Guests don't answer my Pre-Booking questions!

Hi all. Under Booking Settings > Guest Requirements > Pre-Booking Message, I’ve written a welcome message with three questions in it. It’s an important step to me because there are unusual things about our listing that I want to be sure guests understand right up front.

Maybe 1 in 20 guests respond to this message. I’ve inquired of a few of the non-responders where they see the message or not (because maybe it’s not being sent?) and have been met with general confusion. I know it goes out at least SOME of the time, because of the few guests that DO respond.

Does anyone else have this problem?

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I think I read somewhere that it was no longer being sent…will try and confirm for you.

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the setting is still there as an option… it would be a bummer if they offered the option up but then didn’t send it!

Never trust Air to do something that you can do yourself. If you want guests to read and heed then you have to send them the message themselves. If it’s an Inquiry, don’t accept until they respond. If it’s a Request to Book, respond with the questionnaire and tell them you’ll book them as soon as they answer.

Put a statement in the second sentence of your listing description that says “due to unusual aspects of our listing you must respond to our questionnaire” before we book your stay".

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Since I added questions in my listing request prompt, I have had the opposite response. I used to get people that have more information but have since had quite a few just answer the questions, with no other information or lead-in. Maybe they are guests that just aren’t chatty and I’m noticing because of the new questions, but it is strange to get a message that just says “the driveway” or some other answer.

To answer your question, I know they are seeing it. I wish I could strike a balance with their answers though!

“The driveway” is a pretty funny first message to get from a guest! But at least they answer your questions!

Thank you. I guess that is the right strategy. But it is the same issue with my IB folks, and they are already in, so I’m in a corner then.

I like your listing suggestion - will try that.

I don’t quite understand this because you accept them anyway even though they don’t respond to your message? What is it about the answers to these questions that’s so important to you?

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You are always so aggressive in your language, its really pretty off-putting.

What is “so important to me” is that guests understand and acknowledge the following.

a) They have to tend a woodfire throughout their stay or their accommodations - a yurt - will be the same temperature it is outside. Hovering around 5 degrees right now.

b) If it goes below a certain temperature, I will have to turn the water off, and

c) They are good walking about 400 feet from the driveway to the yurt, on a snowy and sometimes icy path.

Work for you?

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I honestly don’t mean to be aggressive. I certainly hope that others don’t feel that way.

What I said was that I don’t understand why the questions are important to you, not what the questions are. As only one in twenty answer, and yet you host them anyway, I don’t understand.

Not understanding isn’t being aggressive is it?

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And I don’t “accept them anyway”. I have IB.

Given the nature of the rental and its heating system, I don’t understand why you would use instant booking. As has been said many times on this forum, GUESTS DON’T READ ANYTHING BEFORE BOOKING. If you need to ensure they understand that the yurt is heated with a wood fire and that they have to feed it every few hours BEFORE BOOKING then you should not use IB.

And in answer to your first question, I realized some time ago that some folks booking with IB never saw the supposed “welcome message”, so now I just copy and paste my welcome as a regular Air message from a file on my computer that contains all of my boilerplate documents for the B&B. If they don’t reply to my “welcome” I then send a text message telling them to check their Air messages for an important message about their stay, and that I keep all messaging on the Air platform.

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You’re British, I’m from Long Island, NY. We’re blunt. When living in CA, I had to learn new speech patterns, otherwise I was a “rude, aggressive bitch.” Ah, nope. Just not using passive/aggressive language over here.

BTW, I’m sure @jaquo, like me, is extraordinarily kind under that “aggressive” straightforward writing style. After all, she’s here multiple times a day helping people and herding cats.

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I don’t think a separate message is sent but they do see the questions because some guests answer the question with their booking. Sometimes they only answer a few questions. I have a system where I create a folder and download their reservation info. Then I label the file with the info needed and add a red tag.

I send a reminder notices 48 hours after booking (free cancellation period) and tell them that until I get this info I do not send check in. Then if I still don’t get info I send a follow up and also send a text saying to check their Airbnb account.

If I still don’t get a response and it’s a few days out from the reservation I ask Airbnb to follow up. Yes, it’s a pain but if my guest won’t provide me with names, addresses, ages and a selfie of all folks staying plus confirming that they have read rules then I am not comfortable with them staying.

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Have to agree with kathyvermont as I have also noticed that your responses can be, er, “blunt”, to say the least, to the point of seeming quite aggressive/argumentative.

Me, I figured you knew that and that you are just that way but if you are not, then well, I gotta say that she described it pretty well.

I can be the same way to the point of rudeness and try to watch for it, but not always succeed.

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Is this the new “glamping thing” I’ve heard about? So, I’m curious - if the temp in the Yurt is falling how would you know? Do you have some kind of remote thermostat? Or is it as simple as "there isn’t any smoke coming out of the chimney over there?

You might consider “an emergency supplemental heating solution”. Something that would keep the temp well below human comfort but avoid frozen pipes. Say 45-50 F.

Long term, you will not want to be concerned about having to keep such a close eye on things. Life happens. At some point, and possibly beyond their control, a guest will not be able to get back in time to toss logs back on. Frozen pipes are not fun, so there is something worth thinking about?

If you have a subpanel out there, it would be cheap and easy to add a “baseboard electric heater”. Set to low and would only trigger off around 45-50 F. The guest would not necessarily have access to the controls. They are also very safe, unlike some space heaters.

Another notion is a propane or kerosene heater, again set to low (pilot stays on but will only run at a low maintenance temp if guests are not keeping up). Naturally, any choice of gas needs a carbon monoxide detector also.

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I read this earlier but was pushed for time, so didn’t post. But my first thought was that Jaquo is British, and also from the North of the UK, where plain speaking is simply just that; plain speaking.

As @casailinglady says, she’s from NY where they are blunt (plain speakers…) compared to Californians.

Jaquo has spent many years in the US, a vastly larger country than her home country. We are tiny by comparison but have huge cultural differences, even here.

I can only suggest opening up to cultural differences, even in our own countries, and hopefully you will feel less offended.

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Just a thought. Our moderators are very experienced hosts, who spent a lot of personal time helping us for no compensation at all.

This is a very big forum with many individual styles. Being direct is not the same as being rude or aggressive.

Consider … there is a person on the other side of that. Perhaps next time they might be less inclined to spend time helping people who “find them aggressive”, etc.

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I think people tend to assume tone a lot when reading text. @jaquo simply is more direct than many, but I’ve always found it was in order to distill what the issue at hand actually is and make sure that she is understanding it properly.

That being said, I agree with @NordlingHouse on this one. Those seem like pretty important questions given the sort of listing you have. IB seems to bypass the regular protocols that inquiries and requests have. You might consider putting IB on hold for a while and see if that changes the responses you are getting. If it seems to negatively affect your bookings you can rethink it, but if it doesn’t, then it may solve your problem.

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Agree with lots of the advice being offered. Personally I wouldn’t do IB whatever my circumstances. ‘Enquires to stay’ provide me with the opportunity to vet potential guests. Todate (over 3 years) I’ve not had any bad experiences. So it’s working for me.

We have loosely similar situations. Our barn has only a wood burner as it’s main source of heating and is supplemented by electric rads. Whenever we get a request we send a message (see below). Occasionally we don’t hear from them again and that’s ok by us, as they aren’t a good fit for what we’re offering.

“Hi

Thank you for your enquiry to stay in our barn.

I’d love to host you and your family this DATE, however before we confirm any booking we always like to make sure our barn meets guests’ expectations and vice versa.

You may not know (or remember) Airbnb have a review system for hosts and guests that uses stars. This can be confusing for some guests who often use hotels. Although we always seek to offer a five star experience, our barn isn’t a five star hotel. It’s rather quirky, but we hope guests will appreciate its homely atmosphere. If needed it is heated by a woodburner and electric heaters. It has an electric shower and has ‘stable type’ bedrooms. However we believe you will be warm and cosy and we live on site in our cottage and are on hand if you need any help.

As you do not have any ( or only a few) Airbnb reviews may I ask you to provide a little more background information about you and your party? E.g. jobs if relevant, what you will be using the barn for and anything else that helps provide a brief ‘picture’ for me.

May I also ask you to confirm you are happy with our house rules?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,”

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