Yesterday I got a notification for a booking. Today the guest is claiming that his account got "hacked".

[Yannis21]

If someone has hacked your account is asking "where is the parking" as a first message?

Looks like someone has changed his mind and wants to avoid cancellation fees. Let me know what you think as hosts guys.

[Emilia42]

@Yannis21 I would bet that this guest simply wanted to ask you a question. But then incorrectly "Requested to Book" instead of inquiring. And when you accepted his booking he was shocked to see that his credit card was actually charged and the booking was confirmed. 

I am very confused as to why someone would submit a question with their credit card information attached but nonetheless, we hear about these booking errors all the time. 

[Colleen253]

@Yannis21 Guest booked for only one, also. Sounds like an inept guest who doesn't know how to read a listing or submit a booking or question. Unfortunate and frustrating for you, but regardless, the booking is far out, and the guest will get to cancel with refund anyway, under the grace period, so the hacking thing is irrelevant. Have they actually managed to figure out how to cancel? Give them a quick tutorial, so they can get it done asap. 

[Yannis21]

Yes I hit the accept button as soon as I see an inquiry to keep my respond time to the shortest. As soon as I replied to the guest that there is nothing I can do he immediately proceeded with a cancellation. That was a weird encounter, never happened to me again. Problem is that this looks like a guest cancellation so I don't know if it affect the Superhost status as a "cancellation".

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Yannis21 If it is a guest cancellation it will not affect your super host stats. 

[Emilia42]

@Yannis21 

I hit the accept button as soon as I see an inquiry to keep my response time to the shortest.

If you reply with text that will count as a response so no need to accept the booking immediately. For these "Requests" you will need to accept or decline in 24 hours but that gives you some time to start a conversation with the guest. In which case you can ask them to withdraw the request to prevent a confirmed booking and a guest cancelation. 

[Sarah977]

@Yannis21  "Yes I hit the accept button as soon as I see an inquiry to keep my respond time to the shortest."

Whether you respond in 15 minutes or within 23 hours is no difference in terms of your response rate stat. You don't get extra points for responding quickly. 

And the whole point of inquiries and requests as opposed to IB is that you have a chance to communicate with the guest, check out their reviews, etc, before deciding whether to accept or not. There's no need to rush to click on accept.