Is there a way to decline a reservation request without my listing being blocked?
I am not on instant book. I am uncomfortable with the request (our listing is in our home.)
Just decline. What do mean by punishment?
If you don’t want to do that due to fear of the unknown just wait a few hours then block the days on your calendar and tell them their dates aren’t available.
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When a request is declined by a host there are different choices to select from…uncomfortable, dates not available, etc.
When the host chooses sometimes (every time? I’m not sure.) Airbnb blocks those dates.
If the host neither accepts or declines it hurts the response rate, which in turn hurts the viewability of the listing.
I understand the goal is to host, and we have no problem with 98% of the guests requesting. This one just asks a lot of unnecessary questions about the listing (answers are in the listing) and generally gives us reason to think they aren’t a good fit.
Ok. I’ve never had that happen. OTOH, I also have instant book so I don’t get many requests to book and when I do I don’t often decline.
The strategy you should use then would be to block part of the dates and tell the guest you can’t host them and ask them to cancel their request.
Thank you for your response.
After consideration I declined and gave the reason of being uncomfortable with the reservation due to lack of reviews.
Airbnb may review the decline, but so far the dates remain open, not blocked.
If there are further repercussions I will report back.
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@CarolinaFran I never heard of declining blocking the dates. Are you saying this has happened to you before, or you only heard somewhere that this is the case?
If you select reason for decline option “Dates unavailable” Airbnb will block the dates (and maybe penalize you other ways). If you select “I’m uncomfortable” then they will not block the dates. I always select the latter.
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This has been my experience. I did not know if there was an option that would be “acceptable” to AirBnb.
Good to know that not being comfortable with the reservation is an option.
I just want to mention for the sake of new or potential hosts reading this, that I’ve had probably hundreds of guests with no reviews and not had a problem with them. We all have to start somewhere. 
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Ditto sort of—50’s of newby guests for me.
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I agree in general.
This one had several negatives in addition to no reviews. Something about her communications gave me an uncomfortable feeling. The only objective negative was no reviews, which was what I mention in my post.
But I agree with your response.
No reviews yet isn’t what I would call an “objective negative”. When you first put up your listing, you had no reviews, either. If guests had considered that a negative, you would never have gotten a booking.
Everyone has to start somewhere.
What part about “I agree with your response” did you not understand?
I also stated at the outset that I understand the goal of being a host is to make reservations.
You guys that are camping on the “no reviews” portion are missing the whole point of my question.
Do I have to put “objective” in quotes for you to understand that I know it is not a real objection, only potential?
Meant to send my last response to you, although you are only one of several.
I understand what you are getting at, and it may just be a matter of semantics, but I would categorize no reviews as something that hosts should be aware might require asking more questions than one would normally with a guest who has plenty of good reviews. Or that guest might require more hand-holding as they may not realize what booking an Airbnb means as far as expectations.
An objective negative, to me, would be something that all hosts would or should take as a red flag, like a guest being suspiciously and obviously evasive when being asked to pin down guest counts, etc.
But certainly, if a guest’s communication makes you uncomfortable or wary, you should always listen to that inner voice.
ive been hosting for many years and totally agree that if you have a negative feeling (and agree that asking many questions is signs of possible issues) its good to trust your gut on this. the times ive had issues were usually when i had exactly this sense and didnt listen to it.
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