Spam booking inquiries

[Amanda1440]

Hello fellow hosts. I’ve recently started receiving spam inquiries where the “guest” is asking to communicate through WhatsApp. I’ve insisted that all communication be done through the Airbnb app and have reported each one but just this morning I received 7!! It’s too much. I’m wasting my time replying so it doesn’t impact my response rate but this is ridiculous. 
Any suggestions or is this happening to others???

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Amanda1440  Yes, many hosts have reported receiving tons of these scam inquiries. Aside from reporting them, I'd just create a saved message so it can be sent without writing individual replies. " I don't communicate with guests outside of the Airbnb messaging platform" or something like that. If it's one of those spammer inquiries, where they are saying they have a plan where they'll book (usually in broken English with bad punctuation) but not stay and you'll split the money, that's a known scam and you could make a reply for that like " Go away, scammer."

[Roy604]

I have the same problem today. 6 enquiries today so far. I contacted Airbnb and they said that I should tell them that I won’t accept bookings outside of the Airbnb platform. To me this is not a solution. The requests keep coming through. 

[Paul6624]

I agree. I think the solution is for Airbnb to pre-qualify new members. Otherwise hosts will just list elsewhere.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

And don't forget - If its just an inquiry you don't need to accept or decline it which also protects your stats.

[Tulin1]

I have been having the same problem, I had 8 inquiries the other day asking me to get in touch with them through whatsap. Than when I declined the inquiries I have received an email from Airbnb telling me that they will close my account because I keep on declining the inquiries 😞

[Sarah977]

@Tulin1  There is no reason to decline Inquiries. Inquiries only require that you send some message back within 24 hours. You do not need to either pre-approve or decline an Inquiry.

A Booking Request is different- you need to accept or decline within 24 hours.

[Tulin1]

Thank you very much Sarah for your response. This was helpfull 🙂

[Rhonda45]

The inquiry stays inmessages forever.