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Speaking directly to the Accept/Decline confusion, it looks to me like the confusion has to do with the difference between an INQUIRY and a BOOKING REQUEST. I think it helps clarify things if you understand what Host behavior Airbnb is trying to incentivize and penalize in each case.
INQUIRY. If someone writes to you asking about your place, but doesn’t make a formal Booking Request (with dates, etc.), that is considered an INQUIRY. You only need to RESPOND (with any kind of message) within 24-hours to maintain your RESPONSE RATE. The message doesn’t need to say whether or not you will host them; it could even just say “Hi”! Even though Airbnb will give you the option to click a “decline” button after a simple Inquiry, you don’t have to click it. You only need to respond with a message. The response time is just a metric to track whether you’re leaving people hanging when they contact you. Airbnb wants to encourage hosts to respond in a timely manner, and to penalize hosts who leave people hanging by not checking their incoming messages or responding to them.
BOOKING REQUEST. If the Airbnb software alerts you that you have a BOOKING REQUEST, with dates, guests, etc., identified, then you DO need to ACCEPT OR DECLINE that request within the allotted time. If you don’t, you will be penalized. If you decline for the accepted reasons, you’re only penalized if you reach a certain ratio of Accepts to Declines. Airbnb wants to reward hosts who accept most Booking Requests and penalize hosts who are more selective. That’s their way of creating a norm, which, in my view, prioritizes profits over host safety, comfort, and autonomy.
From a marketing perspective, I assume they’ve realized that a certain percentage of their travelers will bail on Airbnb if they get ignored or rejected by a Host or two, and turn to a Hotel, instead. Of those, a certain percentage will never try Airbnb again, because they value the convenience of instant booking (which also explains Airbnb’s hard sell on the Instant Book feature). Of course, it does benefit hosts, too, if Airbnb can optimize the number of Travelers who stay within the Airbnb system once they decide to try it.
Hope this helps & doesn’t further confuse the matter.
One thing that seems different to me compared to the drivers is that the drivers never set their prices. Right? I may not have much power in the Airbnb model but I am still setting my prices. I resist all their suggestions, usually doing the opposite. I raise prices as my calendar fills for example.
I’m also lucky in that I’m not dependent on the income, and Airbnb’s model aligns very well with what I want and need. I like last minute bookings, am ok with flexible cancellation, don’t care about pictures, prefer instant booking guests and for some undetermined reason have 99.8% excellent guests, not the problems that fill this forum with posts.
As usual, an excellent post. It’s always good to hear from you.
Thank you, KKC. Yes, Airbnb works perfectly well for a lot of hosts, and that’s great. I stopped hosting in August of last year. In the last year or so, the auto-pricing feature had driven down market prices in my community so much that it was hard for me to clear a profit. Sure, I could set my price, but no one would book my rooms for $85 if they could get one up the street for $50. My business was unique: I rented a large 7 BR house, hired a housekeeper, paid for a laundry service, provided breakfast, and ran an operation that more closely resembled a traditional Bed and Breakfast. Because I started out that way, and had a lot of return guests, it would have been hard for me to abandon that model after the auto-pricing feature dropped the prices in our area, without getting bad reviews/star ratings from folks who had come to expect a higher level experience. So by the end, I was delivering a high end B&B experience for $50-$60/night, and that was unsustainable. I had no choice: when I didn’t drop my prices, I didn’t book enough room nights to cover the rent and expenses. That’s not ultimately why I closed my Airbnb – my landlord wanted his house back – but I would have closed for that reason, anyway, by next summer.
I continue to believe that getting travelers, not tourists, is the key to my success. I can’t think of anything else that’s significantly different. After a regular guest of mine said “I know I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face but you should raise your prices,” I did. Instead of a range of 39 to 50 for one person my base “smart price” is $50. I’m tinkering with second person fees but my range for the last 18 days has been $42-55 and I’m not seeing any slowdown. Yes there are comparable places for $39-60 but when they are gone, they are gone and since last minute bookings work for me, (I prefer them actually) I am able to book them. Now I’m waiting to see if the reviews suffer any. I’ve made several upgrades in the last few months so it’s a good test of the value for money concept that jaquo advocates and which I’m trying. And at 4.9 stars I can absorb a couple of 4 star reviews and it won’t matter.
It’s hard to believe your big head start in reviews wasn’t leveragable to a more sustainable price. I’m not the oldest host in my town but I now have the most reviews for a single listing. A couple of other long-timers have added properties so have more overall reviews.
None of this contradicts what you are saying about Airbnb overall. I’m very, very lucky. And as we all know “it’s better to be lucky than good.”
I can’t find this. I have looked under progress and on the dashboard. I thought maybe it was only available via the app but I can’t see it there either.
Thanks again! I didn’t think to look under opportunities, seems a funny name for statistics. I am fairly sure stumbled across it a while back but had forgotten about it. My acceptance rate is higher than I would have thought.
I called and asked the same question about declining a request, I was told all I had to do is respond. I did not want to decline and was told I did not have to, all I had to do is tell the person that my rules on my account were there to read and they did not and were not allowed to book. I sent them a message, I didn’t hear back, I called Airbnb and then they called them. They cancelled.
Calling them can be a real pain and the CSR is not always helpful. I was not happy with my last interaction with Airbnb. (Interestingly they didn’t send me the followup email asking me to rate the help I got. LOL)
Everyone’s first choice should be to try to handle it themselves and the best way would be for the guest to cancel their booking request. Then the second choice is involve Airbnb. If I had time I would probably email them but it seems these problem cases are usually coming up immediately so need a call.
I do not think I fall into either category with a recent request. It was from someone who wanted to book six weeks away. It was a booking request, but instead of describing the guest it said (not verbtim).
I would like to stay at your property from March 1 to 6. I used to live there and want to have some friends come by to visit while I am there. I would like to know if it is ok for them to visit me at your place. They would not be staying overnight. I would also like to know about your noise restrictions, they might stay until after midnight."
This had the accept or reject button on it.
I did not push accept or reject, but I answered her query asking, how many would the “several” she referred to be. I told her my son worked different shifts and would not like his sleep disturbed.
I keep receiving messages from AirBnB saying I need to confirm or deny her request.
I have received a message from her saying she chose somewhere else that would be “less restrictive.”
Unfortunately, you have to contact airbnb via phone, to let them know your reasons and concerns for declining or canceling a guest & if they agree, they will cancel the reservation for you. When they do this for you, you will not be penalized for it. Try not to cancel a booking on your own. Just contact them to do it for you so that your host status won’t be affected. Sounds kind of silly but that is what I found out.
Thanks for the info. I seem to have a lot of these, and AirBnB makes it worse.
I list in my ad that I do not accept pets or smoking, yet guests click on instant book, then tell me in their message that they have two large dogs, but they are well behaved, so they are sure I will not mind them.
They do not stay, but then I receive messages from AirBnB asking me to rate them.
The guest cancels their reservation, for whatever reason, but AirBnB obviously does not get the message.
I have even resorted to putting a photo in my ad that shows the entry door with a combination lock and a sticker beside it that says, “no smoking.”
The ad and house rules actually say, “No smoking anywhere on the property,” because my wife and son have major allergy and asthma problems.
I know there are two types of “requests” from a guest about booking. One is an Inquiry; the other is a Reservation Request. What’s the difference between them?
Do both of them come with boxes to approve and deny, as well as a place to write a response?
When there are approve and deny boxes, I have only ever used the “approve” box, and only if it’s a good fit. Otherwise I respond in text (such as “Thanks for letting us know about your child. If you read our listing carefully, you’ll see that we don’t allow children because our big dogs have never been around children.”). I have never hit “deny.”
So . . . is that sufficient for all Airbnb requirements?
I’m sorry to ask this a second time, but I keep seeing what seem to be contradictory responses on this topic, and it’s worrisome.
I wanted to get it right as well so I went to the Airbnb site to see what they say. This is a good summary and honestly, I don’t remember seeing it before.
Inquiry : A guest sent a message to a host about certain dates, but hasn’t submitted a reservation request. In response, the host can send a message, pre-approve, send a Special Offer, or decline the dates of the inquiry.
Reservation Request : A guest sent a message to a host by submitting a booking request for specific dates. In response, the host will need to either accept or decline the request within 24 hours before it expires.
AirBnB has actually given us with a Strict Cancellation Policy an easy out on Requests to Book. With the 48 hr free cancellation I have accepted a few and told them no this that or the other will not be permitted do to our house rules. If you are not okay with this you need to cancel asap to receive a full refund.
Before the grace period my go to for reservation requests, I say point blank you need to withdraw the request because hosts are penalized for declining booking requests and I am clear about my rules which will be enforced no exceptions. I tell them I won’t refund in addition to what the policy dictates and I will accept within the next 12hrs to keep my response rates up so they need to withdraw the request immediately. Most are quick to react and withdraw their request once it is clear I won’t put up with rule breakers and I’ve made it clear I won’t refund
