I know Airbnb penalizes hosts for cancelling reservations, but do they do the same for declining?
Yeah I think they do if you do it alot. I never decline anyone. Have IB on and preaprove all enquiries. I’m not fussy. 
I didn’t think I was fussy but I just got saddled with a freak who is sharing my kitchen and bathroom and realize I should have done more inquiring… 
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it impacts where you show up in search results. But I decline a lot of people and I’m booked full in high season anyway. Perhaps it hurts me in low season when many listings show up as available and mine might be on the 3rd or 4th page – many prospective guests might not get that far before they submit a request.
I have been told NO by Air themselves, there is no penalty for declining a request. It is cancelling which dings your account.
But… it’s entirely possible they do search rankings by how many you approve 
I hope it doesn’t hurt but I suspect it does. I’ve declined three inquiries in the last week – one who wanted a discount, one who wanted to book three guys in my two bedroom place for three months (one month, September, I am already more than half booked), and one tonight who wanted to book for two nights but she has a 4 and 10 year-old. I have in several places in my description that my place is not suitable for children. It would be quite unfair if I’m dinged for turning these prospective guests down.
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Sandy2 – when you decline folks for reasons like trying to haggle a discount, or not reading the listing. make sure you detail, in your Decline message, why you are declining them:
“Sorry I do not give discounts for any reason.”
“Sorry the room is only for two guests, not three, I cannot accommodate your party.”
" Sorry, the listing description specifically says that my listing is NOT suitable for children."
That way, should it ever come up, Air and anyone else can see WHY you dclined people.
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Thank you, @KenH. Great point! I did with the last one with the children (“as stated in my listing”), and sort-of did with the discount person, but not that directly. With the three-guys/three-months inquiry, I told him that I don’t do long-term listings. However, I will now add to every decline, “as I state in my listing”. I learn so much from this forum!!!
Since there are boxes to check when we decline, I’ve always assumed Air does or will use these responses to calibrate how to penalize us – no human is reading our messages to figure out why we are declining requests. “I’m waiting for a more attractive reservation” is probably not the box to check but there are options like, “guests are making a request for dates different from what’s on the request” which I assume means we wouldn’t be penalized for rejecting.
I do believe that Air will begin paying closer attention to our rejections in the future as they try to determine how to weed out racially discriminatory hosts.
They will probably only do this if they get a complaint. And then it will sit in the hopper for three weeks.
There’s been a class action suit waged against AirBnb regarding racial discrimination and so they’ve been hiring consultants to figure out how to address this in a manner that doesn’t expose AirBNB to legal liability and that doesn’t allow the platform to facilitate the return of Jim Crow travel. (major buzz kill for their ad campagin…)
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I think this probably has something to do with our host photo not showing up in searches anymore - it’s just GONE. I rent out 3 rooms in my house, and I like people to know that the other rooms are mine as well! SO - I fixed it! It might look tacky, but at least people will know it’s me. Check this out: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9021416?guests=1&s=w5b5m-na&sug=50
I think that is a brilliant solution! This is how it looks on someone’s wish list: https://www.airbnb.com/wishlists/115106918
100% five star reviews, too! Good for you, @Cinderelle
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thank you!! But it is kinda BUSY!!! And in all honesty, I am going to make it “prettier.” I just whipped this out quickly to get my point across. I think I will use a solid background and make it look a little more like classy and not so tacky - I’m going to play around with it. It certainly stands out in the search! 
I still see profile pictures in Chrome, Firefox and Safari, and on my iOS mobile device. Perhaps this is something they are “trying out” for some hosts/potential guests?
Interesting – I can see the host’s pics on Chrome but not Explorer.
I don’t see them in Chrome from the search page, but in the actual listing the picture is still at the top.
Yes they do. I was literally just suspended (5 days) for declining 6 requests in a row.
They were absolute garbage requests, all for the same week (it’s an event), and nobody had read my listing. People booking for their boss, people who wanted to cram more people in the room, people who only wanted odd dates of that week. I always provide a written motivation, but AirBnB suspended me without any warning.
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