Booking enquiry by guest who had bad review

[Dora149]

Hi fellow hosts,

I had a booking enquiry by a guest who had one very negative review with host stating that "the property needed redecorating after the stay".

All other reviews for this guest are however positive. It is impossible to contact the host to request more infos as the property has currently no free dates available.

I am obviously concerned but also tempted as this booking request is for a long-term stay.

What would you do to assuage your fears? In the event of me accepting this booking and it being a negative experience, has anyone dealt with the Airbnb claims process and how did it go? How difficult is it to make a claim and get it settled?

Thank you for your time and advice.

Best Wishes

Dora

[Suzanne302 · Accepted solution]

@Dora149 

I would reach out to the guest with your concerns. Tell him/her that you'd love to host them, but are concerned about the negative review and could they provide more insight as to what happened?

Their response should help you decide. And if they get defensive about the question, that tells you something as well.

Sometimes it's a bad guest who just happens to have gotten good reviews, and sometimes it is a case of a guest and host just not getting along and it doesn't mean the guest is going to be a bad one.

Good luck!

[Emilia42]

I would do exactly as @Suzanne302 suggests.

[Melinda-and-Rick0]

I completely agree with this response. The potential guest was so kind and explanatory in her response that we knew it was a guest/host misunderstanding—and she ended up being a stellar guest.

[Kath9]

@Dora149 or you could message the host directly by clicking on 'contact host'. The guest will only give you his side of the story. Hosts are known for writing positive reviews even when guests don't do the right thing.

[Sarah977]

@Dora149  As @Kath9  said you can message the host  by clicking "contact host". This will be sent to the host as an Inquiry, and you can fill in any dates on an Inquiry, even ones that are unavailable.

And no, it isn't easy to claim for damages if the guest doesn't agree. It's a hassle and and a major time-consumer with no guarantee that you'll be compensated.

[Dora149]

Hi Sarah and Kath - thank you for your input. I tried doing that but it was impossible to message the host without selecting dates and all dates in teh calendar are crossed out so I think the property is currently off the market. The issue sorted itself out now as the guests wanted to bring their toddler and my flat is not suitable for small children. I marked this on the Airbnb listing, yet I keep on getting enquiries from people with children and when I decline their booking requests Airbnb penalises me. Utterly frustrating. I hope to get some other bookings it is nerve warcking going into autumn and winter with potentially no bookings and all the ongoing costs.

[Sarah977]

@Dora149  It sounds like you are unclear on the difference between an Inquiry and a Booking Request. (You should have been able to message the host an Inquiry with any dates whether or not the dates are available. If the listing is active and viewable on the site, the listing isn't off the market).

If you receive a guest Inquiry, and they are asking for things like bringing children, which you don't accept, you can just message them back within 24 hours, without clicking on Decline. A simple return message without pre-approving or declining will not be counted against you, as declines are, so never decline an Inquiry. You can safely ignore the messages from Airbnb prodding you to pre-approve.

A Booking Request is different- you do have to either Accept or Decline within 24 hours. But you can still message the guest before that time is up telling them why you can't accommodate their request and asking them to please withdraw the request so they don't get chraged for it, then have to cancel, and wait for a refund.  

In other words, there are several ways you can avoid having to decline either an Inquiry or a Request.

[Susan151]

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@Sarah977 wrote:

@Dora149  It sounds like you are unclear on the difference between an Inquiry and a Booking Request. (You should have been able to message the host an Inquiry with any dates whether or not the dates are available. If the listing is active and viewable on the site, the listing isn't off the market).

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If this was ever the case, it certainly is not true now. You must select dates in order to send either an inquiry or a request.

[Sarah977]

@Susan151  Reread. I said she should have been able to message an Inquiry with any dates, not without. In my experience, an Inquiry can come in with dates which aren't available, a Booking Request can't. But both require inputting dates.

[Susan151]

@Sarah977 

Nope. I just tried to send you an inquiry for August 27-30, but you can not select any dates that are not available from the calendar-widget. And if I try to send without dates selected, I generate a "date" error message.

Could you test on your side?

[Sarah977]

@Susan151  Oh, I was sure I've received inquiries for dates which are already booked- one woman asked that if the booked guest should for some reason cancel, to be sure to let her know. But yes, I'll try a test on your listing for unavailable dates. It's not like I've never been wrong 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Susan151  Yep, I was totally wrong, my bad. Do you know if that's changed recently, or always been like that?

[Susan151]

@Sarah977  To be honest, I believe that this has been true as long as I have been a host. That would be 2 1/2 years-ish. When I get an inquiry for unavailable dates, the dates generated by AirBNB are days that are available and the body of the inquiry asks for different dates.

Or, there are dates, but it is a cleaner, another host, someone who thinks they can get a percentage of my income.

[Dora149]

I am confused now - it was ME trying to contact a host who gave a guest a bad review. I clicked "contact host" , typed my message and then when I wanted to send it, airbnb prompted me to "select dates" but it was impossible to select dates as all were crossed out on HER calendar.

It does not matter now as i declined the guest's booking enquiry as he has a toddler and my falt is not child-friendly.

Thanks

D