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I keep getting emails from some folks who want to book our place around Thanksgiving. They haven’t put any dates in or number of guests, they just keep talking about it. But in the messages I still get a ‘approve’ option. But I can’t approve them - they haven’t made a booking request, they just keep asking if the dates will be ok. Now they say they will book next week as they are busy with midterms (they do not have ID verification yet but have 2 good reviews). I think “Geez, with all this time you’re taking you could have just done the work you need to do!”. Of course the time I spend on this guest will be very limited - I did all the chatty, welcoming, informative banner and they still keep coming back with piddly little questions. My last email said “We’d love to have you stay, and will approve your requests when you make it, as long as the room is still available. The room is available to anyone interested in it until you complete the booking”.
This is the question - does this count towards my response time? I am responding with messages but can’t approve or reject because it’s not yet a legit request.
DC, shouldn’t affect your response rating… but I am concerned that your guests sound like newbies… and possibly like college students if they have mid terms.
In my experience of five years, extreme question-askers are TROUBLE with a capital T. If they are wringing their hands that much about a stay, when they get there they may also find a million things wrong.
I have previously told the story about a question-asker who wanted his hand held for every little thing… even his itinerary for Hawaii sightseeing. I helped as best I could. I even got ihim in touch with a local vendor that I know from my Hawaii travel guidebook writing, who gave him a discount. I did everything but wipe the guy’s bottom with a huggie. He stayed three days. My reward? An absolute laundry list of things he found lacking, including things which were all fully disclosed and that I was upfront about! Complained because he had to pay a cleaning fee and tax, Why did he have to remove his trash when he paid for cleaning? etc etc.
Buried in the bottom of the review was something about how helpful I was for his activities. Yeah thanks a bloody lot for that bozo. Doofus.
Maybe I am missing something, but how are they even getting in touch with you without requesting certain dates? As far as i can tell the AirBnB software does not allow this. They have to select dates before they can even reach out to you. When folks do this and ask a bunch of really stupid questions, I do like K and decline. Because she is right. People who don’t do their homework will always turn out to be pains in the a$$. I have also had a lot of folks who ask about long-term rentals, or what is my monthly price (I don’t do them…my listing clearly says 14-day max) and just put in random dates so they can get in touch. I generally say that i don’t do long-term rentals, but they are welcome to book on the dates requested. That has ended the conversation 100% of the time.
