How to block messages or booking for someone who is a host?

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I want to block an entitled superhost who keeps hounding me to discount my rate in high season, but when I go to to profile and click on “report this profile” it will only let me report host-related problems:

              I think they’re scamming or spamming me
              They’re being offensive
              Something else

How do I get to her guest profile to block her?

I don’t want to host her because I can already tell from her listings and her queries that I’ll probably get horrible reviews due to SuperHost Being A Nitpicky Guest Syndrome. Do you think I’m right based on this dialogue?

Hi Dennis! My boyfriend and I will be in Juneau at the end of June for his best friend’s wedding and we’d love to stay at your place. I have never been to Juneau before, so I like that it is centrally located and good for walking- I’m looking forward to exploring town! I just wanted to reach out to see if you would consider offering us a small discount for the 4 nights. Your place is a little outside our budget, but it is our favorite option of the ones we have seen in Juneau. Thanks so much for considering my request!
Warmly,
Vxxxxxx

My reply:
Thank you for your query. I believe that my rooms are competitively priced for this market at this time of the year. You’re welcome to book at my usual rates.

If you do book, please message me the full names of both guests, which I need to have for insurance.

She comes back
Ok, thank you anyway for considering! I’m going to sleep on it and I’ll make a decision tomorrow morning. Thanks again!

Then
Hi again Dennis! I just went to book your place and it looks like the price went up! Did you increase your prices? Previously it was $480 for 4 nights and now it’s at $503. The original price is already pretty steep for us, so I’d really like to avoid going higher than that if at all possible. Thank you for your help!

I have a base price for the room, but autopricing raised the price from $85/night to $90. There is always a shortage of rooms here all summer, and if these days in late June aren’t rented soon, I believe that the price will go up, since very few hotel or Air rooms are available for these dates. The season here is 5 May-mid-September, and outside of that it’s dead, so I need to maximize revenue during my season.

She’s a superhost with a $500 whole house rental and $50 garden cottage rental in Oregon, which apparently entitles her to ask other hosts to discount rates in high season. I am tired of her passive-aggressive attempts to discount, and I’m sure she will find many reasons to give me 3 or 4 stars for a room which doesn’t have a lot of reviews. You would think a host would understand why I wouldn’t discount rates during our high season. I really want to just block her, but how?

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Or it just occurred to me that maybe I should make a special offer at double the rate?

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The “report” options are the same. There is no “guest” side that is different.

I’d just reply “I use smart pricing which accounts for the price changes you see.” Don’t send any more explanation. I wouldn’t send a special offer either. Call Airbnb and ask them to block if you can’t get to the block option. I think they may have removed it.

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https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2020/how-do-i-report-a-message-or-block-someone-on-airbnb

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That doesn’t always work & is out of date (says click on report under their profile photo but the report link is much further down the page now). I just tried it, was unable to block someone and inadvertantly reported them for trying to communicate outside of AirBNB.

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The fact that she responded indicates your listing is still a good value to her and I highly doubt $23 is going to make or break anything.

You should reply “While you slept on it, Airbnb smart pricing automatically raised my rates $5.75/night based on demand and will likely continue to do so as we get closer to peak season. You’ll need to book soon to secure the best rate.”

BTW, many hosts are simply property managers and not making all the profit from their listings, although you’d hope all hosts at least understand the business.

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I once had a host ask me about a lower rate. Think I lowered it about $10 and she came back and asked about more and I said I couldn’t do it. I compromised and it wasn’t enough. I would never do that to someone and I doubt in my new venture I’d compromise any.

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When dog clients asked about discounts I would say “I don’t discount because I can fill all of my spots at full price.” It’s simply a statement of fact, it doesn’t make any judgement about the person asking like when people say “do you have a military discount or discount for 2 dogs.”

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It’s not the discount, it’s the request and that all the signs point to a guest from hell. I just want to block her.

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Did you call Airbnb…?

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Block the days and send a similar fluffy response, but with the underlying message feck off you cheapskate, and so sorry, someone else just got there before you. At the regular rate.

Then unblock after a day or so.

So do not like folks like that.

JF

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When someone repeatedly asks for a discount, they are often asking you to justify your price. Saying that it’s a fair price etc. etc. isn’t really doing the trick. You can sell her on the rental stressing your positive points and the services that you offer. I’ve found that this results in a booking almost every time.

However, if you don’t want to see it as a sales opportunity, ignore her or tell her not to bother you again. You don’t want her so there’s no reason to be particularly polite about it.

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After 20 hours, I hadn’t received any response from my message that autopricing raised the price. I really didn’t want her to book because I could see the 3-star ratings coming from such a passive-aggressive SuperHost, and that room needs all 5 star ratings since I only had 8 stays there last summer and current score is 4.7. So I told her

I think that sharing my home probably wouldn’t work well for either of us, and that it would be better if you don’t book with me. Thank you for your interest.

Last night she replied:

I’m sorry we gave you the impression of being difficult. I’m just in a budget and am trying to be careful with extra expenses right now. I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Best to you!

I dodged that bullet! Hotel and B&B rooms are hard to find here this summer, and I know that I’ll probably get it rented for those dates within the next few days.

As far as “justifying the price” many folks don’t understand that everything in Alaska costs about 25% more than in the smaller states. High transport costs for everything and a small population make everything expensive, including all my expenses, and I don’t think I need to waste my time trying to persuade some entitled Superhost that my prices are fair because they are at the low end of the market here, where a smaller room in a 1930s hotel with steam heat that you can’t turn off costs $250.

I have 5 months to make money. It’s dead from October to April.

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If you can’t block her, then block your calendar this way she will book elsewhere. After a couple of days, unblock it so you can rent it to other guests. She sounds like a pain in the neck.

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So are you saying when you report someone - there is no function to block them after?

@Snowdon sounds like there might be a bug as I have just checked and it worked fine for me.

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Nope it went straight to the “thank you for reporting this member” message. Maybe it’s because I am on the .co.uk site (tried usnig the .com but as soon as I log in I get routed to the UK site)

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I don’t think the potential guest was terrible. Maybe a bit persistent, but friendly and polite. I would have responded to the first inquiry with something such as:

“Sorry, a discount isn’t available. If you’d still like to stay with me, I encourage you to book soon (with me or elsewhere), before Smart Pricing raises the rate as availability decreases in our high-demand area.
If we don’t get to meet, have a nice time in Juneau and enjoy the wedding!”

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I doubt it @Snowdon that’s where I’m from :slight_smile:

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The last few times I’ve considered blocking I don’t get the appropriate option. I get what Nordling gets. I can click something else but then I don’t get the option to block.

To test this I decided to block the woman who booked my place with two twin toddlers. I chose they are scamming me then I get these options:

spamming

None of those are true so I don’t feel comfortable choosing them. I go back and click “offensive.”
I get these options:

offense

None of those are accurate. Nordling could maybe choose bullying…if he feels easily bullied. But it doesn’t apply to my rule breaker. So back I go to something else and these are my options:

some%20else

These don’t fit. None of my options fit and no block option is presented unless (I guess…I’m not clicking on the lies) I am willing to lie about someone who has done nothing to hurt me. I simply want to make sure she doesn’t attempt a rebooking of my home. They keep records of everything so I wonder if someone gets their account flagged for bogus reporting.

I’m not going to go back and reclick all the options to see if I can the the block option to appear but the Airbnb help center is getting helpful all the time.

1 Like