It’s when you create your host profile. The suspension of your account if you decline too many guests is part of what you agree to when you create your profile.
Mine always tells me if I decline another the days will be blocked and then if you decline agaib it says your account will be suspended. Get the guest to cancel the request not you do it if you don’t want to be effected
I created my host profile 4 years ago and don’t recall that.
I discussed this with the OP at the beginning of the thread because I thought the same thing. Since I have instant book I almost never decline but @ulfben posted this reply
And the truth is neither he nor I can find where in the Terms of Service or on any of the help pages where it tells us this. So I would love for someone to be able to find where this policy is among their official policies.
A common inventive solution to avoiding declining requests seems to be sending a special offer at double the price or triple the price to make it worth accepting “unusual” or “unsuitable” guests.
They do not normally accept the special offer and the request collapses. If they do accept the extra payout has to make it worth your while.
The price has to be set to the circumstances provided. If you need to get a baby gate for the top of your steps, or an extra bed that you donate after their stay, etc, you could take it out of the additional payout…
At least if you did that it would avoid further declines. You must also explain that it is to cover additional costs to make your home suitable for their stay since they have requested a property that is clearly not a good fit had they read the description.
Sometimes you have to decline in order to see the special offer. Refresh the page after you decline and it will show up. Send it through and your decline in your booking history turns to a special offer sent.
If your description is good and it is just the guests pushing your boundaries, perhaps this will help.
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Interesting approach. I wonder if some of the requests are declined are declined straight away when having starting a conversation would also work. You have to reply within 24 hours but you don’t have to accept within 24 hours.
I don’t allow children but I had a request from a Honduran guest who wrote saying his wife was coming for a medical procedure at a nearby hospital. He wanted almost a month in a 10x11 room with a sick wife and 1 child. I wrote back and said I’d consider it but it’s a small room with one child and that’s a long time to be in that small space with no kitchen only a small refrigerator and microwave. He wrote back and said after thinking about it I was right it would be better to get a bigger place a bit farther away. I never declined.
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Same thing happened to me a couple months ago. I am also a superhost and have 3 properties. No warning, no excuses on Airbnb part.
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So some people say there is a warning and some say there isn’t. Interesting.
How many declines before the suspension? Is 5 the magic number? I assume this is all on a single property?
Unfortunately I’ve seen both in the past three days.
- Scammers wanting me to cancel bookings and accept theirs. The declination reason was “other” so I received a blocking warning message.
- The potential guest wants to bring her two cats to a NO PETS rental. It is repeated 3X in the listing description the HOA prohibits renters from having pets on premises. I selected the decline reason that indicates “not a fit for guest request” or something similar. I did not get a warning.
I don’t know why the messages were different.
Different decline reasons.
I haven’t ever had to decline. Set your prices accordingly. I did decline once because the renter wanted to change their dates and I didn’t know that I could just modify a reservation so I cancelled and let them re-book. Needless to say, AirBNB wasn’t happy, but I called them about it and they actually understood that it really wasn’t a cancelation and took the “hit” off my listing. They CAN actually be nice to hosts instead of always being on the side of the guests.
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I haven’t either - not in recent memory anyway because I use Instant Book. I get plenty of enquiries only though - people wanting to bring kids or pets or extra people or other things we don’t accept. I just tell them so in the message and don’t do the accept or decline thing.
None of these people have ever booked once I’ve messaged them. I don’t know if that’s luck or what? But if they did, couldn’t I just get in touch with Airbnb and show them that the listing clearly states [whatever]? Or if they did show with a great big dog or a baby, then I’m within my rights to not allow them access as a) it’s in the listing and b) I told them personally in a message.
So I’m assuming the whole thing is different if you use instant book?
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I do have instant book, but I have strict standards with that. 99% of the time I just get an inquiry or request to book and I vet the guest any way I can (FB, linked in, company sites).
As far as trying to tell airbnb “my listing clearly says this” I wouldn’t bet on it. I had guests lose a key fob (which wasn’t replaceable at the time) and my listing CLEARLY said that a lost fob costs $100. Forget about ever using your “security deposit” (it really doesn’t exist) or airbnb’s “1 mil” protection, they won’t lift a finger to help hosts. I ended up getting $17 for something that cost me $100.
Put it in your house rules and you may get better backup from them?
Absurd they did not pay out on that.
It was in my house rules, AirBNB didn’t honor it. Quite frustrating!
This has always been the case with Airbnb hosting. The trouble is that many new hosts ‘rely’ on it for minor matters and don’t see these as the cost of doing business. Hosts who think at first that they can claim for every broken glass and every mascara-ed wash cloth are going to be sadly disappointed. This is why so many new hosts start out without proper STR insurance.
Which STR insurance would you recommend? Or is there a way I can somehow charge my guest’s CC directly? I thought about asking for a check for the security deposit, but I don’t think people would like that. Thanks!
I have now been hosting almost 4 years, almost 400 guests. I’ve only “claimed” for pet fees or 2nd person fees, small amounts that were documented in the message thread. And I’ve not had anything much go wrong. I do wonder how many of these Airbnb stories of non-reimbursement are due to people not understanding Airbnb policies and not following them. The people who don’t claim before the next guest checks in, don’t have receipts or don’t understand depreciation. They want Airbnb to pay $6000 for a couch because the one in the rental cost $6000 three years ago.
@Snizzler I’m confused by your statement that the fob wasn’t replaceable at the time but it cost you $100 to replace it. It sounds like Airbnb wouldn’t pay for the replacement at the time it went missing because you couldn’t provide documentation that it cost $100 to replace it?
We use a company that my business partner has used for many years for several properties. If we were starting with STR insurance from scratch I’d be tempted to look into the one (Slice) that has its banner at the forum here. We pay a annual sum regardless of occupancy but it seems that with Slice the cost is only incurred when you have guests. Unless you’re back-to-back all; year that might be well worth looking into.
I put the $100 cost clearly on my listing as a deterrent. At the time, the fobs were not replaceable, so I ended up having just one fob for 8 guests. That was miserable for me, I had to use the remote entry feature on my phone five times a day.
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Thanks! I’ll check in to that.
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