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. 

[Clay29]

Thank you for your reply. I had heard Airbnb results saying bookings were down. It could be affecting me but at least half my guests who come in from out of town are staying with me because they have family close by. Even they went missing.

[Guy991 · Accepted solution]

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.

[Clay29]

I did not know that either but I suspect at the very least declining like this drops you in the search rankings, at least for a while. This is why I noticed and thought to ask. Of the three times it's happened, booking were going along smoothly, dropped for a couple of weeks and then picked up again. The support rep I spoke to said it did not but I suspect the algorithm does ding you. The funny thing is, after having declined, I invariably get a suspicious activity email from Airbnb basically warning me not to commit fraud. What? I reported it.

[Zheng49]

@Clay29 I always make sure to fulfill the 'respond to inquiry/request' within the specified amount of time (usually instantly).

I don't decline requests unless I have to; usually I get the guest to decline so it won't be counted against me.

I also don't see any reason to decline an inquiry, so I never do so. I just ignore the guest if needed (after fulfilling the quota/initial reply) which is basically as good as declining. 

A neat trick that I sometimes use to get them to stop messaging me. I block off a day or two in their requested dates, and then I tell them that 'Sorry, the dates that you have requested are no longer available.' That basically always works. 

[Clay29]

Thank you. That is a good idea.

[Elisa]

Hi everybody 😊

Thank you very much for your replies, they have been very helpful! 😍 @Guy991 @Zheng49 @Karen114 

@Clay29 I hope you’ve found some good suggestions. Let us know what you think of the situation now! 

Warm regards 🌻,

[Clay29]

Yes, thank you.