What are we complaining about today folks? I'll start...

[Donald28]

... ok, so I am still baffled that a potential guest CANNOT simply ask a host a question without making a reservation request that the host must then decline or accept. 

All requests I receive now, I have to actually respond & ask the person if they really want to stay with 1 guest on that date OR are they just asking a question? 

It's such a waste of time. 

[Anonymous]

@Donald28  It was so nice back when sending a Request meant committing to a binding transaction. That made it easy to know who was serious. Now Pandora's box is open, and a confirmed booking is just a vague notion of something that may or may not happen.

[Sarah977]

@Donald28  I'm baffled that as an experienced host you don't seem to realize that a guest can ask a question without you having to either accept or decline. They do that by sending an Inquiry, rather than a Booking Request. They still need to input dates, which is dumb, but an Inquiry doesn't require that you click on pre-approve or decline, all you have to do is message back within the 24 hour window.

If your guests are using Requests, rather than Inquiries to ask questions, you could ask them to withdraw the request, so they won't be charged, and to resubmit their questions via an Inquiry (The Contact Host" button just below your listing description).

[Anonymous]

Could be wrong here, but I assumed Donald already knew the difference between Request and Inquiry. But now that Airbnb has added loophole after loophole for cancellations, it's no longer a meaningful distinction.

[Donald28]

If I get an inquiry or a request, they BOTH have dates & number of guests involved & airbnb gives me the option to either decline or accept. To me, both request and inquiry look exactly the same. 

Are you saying that there's a way to differentiate between the 2 and ONLY the request has to be declined or accepted? I can just let an inquiry hang out in my inbox forever (with a RED TAG prompting me to accept or decline) without penatly? If yes, then why in the heck does airbnb even add the decline or accept buttons in an INQUIRY?!

It's confusing as hell honestly. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Donald28   When you get an INQUIRY (that's where the guest clicks "Contact Host") the options are "Pre-Approve" or "Decline."  You're not required to do either - you only need to respond. There is no Accept button in an inquiry.

With a REQUEST, the options are "Accept" or "Decline." You are required to take one of those actions within 24 hours. This is all made very explicit in your notifications.

[Sarah977]

@Donald28  Yes, both the Inquiry and the Booking Request will have dates input, but the number of guests on an Inquiry may not be correct (although I know that guests often fail to even input the correct number of guests on a Request) because all they are doing is asking questions, not actually booking.

They look different in that one says Inquiry at the top and one says Booking Request, plus the distinctions Andrew mentioned in regard to our options.

You don't just let the inquiry hang out in your inbox forever- you do have to message the guest back within 24 hours. But nothing untoward happens if you ignore the pre-approve and decline buttons. Airbnb would like you to think otherwise, since they want hosts to accept every booking, and you'll get prodding messages to pre-approve, but you can safely ignore those. As long as you have messaged the guest back, after 24 hours the Inquiry will expire, and if you clear your cache, the annoying messages from Airbnb will disappear.