Report and Decline Scam Inquiry Penalty?

[Clay29]

Hi,

I know the rule to answer an inquiry and never decline it, but Airbnb has a relatively new option (at least to me) to report and decline and request. Does it cause your visibility to drop if you choose the "report and decline" option ?

Invariably,  I've been getting weekly scam requests with obtuse questions like "are all your fees in your nightly rate." This stuff wastes time so when they hit the inevitable point of asking me to contact them outside of Airbnb, I use this option to get out of having to respond to them again. Since starting that though, I have noticed my bookings have dropped. Anyone else use this and seen that?

Thanks,

Clay

[Elisa]

Hi @Clay29 😊

Did you manage to find the information you were looking for elsewhere?

I’m tagging our Hosts who might be able to help and offer some good advice:

@Guy991 , @Karen114 , @Greystone0 , and @Joan2709 😍

Thank you in advance, everyone!

Warm regard🌻,

[Karen114]

Hi @Clay29  Bookings for me have fallen off a cliff.  I hear that is the general consensus all around the country.  I am in many industry groups and the topic comes up daily and most reportng the same.  So probably not anything to do with reporting the bad actors. 

[Guy991]

Hello @Clay29 , @Elisa ,

Absolutely!
The same thing happened to me today—an inquiry quickly escalated to asking to move the conversation to WhatsApp.
Airbnb flagged the word “WhatsApp” and paused the chat, offering me two options: continue the chat and reply, or decline and report.
I chose to decline and report, but little did I know that this would be counted as my decline.
My suggestion is to never press the “report and decline” button again. Just move the chat to the archive and forget about it, or it will be considered as though you canceled the conversation.
I’m very disappointed—I thought I was doing the right thing by reporting spam, but ended up being penalized instead.