming emails, not just the first one.  This means, if you are quick to respond to that first inquiry, cool, but if you blow off all other subsequent emails, that can affect your response time.  I'm not 100% clear if that only then applies to booked guests or if it applies to all email. So if someone inquires, you respond within 24 hours, and they write back "thank you" and you do nothing more since you are not required to accept or decline, is that affecting response time? It doesn't appear that's the case so it may only apply to booked reservations - or it's completely misleading as written.  

 

Frankly, it's about high time that a Visio Flow diagram is absolutely needed for this policy.  It's ridiculous that we can never get this sorted out with any authority.  

An15
Level 2
Sri Lanka

@Matthew285My query is does the host has to decline when the booking inquiry is changed by the booker. This might affect the host's reservations acceptance percentage.

I keep getting messages to select pre-approve or decline for a particular booking inquiry although I had replied to guest twice and had not received a respond from guest. My message to the booker was to arrange profile details for idnetification in order to proceed with the booking. As I did not see any photo in the profile.

My calendar was blocked for 3days for the booking inquiry

Isnt it that if the guest has changed her mind to find another place, that she/he need to withdraw the reservation immediately so that the hosts calendar dates should be opened for other bookings.

It is a very concerning point. 

@An15 first of all, I would recommend NOT blocking dates for Inquiries.

If someone else books the dates a person Inquired about, that is just the way things go.

You can tell the person sending the Inquiry that you are NOT blocking the dates, and that if they want them they need to be aware that those dates are available for booking by other people.

Whoever makes a confirmed booking first gets the room.

(This has the benefit of motivating the person to act faster.)

 

Regarding missing profile information:

If the guest does not provide the profile information you requested, then Decline the Inquiry. I know it feels bad to do so, but the penalty for Declining an Inquiry is almost non-existent. However if you Pre-approve the person, they make a booking, and you later have to Cancel the confirmed reservation because of some issue that was not discussed, then that IS a big deal.

 

Declining Inquiries really only affects you if you do it a lot, and more than your competing listings.

 

@Matthew285 I thought under the new policies we were going to get 'dinged' every time we declined, and for whatever reason. A Super Host just shared tonight elsewhere she has been hosting 'since forever' and just got a warning about her decline rate - first one ever - and she is only doing what she has always done; not accepting people who would be violating her house rules, max occupancy, etc - people who are not an appropriate fit, and / or who did not read her listing and are ill suited for her home. So why did she get that warning all of a sudden if we can decline all we like?

@Rebecca181 I am not sure why the SuperHost is experiencing what she is. It could have something to do with the new "Basic Requirements" thing. That includes an "Accepted Reservation" requirement of 88%. Isn't that new?

 

Earlier, I was just talking about Inquiries (not Booking Requests), and I am not even sure AirBnB tracks your ratio of Pre-Approve/Decline for mere Inquiries.

Wherever AirBnB talks about not Declining too much, they always use the word "Request" as in "We find that a large majority of our hosts are able to accept most booking requests, and our best Request-to-Book hosts accept almost all of them."

They don't say anything about whether they track your rate of Declining Inquiries, one way or the other. I should be careful myself in differentiating the two. I should also try to find out if any AirBnB person knows if they track Declines for mere Inquiries.

 

Cor3
Level 10
Langerak, South Holland, Netherlands

For now, I would be very careful about using the decline button in an inquiry.

Before you know it, it will bite you in the back 😞

Because, when your "Acceptance Rate" will show up, it will be based on your actions from the past.

As any decline is what it is: a decline.

When I get a future inquiry, that does not suit me. I will certainly be in touch with Airbnb. And just hope I get someone knowledgeable on the other side of the line. For now, a simple reply should still suffice.

@Matthew285 I was told by Airbnb that they don't track inquiry declines, but with all the new changes going on that seem to make obtaining / maintaining Super Host status more difficult, who really knows? So if you find anything out for sure and could take me here with what you know, I'd appreciate it. Based on what is in their website at this time, we would not get dinged for declines on inquiries. Maybe that Super Host I mentioned went under 88%.

Yes Mathew,  Thank you

Lilian20
Level 10
Argelès-sur-Mer, France

Good to know

Cor3
Level 10
Langerak, South Holland, Netherlands

Hi @Matthew285,

 

I've been replying recently to a number of inquiries (even today), without touching any of the other buttons. And every time I refreshed the page afterwards. The clock was gone!

Response rate still at 100%, So is the accepted bookings rate.

So as far as (at least our region of the globe) is concerned, the old wisdom still does seem to apply.

 

It could obviously also be, for accommodations in ‘plus’-cities. That other rules may apply nowadays.