Is there any way to block a particular guest from using the Instant Book feature on your rental? I enjoy the feature, but have one extremely demanding/needy guest who I’d prefer not to have back.
I don’t know if you can do this without the help of Airbnb…can you ask them to block him or her? Failing that, why don’t you cancel the person next time and send a message saying you think it’s a bad fit. The thing is, we’re allowed to cancel three times without penalty and if you make it clear that you don’t think the arrangement will ever work, the person will hopefully not book with you again. They can’t ding you on a review this way either.
If you really don’t want to be that direct or bold about it, you can pick some aspect of their personality that you know would be bothered by something like dog hair or noise–ie., “oh, I’m sorry to say I got a big hairy dog” or “I hate to tell you, but my neighbour’s son bought a drum kit–I think this place is no longer suitable for you” or “They’ll be replacing underground pipes on my street for the next year, so lots of noise!”
If they do book again, that’s when you can cancel a second time and just be blunt: “I don’t want your business.”
Someone else here might have a better idea.
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I’m reviving this topic as I got an inquiry by people who basically announced in advance that they plan to break my rule about the silence hours (22-07). They do not say it openly, but they put it as “we don’t want to stay with you if we have to be COMPLETELY silent after 22:00”, although it is a common sense that you are allowed to speak and hang out on the terrace at that time, but adjust your volume to the night silence (it is very quiet here and this is our main selling point).
I replied that it is very silent and that any sort of laugh conversation or laughter disturbs the rest of the other guests and neighbours substantially. They replied that they would not be loud, but neither they can be TOTALLY silent, and that if this is the case, “then this is not a perfect place for them to stay”.
I mean, I certainly dislike the passive agressive tone of the messages, as well as the obvious attempt to extort from me some sort of concession to my rules (“of course you can talk until wee hours, just don’t shout”) and later claim they were “speaking in normal tone” or so. I didn’t reply to their message at all and do not intend to, as they are obviously either very dim or manipulative. I don’t need either on my property. But I’m afraid they might instant book in any case. Is there a way to prevent this? Should I still send them a message saying that I think we are definitely not a good match, in order to have it explicitly written in the case I have to involve Airbnb to cancel the reservation?
You are allowed to cancel instant book guests if you are uncomfortable with them.
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Surely your review gave him a thumbs down? If your IB is set to only accept guests who are recommended by other hosts, then he can’t use IB anyway to book your place. Also, assuming that you gave him an honest review, it’s doubtful he’s want to stay with you again.
At which point I would have said that I agreed and wished them luck in finding a place that is better suited to their needs. It’s unlikely that they’d try to use Instant Book if they know they are going somewhere where the host will not tolerate their behaviour.
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One of the strategies I’ve used is to reply nicely then after 1-12 hours I block the date or a date within those they are inquiring about. It looks like it’s booked if they look. Sometimes I’ll unblock, sometimes I’ll just enjoy a night off. It depends on the individual listing.
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This is a reservation for July, so no enjoying some free time for me, most probably. But sounds like a good strategy! I think I’ll do that just in case, leave it closed for a couple of days. I thought it might be rude not to reply to their last message, but they don’t ask any questions, they just continue being passive agressive and frame the discussion in the same terms they did. My husband convinced me into just ignoring the last message. 