Just had a request to book with the following detailed message “11AM”. I’ve sent 2 messages clarifying check in is 2pm with no response. Ive never had to deny a request what’s the slap you get from air if you do?
They will ask you why you are denying and you can just simply write not possible based on check-in times and cleaning schedule. One denial is not going to hurt you
I would reply check in is 2PM and accept. Then do not give door code/allow check in until 155 PM
RR
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And you still do not have to, you may choose to which is silly but you do not have to. I would tell them the check in time and accept.
RR
No way would I want to accept this request. The person booking sounds like a complete twat, including the message “11am” and failure to respond to messages. I would decline, ring CS or report the potential guest negatively.
I, for one, really don’t want guests who sound like this.
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Ok, then don’t accept a guest like that. I would because I do not care what time they say they are checking in, they would be waiting outside until I text the door code. I have a whole house listing so less interaction with guests than someone with a room in their house.
I am on IB and take all, works for me. I would consider cancelling a IB if they had consistent bad reviews or even one that was really bad.
RR
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I vet guests very carefully, purely and simply because I run a B&B, not just a room in my home. We live here, they don’t get self check-in, I’m personally on-hand to meet and greet, and there may be other people staying too.
I have had cause in the past to realise that this is essential. In early days, I let one guest through with a very red flag who went on to be verbally abusive to other guests, lock them out of the house, lock us out of the house and physically threaten me when I came in a different way. Which is when I threw him and his long suffering wife out.
I give thanks to my three decades as a mental health practitioner in being able to defuse or quietly dominate challenging behaviours. You, of course, are in a very different situation but perhaps could try to wear the shoes of others before jumping down their throat.
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I might cut the guest some slack, especially if they’re new.
The Air system isn’t always user-friendly and some of the prompts are downright confusing. I believe there’s a prompt for “Tell your host what time you’re arriving”. Not knowing the etiquette of an intro message, they literally put the time.
When we used to have those IB questions I’d get a few messages that were clearly to the “What brings you to [my city]”…“Vacation”. They were perfectly nice guests.
@Flyboy An occasional decline won’t impact your standing.
WHOAH!!! Did they get rid of acceptance rate as a SH metric? I was going to point Flyboy there, but I no longer see a target/actual acceptance rate on my page. @KKC @TheInsider Have you heard anything about this?
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I’ll check on acceptance rating. I know I can see it and we watch it internally and I know guests can see a host’s response rate but I’m honestly not sure about acceptance rate being public.
It’s not public, but I thought it was a line in the SH metrics (Under Progress, Opportunities, SH)
It only has an impact if you refuse multiple requests on the trot @Flyboy
I’ve had to refuse over ten requests for my new listing since it went live in November with no impact:
- want to bring animals - no
- want to bring babies - no
- want to check in at 10.00 a.m. - no
- want a 25% discount because you are arriving in the evening and don’t take long showers- no
- want me to pick them up from the train station and take them food shopping - hell no,
- don’t want to book for the dates they are requesting, but for a few weeks later and want me to hold the space without a booking for two weeks, until they get paid - no - not in a month of Sundays.
The truly frustrating thing @TheInsider is that Airbnb don’t provide an option for you to decline because a guest wants to book, who doesn’t meet your house rules.
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What? I think you are out of line here I did no such thing.
RR
That was never stated…?
You sort of did 
@RiverRock
If you host remotely you are making a very different judgement, then hosts who share their listing, who have to be a lot more careful about who they chose to let into their home.
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Perhaps not your intention, but it certainly felt like it.
I made that clear in a subsequent post, no idea if OP is in a shared home listing or whole house. Either way I did not see my response as jumping down anyone’s throat. It certainly was not meant that way.
RR
I haven’t heard or noticed. I’ll check on the website later today. Some folks have a new performance metric instead of progress that I’ve read about.
Perhaps it was too blunt, IDK. It seems to me that so many hosts are looking for reasons to decline rather than trying to book their space.
RR
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On the app under Progress I still have accepted reservations as a target metric and they want 88%
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I believe that part of our job has hosts is it “educate” users on the platform. I would accept and let them know Nicely what time your check in is.
Guests also don’t always have the phone app or notifications set. Many in the younger and older generations barely use email anymore. I send a couple of messages via the app then send a message via text to tell them to see their account for important information.
If I denied every guests that initially didn’t respond the way I want, I wouldn’t have a 90% occupancy rate. I’ve only had a handful of really bad guests out of over 500 and I accept new users via IB without any reviews. I do however require everyone (person booking and all guests) to provide Govt. Photo IDs. within 48 of booking.
Also, I have added fees for early check and late check out so when guests ask, I can say for a fee of $30 (for a rush cleaning) I can accommodate an early check in of 1 pm. I’ve only had one guest say yes but at least this gives them an understand of why they can’t check in at 11 am.
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