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Me - I just accept them.
If they book at the price that Airbnb is showing, that is what they will pay …so they won’t book. As easy as that.
If so inclined add a message saying … you are welcome to stay, but Airbnb is already showing you our best price.
I’d send them a special price of twice the original. I’ve done this recently as a person was trying to make a 3rd party booking … I’d never offer discount. The price is the price.
Yes, somebody mentioned elsewhere that they’ve done that. And apparently the system considers a Special Offer as an acceptable alternative to accepting a Booking Request. Which is a bit surprising, to me, at least.
well, I thought I understood, until I read all the replies!
Lol! Do you get any responses after that? Like ‘why did the price suddenly go up?’
It’s my annoyance fee, a special offer I provide to all bargain hunters 
You have 24 hours to respond.
I seemingly get them for same day and as they are not exactly a priority I often get a full price booking before I respond.
I have not tried special offer.
Otherwise I just pre approve, yet to have one book.
If it is a booking enquiry then you safely accept.
Hi @faheem,
Not sure if I would call it an “acceptable alternative” as opposed to a pre-approval under your terms. The system just recognises that you can host this guest under the terms that you specify. Therefore, an acceptance.
You have to decline and then refresh the page so that the special offer shows up when it comes as a booking request. It changes in your message thread from declined to “special offer sent”. Voila, no decline.
Lisa
I hope Barns’s head now hurts as much as mine now does.
A little more detail/elaboration here would be appreciated, though I doubt I’ll ever try this approach. Firstly, is this something that you’ve successfully done yourself?
So you first decline the request, and immediately afterwards make a special offer? Or do you make the special offer before declining the request? The order is probably important. Thanks in advance.
Hi @faheem
Actually, I have done this before but not to put the price up. It was a last minute booking for one guest so I wanted to give a small discount.
When you get a booking request you do not have the option to send a special offer. It does not appear on the page at all. At least, last time I checked. When you get a booking inquiry, it is there. We went to instant book a few months ago so I am speaking of prior to that.
In order to have the special offer show up on your page when you get a booking request, you have to decline and refresh the page and then the fields appear to fill in.
It’s just a handy way to avoid a decline if you get a booking request from a group that absolutely does not suit your property - exceeds maximum occupancy, check in way outside your window, pets in a no pet property, etc. Oh, and low ball offers…
Now that these declines are being shown as a percentage and counting towards the basic requirements this is just a way around declines that may be an unfair count on your stats.
Hope that helps, Lisa
Hi @faheem,
Now that I think about it there was another occasion when a guest put in a request for one adult and the message thread indicated more would be coming. Rather than accept and alter the reservation, you can decline and send a special offer with the correct booking amount from the onset. It might just be a personal preference, but this is how I used to update an incorrect request.
Lisa
@doughpat -
If the guest has submitted a request, they have already entered their credit card information. If you accept, then their card gets charged for the advertised rate. You should either accept or decline a booking request. If they make a Request, but accompany it by asking for a discount, you can always say no and accept them anyway. Then they have to cancel or their card gets charged.
If it is just an inquiry, Air will still try to “nag” you into accepting or declining. You do not have to do either - all you have to do is respond. We’re on Instant Book (no requirements) and Air still tries to get me to approve or decline an inquiry. I never fall for it.
Thank you for the clarification. It’s helpful to know these options. But I suspect I’ll be choosing this path very rarely.
But a person with a low ball offer can’t make a booking request.
Actually it is mostly new users who do not know the difference between a request and an inquiry. When I first looked as a guest a few years ago, I sent out 2 questions and both reservations got accepted. It was about $2500 and it took 3 weeks to get my money back which is not great when you are planning a holiday. Most new users do not know how to remove their request so it is nice to have an option to undo it without penalty if they just ignore your polite request to withdraw it.
I have found that even with alterations, I do not like to leave it up to the guest to accept. We once gave a free upgrade and put in an alteration that never got accepted so the calendar remained blocked and the review was on the wrong listing. I eventually called CS to sort it out. I use this tool now so that I am not dependant on the guest to accept any changes. If I had a pet fee for example, and was not on instant book, I would use this so that the correct amount is charged at the onset.
In the last 6 months, we have had 2 requests that have asked for a lower rate so this is not unheard of. I do let guests know about sending an inquiry instead so that their card does not get charged. (I did not ask for a discount, just a question - but - learned that lesson the hard way!) Hopefully they do not continue to send these types of requests to other hosts.
I noted on another thread that this is just a way to undo a decline:
https://airhostsforum.com/t/how-to-accept-a-reservation-if-you-declined-it-in-error/10250
"The staffer walked me through the steps required to undo the “denied” request.
I went into the message and sent a “special offer” Kept all the pricing the same and I am waiting to get a confirmation.”
It’s just a tool you can use for multiple reasons with a little loophole that lets you decline unsuitable guests and then have it change inside the system to a special offer at whatever price would make you willing to host them, which counts as accepted. Some hosts seem to be plagued by nonsensical requests and it is them that would benefit from this the most particularly if it will stop them from getting their listing suspended.
Lisa
Of course a PS,
In this case if @doughpat did get a booking “request” for a low ball offer, I would decline and send a special offer at the same price or down $1 so that the decline was not on my stats. It is a bit kinder than accepting and putting them in the position of having to cancel and then waiting for their funds to go back on the credit card.
Lisa
I’ve read this elsewhere on many threads. I got dinged on response rate because I replied to a REQUEST but did not decline. She had a toddler, not suited to this place at all. Inquiry just needs a response to the message. Send a special offer on “requests” for double the price or something outrageous $$$ wise and according to forum members, this works.
How does this work, exactly? If a guest makes a booking request, then the booking request would be made on the basis of the listed price. Are you saying the guest states a different desired price in the message? If so, that seems a bit wacky. Since making a booking request means you are accepting the listed rate. Fortunately, I’ve never experienced that.
Yes, the guest states a different desired price in the message. A message in a booking REQUEST to top it off. I believe @doughpat the OP had a request/inquiry for 50% off the listed price so a classic case in point if it was a request.
We have only lately had a “REQUEST” for 4 extra guests to stay free for 1 night or if I book 6 nights can I have the 7th night free. Oh, and another one - we have a 2 night minimum - the request was if I stay for 2 nights can I get a discount.
Some hosts might consider the other requests and accept (we did not) which could be what is perpetuating guest behaviour and perhaps encouraging them to ask for more and more discounts?
Who knows, guests might have seen online somewhere that hosts are a pushover if you ask for a discount. When it is a last minute booking for multiple nights, particularly only for one person travelling for business, I have offered a discount which could also be contributing to the problem - especially when the guest did not ask for a discount. Did I help to create another discount entitlement monster?
Not sure. But in any case, yes, there are guests who want to check in at 3 am when it is not self check in or bring 2 dogs to a no pet property or have 8 guests in a place that can only sleep 6 or one poor host who was set up to have all the free infants and toddlers from a wedding party (5 or 6 if memory serves) and a baby sitter at her place. Good grief, this would be payment for one guest only with potentially 7 to pick up after… YES, they send a “booking request” instead of a “booking enquiry”.
These are very real and very detrimental and you are lucky that your listing has not attracted enquiries of this nature! One poor host had 6 requests like this very close together and got suspended for declining all of them.
As the New Yorker said, you can just not respond to the REQUEST at all if it doesn’t happen too often and monitor that you stay within the 90% for your basic requirement on response rate. If this is not viable, you can just decline and send a special offer and show it as pre-approved. For the babies and toddlers from the wedding party with one adult I would have asked an astronomical price without any qualms.
Anyway, if you do get such a REQUEST, you know how to respond - so you may wind up using this tip someday after all. Fore-warned is fore-armed and all that. I will be away from tomorrow for a couple of days so please forgive my absence if you write. Very nice chatting with you and I thank you for the replies and appreciate and admire your willingness to learn about an idea that does not seem to sit right from the onset. Lisa from across the water in Australia
Thank you very much for the clarifications, @beachsidecottages. Usually if people have special requests, they send an inquiry first. I relatively rarely get booking requests with special riders attached. And indeed, if I started getting a lot of those it could be a problem. And then the method you and others suggested, namely declining and then making a special offer they were unlikely to accept, would indeed come in very useful.
But I must say, this procedure would never have occurred to me on my own.