What should I do about this 'booking enquiry'?

[Graeme144]

I had a booking enquiry today. The text of the message was:

hello,

I’ve worked with a number of hotels and estates across Ireland, creating short, cinematic videos designed to boost bookings and make listings stand out.

I'm now offering the same boutique-style approach to select Airbnb properties, and your stunning home would film beautifully.

This week only: €550 for a 20–30 second video, professionally edited for Airbnb and social media, including drone footage and stills free if booked by July 10th.
The full shoot takes about 1 to 2 hours, fast, stress-free, and delivered in 48 hours.

I’ve availability between July 7th–10th. Would you like to reserve a slot?

For some example videos, google [sugested search terms].

Best regards,
[name of person]

Clearly the sender is not really enquiring about booking my place, and Airbnb seemed to know this, as the message came with a warning attached saying something along the lines of 'be careful how you respond to this message' (which was a bit too vague to be helpful).

Should I:

1. ignore the message?
2. decline the 'booking' (and might that affect my Superhost status?)?
3. decline the booking and also report the email?
4. do something else?

[Shelley159]

Hi @Graeme144 

While a reservation request is serious and the time you take to accept of decline is important for your statistics, an inquiry is less so. As you mention, declining too many reservation requests counts against you (not for Superhost, but in the ranking of your listings).

For an inquiry, you simply need to respond quickly. You can respond by typing any message - the system will then be happy and there's no need to decline.

In this case - if you want to - you could mention that advertising is not allowed.

Airbnb's Content Policy - Airbnb Help Center

You can also decide whether you want to report the person who posted.

[Patricia2526]

Hi @Graeme144 

it’s best not to ignore inquiries, even if they’re unrelated to bookings. Airbnb tracks our response time and response rate. Ignoring messages can hurt our listing’s visibility.

Keep it polite and brief. You don’t need to engage in conversation.

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Graeme144 

This person is a spammer and it's very bad practice to use a booking platform to try and sell your services.

Personally I would respond with a simple NO and report the person to Airbnb.

[Emilie]

Hi @Graeme144, 

How are you doing?

I'd love to know what you decided to do with this enquiry in the end, and I hope Shelley's, Patricia's and Helen's advice helped you navigate this situation. 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Graeme144]

Hi Emilie,

I declined the inquiry and also reported the email.

As far as I know, nothing came of reporting it, but that's Airbnb's so-called support for you, I guess. 

As far as I can tell, declining the obviously fake request hasn't damaged our Superhost status, but we will see next time they're announced.

Regards,

Graeme.

[Emilie]

Thanks @Graeme144 for the update, and I'm glad to hear everything has gone smoothly since as well ☺️