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Hi all, my question is in the title. Does a pre-approved guest, for whom I did not hold the dates, get notified if someone else Instant Books within the 24-hour period they have to accept the pre-approval?
Like, from Airbnb: “Sorry, the place you were considering is no longer available for your selected dates.” or something like that?
Happy New Year (My 1st new topic of the year…)
Bob
When you do pre-approval (I would never do this), you have the option to block out the date for 24 hours.
If you haven’t used this setting then anyone can book within the period on IB. The guest you have pre-approved won’t be notified of other bookings but it will show your place is no longer available to book.
As a guest, I always write to the host first to ask their pet policy. (A very, very annoying thing with AirBnB is that hosts are not required to disclose their pet policy on their listing. I have to write to find out before I can instant book. MY listing has the pet policy spelled out.)
Because I have to do this, I always receive a message from the host and almost always a separate pre-approval invitation generated by AirBnB, authorized by the host of course.
As a guest I always find the pre-approval message highly motivating to book that place. It’s one click and it looks like the host really wants you and somehow I find that reassuring.
Consequently as a host, I always send a pre-approval message when given the opportunity to do so by the platform. Most, but not all, guests will book when they receive pre approval.
I do so if the guest has good reviews and has sent a message that puts me at ease. But not all inquiries fit those parameters. If they ask some question that shows they never read the listing info, or are asking for something I don’t provide, I’m not going to pre-approve it without further communication that lets me feel it will be a good guest.
It is a check box for hosts whether they allow pets. You can find it in their listings online by going to “house Rules” and it will be in the section “what’s allowed”.
“Guests don’t read”
Exactly. I have a big dog and a little dog and I don’t crate them. So I have to write to the host and that’s usually when I learn things like small dogs only.
Yikes JJD! I would be terrified to do that for fearing of being asked to leave! I’m not nice at all, I’m just trying not to get thrown out 
Probably AirBnB Customer Service would side with you. But that is cold comfort if you’ve booked a rural place.
Wow–that means 99% of your dog people show up with unapproved dogs?
What AirBnB should do is: If a host wants to offer the amenity “pet friendly” and checks that box, then a form appears with check boxes covering the major issues of pet hosting—breeds, size, FEE, crating, how many animals allowed, what species allowed, and host pre approval required (or not). Then the bullet points are generated for guests to see.
They already do something similar, but not as elaborate, for several other amenities, such as WiFi (you can let AIr populate the speed or not) and shampoo, as I recall.
I use IB so don’t need to pre-approve bookings @SleepingCoyote guests can just click to IB if they want to book.
I found when I used the pre-approval years back bookings never converted.
But those things are for the benefit of guests, not hosts. Airbnb isn’t particularly interested in making things easier for hosts, rather the contrary.
This is one of the basics of the listing info. And it is not limited to dogs and cats - it is just ‘pets’.
Please explain this.
I’m not understanding the generalism about pets. The check box is pretty exacting - either you accept pets or not.
She’s saying that just because pet-friendly is listed, hosts may not accept all types of pets, have rules about them being crated, etc, and may not be clear about that unless asked.
I have posted this before, but I always laugh……
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwie0Pyng_P8AhUX1jgGHUAgB94QtwJ6BAgUEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DN7HFXgyTya0&usg=AOvVaw2pn7SL1b7olPmpKNy1L7CI
I think it would be super useful for guests to know about the pet policy. It can be a real pain to sift through all the pet-friendly listings without knowing exactly what kind of pets are allowed. I mean, just saying “Pet Friendly” doesn’t really give us the whole picture. Some places might only allow dogs, while others might be cool with cats too. And let’s not forget about the size of the dogs—some places might have restrictions for big dogs or little dogs.
That way, people traveling with their furry friends can easily find the perfect spot without any confusion or surprises. After all, dogs and cats are the most common pets that people bring along on trips, so it would make sense to highlight those options.
If they could tell us about pet policy, it would be awesome! It would save us a lot of time and make our travel planning a whole lot easier.
If a host has a no-pet policy, that means no cats, no dogs, no snakes, no emus etc.
If a host has a no-pet policy but will accept cats only, or dogs under 20lbs, they can say so in the listing.
@Eloise What’s with the blog link embedded in your post? Are you trying to drive views to a website you’re involved in?