Avoided the most difficult guest, but he booked again?!?!?!

1

Hi there, so, long story short, we had our first moment of avoiding a high maintenance, particular guest. We have (well, had) on insantbook, but this guy sent an inquiry asking us some pretty particular questions, some of which were answered in our listing. I stupidly accepted his inquiry, but he didn’t end up booking within the 24 hour period, and he sent two more messages with questions, one of which inquring how often the cleaners come for fresh linens and towels. My husband and I do this to bring in extra income… we are not a hotel, so we don’t have professional cleaners. We were relieved when he didn’t actually book.

Then, the next day he books using instantbook. We are a little concerned after how demanding he had been, but whatever. This morning, he sends yet another message saying he is planning on sticking to his sleep schedule (he is traveling to the US from Africa) and wants to study from 3 am to 7 am in our common area, which is right across from our bedroom. My husband is like “nope, cancel that” so we do and tell him we have concerns about his strict sleep schedule and think he should find some place else that will be better for his particular needs. Like a hotel … or someplace where there aren’t hosts living with him …

well … HE JUST INSTANTBOOKED US AGAIN. So I cancelled yet again and turned off instantbook, but will this hurt us? And what is your opinion about someone who would rebook a reservation with a host after they cancelled?

2

I’d be angry though I realize there may be a language gap. You need to get on the phone ASAP with Airbnb and make sure you don’t get penalized.

I rarely have a problem guest but a couple of times when someone asks a bunch of questions which lead me to think they won’t be a good fit here I answer politely and then block their dates. After a few days I open them back up and they usually get booked. But I’d rather lose out on money than deal with a problem booking. I also have instant book.

And please come back and tell us what happens.

3

That’s a really good idea on blocking the dates! He is actually the third inquiry/booking for that time period so I have no doubt we will get another booking… and my husband said almost the same thing this morning “sometimes it’s just not worth the money.” If it were a short visit we could mange, but this guest wants us to change our entire schedule around him for nearly two weeks. It’s just not a good fit. We turned off instantbook for now, we’ll see how much our listings go down because of it.

4

Maybe turn instant book back on, raise the price a little, put a 5 day limit and/or remove any discounts for weekly bookings, block a couple of the days he wants in the middle or put an outrageously high price for one or two days in the middle. The idea being to put your listing out of his price range while not losing out on all bookings for his period.

1 Like
5

It’s just bad design that any host would have to go through all of those hoops and lose money by blocking off those dates to avoid a bad guest. You should be able to cancel ANY IB guest you are not comfortable with!

5 Likes