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Hello everyone! Longtime host, infrequent poster here. Started hosting in 2015 in my basement suite. It has a separate entrance, but I interact with guests and meet them during check in.
I’m taking a break from InstantBook for a while. If I understand correctly, the three penalty-free cancelations are gone, and the “good track record” no longer requires a positive review, just no negative ones.
For those who don’t use InstantBook: what do you do about the guests who don’t reply to your questions? How long do you wait before declining?
When I used IB, if guests didn’t respond, I’d call or text them, but I don’t have access to their phone number if the booking is pending.
Having to mind my calendar, swipe away the nudging notifications from AirBnB, and make sure I click “decline” before the 24 hours expire is proving to be a bit more work than just leaving IB turned on and chasing down people who don’t respond to my messages.
I dislike that the calendar is tied up and there isn’t a “didn’t respond” answer to select as the reason for declining. There are also only two “house rules” reasons you may select for declining: pets and too many guests. The main reason I decline is third-party bookings, which go against AirBnB policies and my own house rules.
You can treat them the same way that your IB guests were treated > with an accept.
We do not have IB on either, and very once in a while I get some guest that is uncommunicative. Sometimes a non communicative guest was too busy to reply during the time frame I was writing them and accepting them. They have to be in contact with me for no self checkin.
I’ll ask them if they read everything, have no further questions and then say I’ll be confirming there stay shortly. Then accept.
If someone had a rotten review I might not accept reasonably quickly, but try to find out why before the 24 hours. Surely guests do not all deserve 5 stars but 99% of ours have that and the others are no reviews which I treat equally.
I use instant book but I think that guests might respond better if, when you ask the question, you tell them why you need the information.
I’ve found this to be the case in the instant book world anyway.
But if an answer is dependent on whether or not to accept the guest, I’d message them a second time - for instance “please can you let me know as soon as possible [whatever-the-question-was] so that I can review your request”.
Then, if there was no reply, I’d assume that they’d booked elsewhere and decline.
I think guests definitely respond better if hosts give some explanation for why they need certain information. People can betaken aback if asked questions they weren’t expecting, but most are forthcoming if they understand that it’s a logical thing to ask.
For instance, many guests assume that when they submit their ID to Airbnb, that the host is also privy to that info, so for hosts who require ID from guests, it may be helpful to let them know that isn’t the case.
I dislike having to explain to airbnb why i am declining a request. It’s my choice, whatever the reason .This doesn’t happen too often as guests generally IB.
However, I have blocked my calendar when I dont want a particular booking and it solves having to ‘explain’ my reasons the Airbnb.
If they submit multiple requests, and more than one is accepted, they will be charged for them. Or supposedly- there is a message that appears to guests at some point that warns them of that.
Guests have always been able to make requests without paying. Airbnb only charges guests when a request is accepted. Did you think they get charged when they just submit a request?
