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.

[Kath9]

@Jennifer1351, yes, it is OK to decline requests (although it can affect your superhost status if you decline too many times - if I have guests send a request and then decide not to book themselves, I always ask them to cancel the request from their end). You are much better off to decline than to let the request expire.

[Jennifer1351]

Thanks @Kath9 I guess it will hurt my search placement. I can't find my listing where I've seen it before. I guess a booking request is different from an inquiry. I thought all I had to do is respond with a message. I should have posted this yesterday. If I call Airbnb I wonder if they could do anything - probably not. I wonder how long it will  take for my search placement to get back to a better place. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Jennifer1351 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/VIDEO-Inquiry-vs-Request-What-s-the-Difference/m-p/76965...

[Jennifer1351]

Thank you @Jessica-and-Henry0  for the link.

[Sarah977]

@Jennifer1351  Not Accepting or Declining a Booking Request within 24 hours will affect your Response rate. That's more important than an occasional decline.

On Inquiries, yes, it's different. Responding to an Inquiry within 24 hours is all that's needed unless you want to pre-approve or decline it.

In the future, if you have things to work out with the guest that prevents you from approving or declining a request to book, you could ask the guest to cancel the request (I'm assuming there's some place for them to do this) which should open up the dates, then you could manually block the dates so no one else could book while you finish working things out with the guest through an Inquiry, then they could put in another request after you open the dates.

I wish there were somewhere we could click that explained why we hadn't yet approved or declined in these situations- then all Airbnb would have to do is look at the message stream to verify that we are indeed communicating with the guest and that things aren't settled yet.

[Jennifer1351]

Thank you @Sarah977 for all the information. Thats good to be aware of. Also I think some people new to Airbnb assume they can automatically book and they don't understand making a booking request and communicating with hosts. It can be awkward because you don't want to offend people (asking for verifications or more information). But I should have just communicated more thoroughly with the person to clarify.  And I should have posted this yesterday so I was clear. Somehow I thought it was the same as an inquiry, where I kept seeing here not to decline. Hopefully I can work on getting my search placement better again. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Jennifer1351 

FYI, when I get those types of booking requests, what I usually do is..... I bombard them with really long and detailed messages about my house rules, what information is missing from the message they sent me, and the fact that I only accept under the condition that all my rules will be followed and respected, no exceptions. I tell guests, once the booking is confirmed they have 48 hrs to cancel if they decide they cannot meet my expectations and requirements, and prior to accepting the booking request, I will give them 2hrs to withdraw the request to book to make things simple for both of us. I warn them that once I accept, and the guest realizes we are not a good match, the guest will have to go thru the pain of contacting Airbnb to get the booking cancelled, and it will take a several days, up to a week, for the guest to actually get the money back and if they miss the 48hr deadline, Airbnb won't refund their own fees. I also explain that since hosts are penalized for declining requests, even when it's clear that the guest has NOT read the listing description and intends to break clearly stated house rules, we have no choice but to accept first, then get it cancelled later, penalty free for the host because it's the guest's fault for not reading before booking. I acknowledge this is a pain for everyone, especially the guest since their money is tied up, but this is how Airbnb is set up and how host performance is measured so we don't have a choice. Therefore if guests don't want the hassle of all of this, to withdraw the request NOW, read my description and house rules thoroughly, and if they STILL want to stay, to send me an INQUIRY, not a booking request. 

By this time...... I think most problematic guests are scared to stay with me and are quick to withdraw their booking request 🙂 

[Jennifer1351]

Wow @Jessica-and-Henry0 you really have figured out what works for you with Airbnb. That's helpful to see what you are doing. I am going to spend some time looking at your listing. Looks like some really helpful info just briefly taking a look. Thanks for all the information and sharing that - I'll have to consider doing something more like that because I get frustrated with these type of booking requests. And stressed out just hoping the guest will be okay, and I'll just accept. It's too much unnecessary stress. 

[Jim472]

That's a really good idea, any chance of you PMing me with your templates? Go figure I woke up today and again was placed into the impossible situation of either Declining or Accepting. Taking a hit on my acceptance rating or getting someone who I don't want.

[Jennifer1351]

Really discouraging. I can't find my listing at all. Even when I put 4 guests and i can't find it. Any way to help recitify this ?

[Ava30]

Hi @Jennifer1351 ,  I found it right on the front page also when searching for 4 guests, in the Stay With a Superhost section. So you are coming up in the searches. No worries all this unpleasantness will pass pretty quickly.

[Jennifer1351]

Thanks @Ava30 for checking! I appreciate you taking the time to do that. I am getting bookings so hopefully it didn't affect it too much. All this unpleasantness....good description. 🙂

[Rich-and-Yan0]

Jennifer, the same thing happened to us. We just opened our listing yesterday and I had government ID and the new "Recommendations from Other Hosts" requirements as prerequisites to book. But suddenly I was getting all of these booking requests from people who had neither of those requirements. A couple of them even stated that they were groups of  young people "looking to have a good time."

So I wrote them nice, polite explanations telling them why I couldn't accept their requests. Then I declined them, at which point I was prompted to write Airbnb a note explaining why, and then write one final note to the guests. I did so politely and efficiently, and I thought that I'd done things the right way.

Well, today the booking interest dried up completely, and I wasn't sure why. So I went on to Airbnb on my other computer, the one on which I've never logged in to the site, to search the general area. Suddenly we had dropped way, way down on the algorithm. Whereas yesterday we were fairly visible for a first day listing (hence all of the interest), today I actually had to go looking specifically to find our listing. 

So yes, it seems that if you decline people, even if you are within your rights, you lose out. This is a lesson I have just learned the hard way. 

[Yadira22 · Accepted solution]

@Jennifer1351 

Hope you are well.

just did a quick search and found you on the first page when specifying 4 guests. If you want to boost your listing position spend some time on the listing itself. Once a week we spend about 15 mins on the listing doing spell checks, updating rules- nothing major and this boosts our positioning. Something in particular we have noticed was an increase in this when updating booking settings- just an FYI! 🙂