When declining an inquiry from an airbnb user, because the situation does not work out, is there a penalty for the host for doing so?
Thx
No penalty.
Hhhjjjjjjjjjjjjj
No penalty - however, the way I understand it is that if you do it too often you can be penalised. I had a quick look at “the rules” and can’t find any reference to this so stand to be corrected if I’m wrong 
JF
Edit: Found it! Was actually an Airbnb blog post
If I have to decline a booking because a guest doesn’t meet my House Rules, does this impact my search ranking?
Because being rejected for a booking is one of the worst experiences for our guests, we do factor this into Search Ranking. However, we understand that sometimes you legitimately need to decline a traveler, and we take that into account. We’re most interested in how you compare to other hosts, rather than just counting your rejections.
A single rejection will not significantly hurt your ranking, but over time, rejecting more guests than other hosts in your market will lower your ranking. We find that a large majority of our hosts are able to accept most booking requests, and our best Request-to-Book hosts accept almost all of them. You can help travelers know if they should try to book your space by writing clear, detailed House Rules and keeping your calendar up to date. Make sure your settings and amenities lists also set accurate expectations.
2 Likes
I have instant booking and only guests with reviews can book. Someone sent me a request and I responded to the guest but I did not hit the decline buttom. The guest had no reviews. The request just expired and I received an email from AirBnb saying that I would be dropped from the top of searches. I checked and now I’m third when I used to be first. So it does effect the host negatively.
This blog is referring to a request, which is different than an inquiry. There is zero penalty for declining a mere inquiry but, yes, declining too many requests will put you in the doghouse.
An inquiry is just that. No need to pre-approve or decline and no pro or con to doing either.
1 Like
What @Natalie said – NO PENALTY for declining and INQUIRY.
Decline too many RQUESTS TO BOOK and you can be in deep kimchi…
Lol Deep kimchi 
1 Like
Yes, you’re right. A case of me not reading the original post properly!
JF
Thank you so much! The guest kept messaging me many times when I replied back, I hope this does not count either.
I have Instant Book so I usually have guests book without inquiring first but I just had an inquiry and noticed this - is it a new thing?
I have never seen this either but it’s a welcome addition.
Ritz3 yes but not approving or declining someone will keep the period they inquired about blocked. if you are fine with that that’s fine. if not… you lose money.
1 Like
This is older post and might have changed, but this is no longer true. A request might block dates, but an inquiry is equivalent to just someone asking a question (and doesn’t block anything). Just commenting because I was searching this same topic and this came up first so others might read this as well.
1 Like
One way or another I try to get back to them within the hour, so they can move on.
it is true, sorry to say.
So if you decline people too many times it’s bad… In order to avoid declining too many times, what I do is I don’t deny, don;t approve, but I reply to them immediately and tell them the room is not available for X reason. This way you maintain your response rate but you dont deny dont approve, so the request simply expires.
When a request expires, the dates for which that person inquired remailed blocked.
I have an open Inquiry right now and it’s still available on my calendar. A Request is different.
1 Like
I think you’re confusing an Inquiry and a Request. An Inquiry might be “hey how is the internet at your house?” a Request is “I can’t Instantbook but I want to stay at your house from X-Y”.
1 Like
People don’t read; guests or hosts.
5 Likes
Well, this is the latest inquiry I got in the email:
and one of the latest requests:
But in the request when I hit “reply” I’m taken to the ABB page where I have to accept or decline. The sender had 0 reviews. So they are basically the same thing.
@adrienne12 this is the view via the email link. When you get to the Airbnb page go to the message thread and reply, don’t accept or decline. If you look at your calendar you’ll see that it’s not blocked for the inquiry dates only for the request dates.
1 Like