Responding to Someone Who Gives You Their Contact Info

[Noshin2]

Hi All,

Someone asked about booking my listing and we talked and I pre-approved. They then provided me their contact info to talk outside of the platform. Airbnb said I need to report them and decline the request. Which I did. 

However, for next time, I wanted to ask if I could instead continue to communicate about the booking within the platform and tell the person that I can't contact them outside of Airbnb? Would that be acceptable?

Tia 💐

[Helen3]

People asking to communicate off platform normally do so because they are scammers or want to negotiate a discount and book outside Airbnb.

why would you want to continue to talk to them they will have no intention of booking on the platform @Noshin2 

[Noshin2]

For anyone else looking at this response: the person is from the same cultural background as me and may have felt comfortable reaching out because of that fact. Also, I googled this person and see that they are a professional from another nearby city and their story checks out. This is why I was thinking of continuing the conversation. 

Tons of people inquire on Airbnb and some of them may not be aware of the gravity of providing contact info. In select cases, is it appropriate to re-direct the conversation back to the original purpose of possibly arranging a booking? New and still learning.

Thanks!

[Shelley159]

Hi @Noshin2 

Yes, you can just tell them to keep communication inside the app. However, as @Helen3 has explained, you'll often find that the person never wanted to make a straightforward Airbnb booking anyway. New hosts are unfortunately sometimes targeted by scammers who try to get them to communicate off platform.

If you receive such a request again, pay attention to whether it's an Inquiry or a Request to Book. If it's only an Inquiry, you don't have to decline (declining too often can potentially hurt your status on Airbnb). Just answer the message quickly and you've done your share - the system will not penalise you for not declining an Inquiry. However, if it's a Request to Book, you have to choose between Accept or Decline. In both cases you should react as fast as practical (by sending a message is it's an Inquiry, or by accepting or declining if it's Request to Book) because our response times are recorded on our host profiles.

[Noshin2]

Hi Shelley,

Thanks so much for your reply!  I thought that Airbnb would remove the message thread from my Inbox but it's still there. Since it is a legitimate person (checked him out on Linked In as his name is unusual), I replied back with the message below. 

Hi _____. So I was instructed by Airbnb to decline the inquiry due to providing contact info, which I complied with. Please feel free to reply if you'd like to book this suite!

We'll see what happens.

Thanks again!

[Kumsal1]

@Noshin2 

I usually reply to such inquiries by reminding the guests that communicating off-platform is against Airbnb's terms. I let them know that they can message me through Airbnb for any questions, and I’ll be glad to respond as soon as possible.

Guests who want to communicate outside Airbnb are most likely looking to make a direct reservation with you. However, there's still a small chance that they are new users or that they might be willing to go through Airbnb after trying their luck. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad guests. Guests who only want to book directly with you usually don’t respond, and I only report them when that happens.

[Noshin2]

Hi Kumsal1.

Thanks so much! Yes, so I was wondering if I could actually respond or not. I did send a reply and will wait to see what he says.

[Emilie]

Hi @Noshin2, 

I'm so happy to see that the advice fromHelen, Shelley and Kumsal was already so helpful -a big thank you to you three!

I'd love to know if you hear back from this guest and they go ahead with a booking. Have you heard back yet?

Have a lovely day 🙂

Emilie

[Lorina14]

@Noshin2 

If the person asks to communicate off platform, I gently redirect them saying it is against Airbnb terms and conditions to do so and I can answer any questions here on the app/platform. Most scammers will stop responding then. If they were a newbie and didn’t know they will continue the conversation. 

Airbnb wants to make sure hosts are safe and also protect themselves against off booking requests as some people have posted online how to get around service fees. While some hosts may agree to this, the problem is if you are booking off platform from inquiry on Airbnb one is breaking the terms and conditions and could get delisted, if there is an issue with the booking you have no support from Airbnb, etc. 

I do respond to all inquiries. I don’t however accept or decline bookings all the time (I do most of the time but I do have instant booking on so there is no need to in my situation) depending on the circumstance. I have not had my response rate go down if I didn’t accept or decline as I did respond to the inquiry. 

I do know many hosts after securing a booking communicate via WhatsApp in Europe as they say people are more responsive there but they do have similar info in the messaging on the platform. It’s just sometimes guests don’t check the messages for important check in or parking info.