Declining request to stay as guest states entry time will be earlier than host required check in timetime

1

I haven’t seen this in the Forum so am posting it.
I didn’t see anything like this on the Forum, but if it’s already there I apologize. :slight_smile:

Got a Request to Book on the same day at 1pm. My rules say 3pm is check in time and also I have a 1pm time in place that states no more guests can book without doing a Request to Book.

Because the room was ready, I accepted it, but the issue here is the message that comes with the Request form that says if you don’t accept the request, there are penalty consequences. I called and asked why, as what if the room was not ready? No one at that point knew the answer and they escalated.

It took a few phone calls and three days but the last person on the Airbnb following up, phoned yesterday and said the action was to “Decline” with a message to say I cannot accept it as check in time is at 3pm and you are welcome to request again with a check in time of 3pm.

The helpful Airbnb spokesperson told me there would be no consequences/penalties for the decline from me, since my normal check in time is listed and I offered guest to stay within those parameters…

Pam

1 Like
2

I’m shocked!
Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.

1 Like
3

??? I’ve never seen a message like that and I have always used Request to Book. And never heard of penalties for “not accepting”. You have to either Accept or Decline within 24 hrs or you get dinged on Response Rate, but that is the only penalty attached to booking requests.

4

Neither had I, so that’s why I called. Maybe they were trying out some new coding.

Thanks for the reply. :slight_smile:

5

Well, I hope that isn’t some new policy. If hosts were to get penalized for declining Requests, then it’s no different from using IB. The whole point of RTB is that you can communicate with a guest before deciding to accept or decline.

I know that Airbnb will threaten a host with suspension if they decline a lot, but that doesn’t bother me- if a host feels the need to decline a lot of requests, it seems to me that the host has some work to do on their listing so it isn’t attracting inappropriate requests. I have never declined any request. The couple times the guest has asked for something I don’t provide, I have just let them know that they would be better off to withdraw the request and look for a place that better suits their needs, and they have withdrawn the request.

The one time the guest ignored me asking her to withdraw the request because she didn’t meet my requirement at the time to be vaxed for COVID, I called CS, explained that I didn’t think it was fair for me to have to decline and take a hit on Acceptance Rate, they told me to just let her Request expire and they’d make sure it didn’t affect my stats. And it didn’t.

6

Airbnb customer service people aren’t known to be especially bright so it doesn’t surprise me that it took time for them to come up with the answer.

Even so, I’m very surprised that they suggested the check-in time as a valid reason for the decline. (Most of us have had the ‘we’ll be checking in at noon’ messages from guests and just deal with it there and then - a firm ‘no, check-in is at 4 pm’.)

Sounds like a big waste of time, :slight_smile:

7

I would have accepted the request and either let them check in because the room was ready or tell them no check in until the regular time and leave it to them to cancel if they couldn’t comply. As for Airbnb’s messages, I ignore them as much as I can.

2 Likes