Help clarify - is it ok to decline a booking request?

[Jennifer1351]

I got a booking request last night with a person new to Airbnb. She just sent a quick message. "Hello! Can't wait to spend nights at your place with two of my really good friends. See you soon!"  She had four guests on the request, but said it was for her and two friends. I wanted a little clarification before I welcome people into my home for a couple days.

I messaged back asking if there were three or four people and also I said kindly "if you don't mind, what brings you to (my town)." I also thanked her, etc.

But she didn't get back to me. So is it okay if I decline a booking request? I thought it was bad to decline a booking request or decline anything. I did respond with a message. But now the booking request expired after 24 hours and I get email from Airbnb telling me it will hurt my placement in searches since I didn't respond/accept or decline  in 24 hours. I did respond with a message and thought we shouldn't decline?

Can someone help clarify this. And if this actually does hurt my search placement is there anything I can do to help that?

Thanks, this can be really stressful sometimes.

[Jennifer1351]

Thank you @Yadira22 , I hope you are well also. That's a bit encouraging that you saw it. I couldn't find it myself. I will have to spend time on my listing doing whatever I can now. Updating, etc. At least now I am clear on this situation. 

[Martha366]

Hi, first time on here....

I've been hosting since August of 2016. Lately, I've had to decline more inquiries than I've been able to accept. All of the declinations were due to the guest who clearly did not read the house rules. One wanted to bring 3 adults and 2 children to a small private room that is suitable for 2. Another wanted to bring a pet.  One only set up their profile with the name "P," with no reviews, no ID....Defintiely a no.

I know that over time declines can negatively affect your listing placement. I did notice that on one of the declines I was able to tell Airbnb why I declined, but I've only seen that on one of these recently.

Does anyone have any insight or suggestions? I added a guest limit to my house rules and raised the extra guest price to deter anyone from bringing more people...

Anything else I can do? I don't want to turn off Instant Book because I get a lot of travelers who wait til the last minute.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

I regularly recieve enquiries from potential guests asking "Can I bring my small coochy dog who doesn't  malt and is house trained?" My house rules state "No pets". I don't 'Decline' and I don't obviously 'Accept' I simply respond appropriately.  Is this instance of enquiring to break house rules exempt of penalty or are 'booking enquires' different from 'enquiries'?

Under these circumstances penalising a 'Decline' would be encouraging the breaking of house rules. That surely cannot be the case?!

[Emilia42]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

For an inquiry, you do not need to pre-approve or decline. Sending a message to the guest to answer questions counts as a response. A request to book must be approved or declined or it will hurt your standings. In this case the guest has firm dates and selected a payment. They only need an "accept" from you to confirm the reservation. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Understanding-Response-Rate-and-Acceptance-Rate/b...

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Emilia42 Thanks for the clarification and the link.

[Matthew530]

l thank you all for all of your helpful information in this thread. I am a newbie to hosting (literally been doing this a month).  However, I am still a bit confused about this decline a request thing.     

At 4:00 this morning, I got a booking request from a guy who said he had been driving all night and had no sleep and was exhausted and could he check in immediately.  This guy had no guest reviews, no other guest info except an email address and phone number and signed up for AirBNB in April 2019.  When I read the email this morning at 9:00, I declined his request and sent him an email saying the room was not available and that I could not accommodate his immediate request.  AirBNB asked me for a reason for my decline and I explained that I was uncomfortable with this request and gave my reasons (above).   Will this decline hurt my booking status or rating?  

[Jeff158]

@Matthew530  one decline won't do any harm but if you do a bunch of them airbnb will switch off your instant booking for a few weeks.

[Matthew530]

Thanks @Jeff158 !

[Rich-and-Yan0]

Matthew, this is something that I am trying to figure out as well. But as I explained above, I had to decline four people yesterday who had not provided government ID or had the "Recommendations from Other Hosts" that we required of all of our guests. Some of them were young people who had provided nothing but an email address--and one even said they were "looking to have a good time."

Anyway, today the interest in our place totally dried up, and when we went on a separate computer to check where our listing, it seems that we had dropped down quite a few places since only yesterday. So if this is really the case and if what other hosts are saying is true, then it seems that you can't decline potential guests, even if you have proper cause.

Does anyone else have another take on this?

[Kelly144]

I'm getting SO many requests from unsuitable profiles lately. The platform is changing rapidly it seems. I have less than two months to go with hosting so I'm really not all that fussed if my acceptance rating takes a beating in that short time. I have taken to just saying something like "Sorry I don't accept bookings from non verified users, please could you withdraw your request?" Or "Sorry I am only accepting those users wtih positive prior reviews, please could you withdraw your request?" If they don't (~ 90% success rate) then I decline. 

[Rich-and-Yan0]

That seems like a good strategy, Kelly. Have you had success with it? Do they usually withdraw the request when you ask them? This would be really useful to know.