Does anyone else feel extremely hard done by due to Air BnB's new policy of penalising hosts when prospective guests fail to provide sufficient information on which to be able to accept or decline a reservation request?
As a 'superhost' I am very much on top of responding to enquiries (even those from people with no intention of booking just asking about things like where I got the wallpaper in my drawing room!).
I am not a commercial AirBnB-er; I offer up my home on an occasional basis. This means that in order to accept an enquiry I need too consider arrangements for myself, my family and my dog. It also means that I reserve the right to consider the individual making an enquiry and how they intend to use my home. I thought that was the whole point of AirBnB.
Yesterday I responded to an enquiry, well within the 24 hour window asking for further info - the individual had no reviews, had only just joined Air BnB and their enquiry simply stated 'business'. Rather than a flat decline I offered the opportunity for the potential guest to provide information on which I could consider her request.
I am as much a customer of Air BnB as a potential guest - they make money out of both of us and promote themselves as a 'community'.
Yet they opt to penalise their source of revenue undermining the very principles on which we, the 'AirBnB Community' operate, further they threaten further sanctions if I stray again - no mention of penalties for guests who are rude enough to provide no information in the first instance nor respond to a very polite and reasonable enquiry from a prospective host.
Just me or wholly unfair?
And of course all compounded by the fact that making contact with thme to query or challenge is virtually impossible.