When do you send a pre-approval?

Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

When do you send a pre-approval?

I had a situation today that made me wonder when other people are sending pre-approvals to potential guests. 

 

We had an inquiry for a week booking in April: they asked some questions about the layout of the flat. I answered their questions, and they seemed fine, so I said if you'd like to book with us, we'd be happy to have you as our guest, encouraged them to contact us if there were other questions,  and sent them a pre-approval. I've done this before numerous times: sometimes people proceed with the booking, and sometimes they don't. In this case, I recieved a notification about an hour later that the person had completed their booking. So far, so normal. 

 

About 20 minutes later, I received an angry, somewhat aggressive message from the guest because "we" had charged their credit card and they asked how to cancel. I said that there is a cancellation button on the reservation, but I would recommend calling Airbnb to explain the situation to avoid paying the service fee (apparently Airbnb is no longer offering the 48-hour penalty-free cancellations? I didn't know that until today). They ignored my instructions and went ahead an cancelled by themselves. They then proceeded to message me a few more times saying how unfair the situation was and demanding that I should refund them. I just explained that all billing is dealt with by Airbnb and we had no ability to charge their credit card without their authority, or to refund the service fee. Most of the messages focused on how unfair we were for pre-approving them when they had just asked a question. I don't feel like I did a bad thing: other hosts have done the same for me when I'm a guest, and if the answer doesn't work, I just say thanks and don't book. 

 

So when do you send pre-approvals: only when your potential guest has specifically asked for one,  or do you send it and leave it for the guest to make their mind up?

24 Replies 24
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Alexandra316

Alex, as you know a pre-approval does not commit the guest to anything, it is simply a statement that if they want to proceed to a booking you are willing to have them.

Obviously these characters went on to book thinking that it was like a hotel and they would whip out their credit card when they arrived at the reception desk on check-in.

The interesting thing for me is that Airbnb have removed that 48 hour penalty free cancellation window!

 

They have also removed the 'Report this profile' link from the head of the profile and buried at the end.

They have ceased to list an accurate user joining date and settled instead on simply giving a year.

They are openly discriminating by giving prospective guests hosts photos but precluding hosts from seeing prospective guests photos!

 

This company are at a blindingly fast rate tying up the platform in knots which are doing nothing more than antagonising both hosts and guests. Hosts are loosing the ability do anything other than accept guests as annonimous packages. Guests are loosing the safety of a penalty free cancellation regardless of circumstances.

This company is becoming openly hostile to its very source of income.....and I am really starting to wonder why!

 

Totally off topic, we Australians are an incredibly strange bunch. We are more patriotic about our country than any other nationality. Aussies travel but never seriously ever want to live anywhere other than Australia. We have a national day...Australia Day, which is a declared public holiday and is celebrated on the 26th of January each year.....except this year!!

The 26th January this year happened to fall on a Saturday, a public holiday........ so guess what. This year, today (the 28th January) has been declared, and is being celebrated as.... the Australia Day public holiday! We never miss a trick when it comes to giving ourselves a holiday!

 

And I am off to get that Australia day dinner underway that we host for the street each year, busy day ahead for me!

 

Cheers.....Rob

Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

@Robin4Yeah, I thought the removal of the 48-hour window was odd too. I was suprised. I really wish that they would tell us when they make these changes. I've suggested it to guest previously as a get out of jail free card when they have some issue with a reservation (it doesn't come up frequently, but it has come up). I absolutely do not agree with removing the ability to see the profile photos until after the rereservation is complete. I understand their concerns with the profile photo - that people are discriminating based on race/age, primarily, I would think - but I don't think it's fair that one side can see it but the other can't. I also have a real issue with the promotion of professional hosts with hundreds of properties by not charging their guests the booking fee. I don't think it's fair to smaller hosts - the people who helped to build Airbnb. 

 

Happy Australia Day to you Rob: hope you enjoy your holiday. We have Canada Day here as well, which is on July 1st. Long wait for that one for us, unfortunately!

 

 

 

@Alexandra316, Wait - are you saying that not every host doesn't get charged the 3% Airbnb service fee?  When did this happen?  So not fair to the rest of us!

 

Those people sound massively annoying and you're better off without them!

 

I had someone book recently and then instantly regret it - he didn't realize my house wasn't in Bar Harbor, thanks to Airbnb's interesting perception of geography.  I said cancel, and if you have any problems, tell Airbnb to call me and I'll tell them to give you a full refund.  It did take him more than 48 hours to decide - for which thanks, dude, for blocking my calendar while you dithered - and then he did cancel, but if he got slammed for the fee I didn't hear about it, thankfully.  

@Ann72 I think that the host probably still gets charged a service fee (not sure, because you can't tell that by looking at the listings), but their guests don't, which seems like a massive competitive advantage since the service feed adds 12%+ to the reservation price.

 

Yes, in retrospect it's definitely better not to host them.

 

Hopefully he just figured out on his own that it was his mistake, or took it up privately with Airbnb without involving you.

@Alexandra316 Thanks for clarifying.  I think it's a move on Airbnb's part in the direction of having the entire 15% taken out of the host's share.  It's possible those larger places are paying the entire 15%, thus offering a more attractive price to guests than we can.

 

It rankles me that the fee is calculated on the total including the cleaning fee.  My cleaning fee is a pass-through, meaning it goes straight to my housekeeper after the deposit lands in my bank.  If they move to a 15% host fee, that would mean that a $175 cleaning fee would be just under $150 collected.

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

@Alexandra

These guests obviously confirmed the reservation on their own. People are so strange now a days. Let me enter my credit card info into the Internet, confirm my purchase, and than act all dumbfounded when I get charged? Hmmm..

@Robin4, wait a minute - the 48 free cancellation window is gone?!

@Emilia42Oh they definitely did it themselves.... the reaction was really bizarre. It's been like a month since I made a reservation as a guest, but I seem to remember being fairly well apprised that I was making a purchase and money was being taken when I made a booking. I know there are a bunch of changes, but surely it's still pretty clear... I hope?

 

Yeah, it looks like the 48 hour window is gone, because they had to pay the penalty. That's one of the reasons my guest was so angry about the situation. 

@Alexandra316  I would just have explained to the guest that when a host gets an Inquiry, they have a choice whether to simply answer the message, Pre-Approve it, or Decline it and that when hosts are willing to accept the guest, that they will always pre-approve it. And that as far as you're aware, the guest has to continue on their end to actually book it after the pre-approval, $ isn't supposed to be charged simply on the basis of a pre-approval by the host. And that they need to call Airbnb to find out what happened- Airbnb has their money, not you. 

These guests sound pretty clueless, so I wouldn't automatically assume that the 48 hour window has been eliminated- maybe they didn't read the information on the booking correctly.

@Sarah977Money definitely wasn't taken at pre-approval, no: it was taken when they accepted my pre-approval, which they then tried to blame me for because I "shouldn't have pre-approved them". She's right about that second part, for sure. I told them that their course of action should be calling Airbnb, which I'm assuming they did, as I haven't seen any more angry messages in an hour or so. 

 

I previewed my listing, and there is no longer the advertizement regarding the 48-hour penalty free cancellation. They specifically said they were charged for the cancellation and quoted the amount, so I'm asssuming it's no longer there. 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Emilia42

It appears that the 48 hour penalty free cancellation window has now disappeared from the help guides. I don't know exactly when, it was there one month ago......

https://www.airbnb.com.au/help/article/311/do-i-get-a-full-refund-if-i-cancel?q=Refunds

The whole 'blowing their trumpet' paragraph gone!

 

Is there some reason why you would not tell your hosts, the company cancellation policy (which is such a big deal for guests) has changed?

 

Cheers.....Rob

 

Edit, I am toning down my comments, I would like to get some action, but I don't want that action to be my 'delisting' for criticizing the company unduly

@Robin4Thanks for confirming, Rob... you learn something new every day! Wish Airbnb would just tell us though rather than letting us find out via broken telephone. 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Robin4 Well, if it's indeed gone, that just tells me that Airbnb saw too many guests cancelling and them having to refund the service charges. So even though they bend over backwards to back up bad guests and fail to remove lying reviews, when it comes to their piggy bank, the pandering to guests suddenly goes by the wayside.

I also see a suspicious link between them offering that option for hosts to pay all service fees and eliminating the 48 hour waiving of service fees on cancellations. So if a host were to go for that option of paying the whole shot, if a guest cancels now, the host would be liable for the service fee even if the guest cancels an hour after making the booking.

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

I think the 48 hour cancellation window is still there. But @Alexandra316 maybe this guest booked two reservations with the same dates and then had to cancel this stay at yours so the service fees wouldn't be refunded. Or maybe they have already canceled more then 3 times this year. Just a guess?? 


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@Emilia42Yeah not sure there, because it still isn't listed when I do a pretend reservation, and they used to call it from the rooftops when you booked.