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Got an inquiry today. Guest just joined, no verified ID, blank profile.
Sends a message that he’d like to book my place, how far is it to the beach? Sends another message a minute later to say, oh, he just saw that I say in the ad that it’s a 20 minute walk to the beach. That he definitely wants to book.
I reply, within minutes. Thank him for his inquiry, tell him I see he has a new account with no reviews, no profile info, and nothing indicated that he has submitted to Airbnb except a phone number.
I politely tell him to please submit his ID to Airbnb, say a bit about himself in his profile, and make sure he has uploaded a profile photo of himself, as that is one of my requirements. That as soon as he does all that, I can approve his booking. I also assure him that hosts don’t have access to the ID he submits to Airbnb, we just see that it is on file.
I also ask him if he is aware that my listing is for one guest only.
It’s now 6 hours later, I’ve received no response, and nothing has changed on his profile.
I’m sure he doesn’t have his notifications turned on, and thinks he now has a reservation.
He will learn - if he really didn’t realize what’s going on… If it’s one of those flakey people that just send messages and assume the world revolves around them you’re better off without this reservation.
We had a similar situation of a guest who was inactive on Airbnb for like 3 years and at the time didn’t provide an ID to Airbnb. They tried to book our place and sent an inquiry thinking it’s enough to book and kept sending us chat messages trying to confirm the booking LOL.
They did get notifications from Airbnb to complete their profile (ID) but obviously didn’t understand what they need to do. They ended up retracting their booking request twice making themselves look like a troll as it was always blocking our calendar.
I reached out to CS and expressed my concern that this person seems to be totally clueless how this works or they are a troll. Airbnb ended up calling them on the phone and walking them through the ID verification process. They booked and stayed without incident.
I thought about doing that, but it’s really not worth my time. He still hasn’t replied and the inquiry expires in 3 hours. He really didn’t sound like a troll- his message, while quite brief, was friendly, complimented my listing, and indicated he definitely wanted to book. He’s just clueless. He’ll either figure it out or not. He probably won’t even see that his inquiry has expired if he doesn’t have his notifications turned on. I just hope he doesn’t show up at my gate on the check-in date he entered. (Actually he couldn’t do that- he won’t get an address or map until a booking is confirmed)
I have at least one enquiry a week like this 'Hi, I love the look of your place, can you tell me how far away from [major nearby landmark] is it, after being informed that it’s less than five minutes walk away, that’s all you get until it times out. In fact so much so that I know that people who ask this question won’t book.
Yes, those types of inquiries are common. I certainly never bank on an inquirer booking. But what he actually said, after saying he had just found the info he asked me, was “I will definitely book”. I don’t think that was a promise he didn’t follow through on- I think he thinks I would just go ahead and approve his inquiry and he’d have a reservation. We shall see.
I honestly don’t care if he books or not. His dates were in the middle of a 2 week break between my current guest’s check-out date and the next booking. I’m really busy with a lot of other stuff right now, and wouldn’t mind the break. I just feel kinda sorry for well-meaning newbies who really don’t get how the platform works.
I no longer approve people, I just tell them OK to go ahead and book. Because I need to go back and audit a nightly breakdown of which night made what price, if you pre-approve a multi night stay, you no longer get that option to expand ‘show breakdowns’ under those reservations to give you a price paid per night summary, you just get the total figure that you pre-approved the booking for.
I never change my nightly price, so that’s not an issue for me. I have several times pre-approved an inquiry and they have gone on to book. As long as the guest has good reviews and a completed profile, has sent a nice message and hasn’t asked a clueless question, I’ve never seen any reason not to pre-approve, as there’s nothing time-consuming about clicking a button, and a pre-approved inquiry doesn’t block my calendar. It also means I don’t have to go back and then accept a subsequent request they might send.
I have had both types of newbies… One who sent an inquiry, later asked me the address on the day of check-in. I had no space for her that day, so just told her that she does not have a booking.
One who booked and later wanted to cancel because he thought he had just sent an inquiry.
We just had a “newbie inquiry” that was probably a scammer, (from a large Asian country). Each note they sent got progressively less realistic (AI) and finally, they requested I whatsapp them, with # supplied which caused Airbnbn to flag it. At that point I wrote them that I don’t use Whatsapp, and that I only contact guests via phone after Air receives all money from them. That shut them up pretty well. Another flag can be and that it was lucrative booking inquiry.
Or multiple times in the chat even though I politely asked them to enter that review in the actual feedback section - only to have the same text posted in the chat, again
Some people need to be led by the hand every step of the way.
“Hi XX, thank you for saying such nice things about your stay here, but this will not appear on our listing as a review.
If you look on the left hand side of the Inbox page, you will see “Write a review” in the Inbox list of your Airbnb conversations with us. Click on that “Write a review” and it will lead you to the actual review form.”
(Actually he couldn’t do that- he won’t get an address or map until a booking is confirmed)