For those who don't use InstantBook: guests who don't reply

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Maybe your questions are “red flag” so they move to the next one without answering.

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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.

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I thought a guest cannot send out multiple requests to different hosts for the same time frame? Within Airbnb that is.

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Can’t have multiple ACCEPTED bookings, can make as many requests over many properties as they like…… which is why I answer and pre approve ASAP

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OK got it. Also the reason why often we don’t hear back from the guests as they obviously booked somewhere else… Annoying.

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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.

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Do the guests have to pay for each request? Or are they able to make requests without giving $$? I just realized that I never knew!

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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?

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Thanks for the replies, everyone! Apologies for my tardy responses.

The read receipts indicate the guest hasn’t read the message, but I suppose they could be reading the message over text or email instead of the app/website.

Wouldn’t that cancel their reservation request? Otherwise if I accepted in the 23rd hour, they’d have two charged and confirmed bookings.

If my friendly questions are a red flag, glad they’re working as a screening tool, although in this case I think they’re just not reading my messages. I ask what brings them to my city, confirm the number of guests is correct, and make sure they’re comfortable with the type of listing it is.

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Isn’t there a way for users to turn off read receipts? I thought there was. If so, guests could have turned it off, in which case, you wouldn’t know if they had read it.
And email and text notifications of messages only give the first few words- a user has to go to the website to read the complete message.

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That’s a great way to look at it.

In my initial message to future guests, I always remind them (although it’s in the listing) that I live right next door to the apartment so “I’m right there in case there’s anything you need during your stay”.

I’m pretty sure that this phrase has caused a few cancellations over the years thus saving me from guests that I wouldn’t want.

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I’m planning to allow instant booking on BDC for our second studio as the inquiries on BDC are sometimes useless as the guests do not read the description which tells which information we require for an approval.

Therefore, I thought of changing the cancellation policy to a 100% refund within 48 hours of making the reservation and 0% past that. Together with an automated message at the time of booking asking them to answer a set of questions within 24 hours and that the reservation will be cancelled if they fail to answer those questions.

That ‘should’ get them going I’d say.

Apparently, there are hosts here who enforce such rules and didn’t have a problem with Airbnb to have such reservations cancelled without penalty as the guest basically didn’t play by the rules of the host.

Hoping that BDC works similarly - I’ll have to reach out to them.

Maybe this might be an approach for you as well?

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Yes, you can turn read receipts off. I don’t think I’ve noticed any guest who has yet. When they eventually reply, I see the read notification.

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The problem with that strategy on BDC is BDC wants to charge you for commission and you have to go through a bunch of hoops to justify the cancel. They add so much friction as their way of preventing you from canceling booking.c bookings and taking the reservation direct. Maybe it’s different now and if it works let us know.

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I’m not sure if you mean tied up while they aren’t responding or tied up after you decline the reservation?

I know for a fact that a request does not tie up your calendar. Because I get multiple requests for the same unit \ same date all the time. I think I just say I’m uncomfortable with the reservation as the reason. I know there’s a way to keep the decline to dates open on your calendar. Just doesn’t happen that often to me so I forget how. Maybe you just reopen them after Airbnb says it blocked the dates. But it’s a little more complicated with an API connection.

When a guest doesn’t respond after whatever time you decide, just decline them and write a nice message.

" Sorry we didn’t hear back from you. I’m clearing this request for now off my calendar. If you’re still interested, read the messages above and get back to me. Happy to host you if we can get on the same page."

Guests often do reply that they still want the booking. They were just at work or didn’t get notifications. Who knows.

The other possibility is the guest doesn’t understand they made a request and they think they made a booking. So they think it’s a done deal and ignore all the Airbnb notifications. In this case, pinging them with another message a day or two later makes them think it’s an actual human message rather than an automatic confirmation message. Good old fashioned follow-ups are still good business sometimes.

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A reservation request does indeed ‘tie up your calendar’. INQUIRYS do not:

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Actually, the wording of that policy makes no sense- “Dates are automatically held once you accept a guest’s request to book until you accept or decline…”

“Held once you accept a guest’s request to book until you accept or decline…”
Seems like they are missing a comma after “request to book”.

And yes, I was going to say the same- requests do block dates, but inquiries don’t. As I don’t use IB, I’m not sure, but maybe an IB overrides the blocked dates on a pending request?

James claims he’s received multiple requests at the same time for the same dates, but I’ve never heard of that before.