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I have a question about declining reservation requests. Sometimes I get requests from guests where I have to ask them a question (like, if they mention they’d be arriving late, I ask them how late would they be checking in).
I ask them, but they don’t reply for almost a day…and I don’t have an option but to decline the reservation request. Does doing that affect the rating as a host?
I’ve called Airbnb and asked them do the decline, but they say that I can do it w/o it affecting the host rating…but I’m not sure if that’s what really happens.
What do you mean by the host “rating”? Your listing rating is only calculated from the average of the “Overall” rating your guests leave.
Declining a lot could affect your search placement, but there are so many factors that go into the search algorithm that it’s impossible to know how much effect it would have.
And declines lower your acceptance rating, but that rating isn’t counted in Superhost assessment.
what I meant by ‘rating’ is…if I decline quite a few requests vs. accept most of them, does it affect how many inquiries/requests I get from guests?
What you’re saying is that declining a lot could affect where your rental shows up in the search list, but there are other factors too, so it’s not sure if declining (even though in this case, I’m having to decline due to the guest not responding) directly affects that algorithm.
There are better ways to handle guests not answering your message than automatically declining, although it may not always work.
For instance, in the example you gave of a guest saying they will be arriving late, you could say, “Hi XX, Thank you for your request. As far as you arriving later than my check-in window, what time are you planning to arrive? I may or may not be able to accommodate a late check-in, so please let me know ASAP- hosts only have a brief amount of time to either accept or decline a request, so the sooner you respond, the sooner you will have time to look for another place if your late check-in won’t work for me.”
Something like that. In other words, encourage the guests to respond quickly to any question you have that would affect whether or not you accept by telling them it is to their benefit to do so.
Most guests have no idea that a host has to accept or decline within 24 hrs. nor that not answering a host’s questions in a timely manner could lead to a decline.
Good point…will include that message in future reservation requests.
The thing is this guest hasn’t even read the message I’ve sent 14 hours ago (I replied to their request in 40 mins)…so even if I were to word it differently, I’d still not get a reply.
Yeah, I don’t quite understand guests who send a request and then don’t check back for half a day or more to see if they got a reply, even if they failed to turn on notifications.
I can understand if they are in a very different time zone, but otherwise they must just assume that when they send a request, that it will be accepted, as if it was Instant Book.
I decline if the guest doesn’t answer. It’s frustrating because my calendar is tied up for a day or until I decline. I don’t think you need to call like you do to cancel an IB.
I recall reading in the past that frequent declines hurt our search rankings, but I don’t see that currently on the “help” page regarding search rankings. It doesn’t hurt your response rate so long as you accept or decline.
I think a lot of guests don’t realize they requested to book rather than instant booked. Unfortunately, we can’t get their phone number until they book to try and reach them and tell them to check the app.
Good point. Not responding to a host after they ‘request’ is arrogant and ignorant. And it is terrible to hold my calendar captive for 24 hours. It would be good of airbnb to make the ‘capture’ only an hour and also tell the guest the time limitation.
This would be great! Unfortunately AirBnB wants us all to use InstantBook. I’m less comfortable using it now that the three penalty-free cancelations are gone. (Although I’ve still been able to call and ask to use them.)
My guests who request to book say things like “looking forward to staying!” And when I have IB turned on, they sometimes send polite requests asking if I’d consider hosting them. It’s been a while since I’ve booked a stay for myself on AirBnB, but I’m wondering if the site is not clear whether someone is requesting or InstantBooking.
I have and prefer instant book, but when I get a 'reservation request" it’s usually a guest that does not meet my requirements (asking for days outside of my max for example). When guests start asking for ‘exceptions’ you are always in for a bad time…
I have used IB most of the time I’ve hosted as well, but turned it off recently. I had a guest that wouldn’t respond to my messages (tried texting and calling too) until he informed me the night-of arrival he’d be arriving two hours after the end of my check-in window (I greet guests). I’ll probably turn it back on at some point, but we’re headed into the slow season so I’m fine if reservations drop off for a while.
