I’ve read elsewhere, but am not sure I completely understand the strategy of letting a request expire in order to decline a guest and not get penalized by ABB. If you ignore a request and let it expire, does your calendar block the dates or are you able to entertain other requests? Thank you.
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As long as you respond to the initial enquiry promptly, it doesn’t really matter what happens next. If you ignore an enquiry completely, then it drops your response rate stats.
The dates are only blocked if you select that option.
JF
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First understand there is a difference between a request and an inquiry. An inquiry you can answer the question given and then ignore. The “request” must either be accepted or denied, if denied give a true answer, such as it doesn’t fit the guests needs.
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Ahhh… yes you are right! I answered totally at cross purposes.
When I think about it, we have a choice of pre approve, or decline, for enquiries and, as you mentioned, accept or decline for requests.
Being on IB we don’t get many requests, those we do usually from first timers.
JF
Aces. Thanks for the great reply, John.
Cindy, I’ve declined guests this year and ABB paused me for 5 days. What is the strategy if you’re sent a REQUEST that you don’t want to accept but don’t want to get penalized for please?
Why are you declining requests?
There’s no way to ignore a request to book. You hit accept or decline w/in 24 hours or the system will block those dates on your calendar.
The only “out” is asking the guest to withdraw their request, but they’re under no obligation to do so.
If anyone is unclear on the status types, this is helpful. A RTB requires action. An inquiry does not, etc.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/363/what-does-each-reservation-status-mean
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My listings are in my home, so I don’t accept everyone. Some folks that say they’re here for a wedding and want to party…some folks say that the husband is 6’7 (my bed is 6’ long) , some folks request for 2 adults and then say that their 2 friends are coming but are okay sleeping on the floor…almost no one withdraws upon my request…they frequently jump ship and book elsewhere, leaving me to decline the request.
Thanks, Allison. Are any of the “reasons for declining” less apt to punish us than others?
I don’t know.
It’s been a while since I declined, so I’m not sure I even recall the reasons.
Air knows from their market research that guests get super frustrated when their requests are declined multiple times. (I know I do. So many hosts are unresponsive or do a crap job of updating their calendars.) So I doubt they even remove “legit” reasons from their analysis - it would just incentivize hosts to pick “rule breaking” if they know that’s what allows them a penalty-free decline.
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You may want to be less selective. Guests don’t like be declined, so airbnb is trying to avoid extraneous declines. If you accurately described the accommodations I don’t know why you would care about a guests height. In hundreds of hostings I don’t recall ever knowing or caring how tall a guest is.
If a guest says her husband is 6’7" tall, she expects accommodation for a very tall man. You can message her back, and be straightforward, but she might well book anyway because of price or location and mark you down later.
People ask for all kinds of things when they request. It may be a major imposition. It may be impossible. That is why I decline. It’s not a question of discomfort, it’s just not possible. I explain this in detail.
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OP is trying to not decline as often as her listing was deactivated for a period of time due to declines.
I’ve had that comment maybe 3 times. I do care that someone is unhappy, even if it’s their fault that they didn’t read the listing : )
Thanks, Mandi: but how do you avoid getting paused? As I said, I had 3 declines and got paused for 5 days and warned by ABB.
House rules. You need house rules that say what you don’t want. If you say no parties, no guests not on the reservation, and set the maximum number of guests, including children and infants, and they send a request to book that violates your rules, you can decline because they want to violate your rules. This is much easier when you are offering shared spaces because you are allowed to have rules such as no children (if space is not childproofed or there are other child hazards), no pets.
So when have those house rules, you can decline 3 without penalty. After that you will have to call Air Customer Disservice to have them cancel without penalty because folks want to violate your rules. Some folks worry that having explicit rules will discourage bookings. My feeling is that I don’t want to share space with thoughtless selfish people who will cost me money and extra time when they violate my rules.
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I am not sure why and how Air puts you on hold. But right now I am having a fire sale because of the guest who gave me a one star review. I try to negotiate common ground with the impending guest, but if there is no way, I decline with a full and detailed explanation. Anyone reviewing how the decline happened can see there was no way to work it out.
But they rarely happen one after the other, either, as I have 2 active listings.
I would suspect you get a lot of requests for over the limit numbers of people. A crafty host will send a special offer taking in to account the extra people, and your extra costs in accommodating them. You have done your duty, and odds are they won’t respond.
You sly fox you 
That is the cruncher though. You all signed up to ABB and know the strictures within which you have to operate, “crafty” hosts do that, but make sure that they have an edge. A little bit like operating a casino.
JF
If you stay true to what I said, there’s actually nothing dishonest about it (she pouted). Picton is a beautiful area. Guest hypothetically wants 3 over capacity. That means more beds, more bedding, adequate linens, yada yada. To provide for the arrivistes, you may well need another room or even another cottage. They were kinda hoping to sleep on the floor, but you can’t imagine making your home inhospitable…