Can you elaborate on this? Do you get asked when you want to block when you pre-approve?
That’s an exceptionally liberal early check-in policy. I suppose they check themselves in early, right?
Nice that I’m not the only one who considers rejecting bookings based on non-responsiveness.
I don’t know if this guest is not receiving my messages in time, but I don’t get that impression. I think she is just not paying attention. Understandable, perhaps. But it does make going through the formalities more difficult.
Interesting discussion. I accept without knowing what time they plan to check in; I have that conversation two to three days before arrival. And like @Eberhard_Blocher I let them sort themselves out when they check out- it’s easy to lock the door and the post the key through the letter box.
I am not sure how I can elaborate. I tend to get an inquiry, so I answer the question and click pre-approve. Once I click pre-approve I can chose to check a box that let’s me decide to
A) block the dates so they remain open for the guest that inquired (24h).
B) not block any dates for this guest.
I never ever block any dates, even if the person is thinking of staying 2 weeks at our place. The first person who makes the actual reservation gets to stay at my place.
We live on the premises: We rent two rooms in our apartment. We have lots of people traveling on night buses arriving early and also people arriving late by airplane. I do not want to inconvenience people by telling them to wait a few hours in a cafe around the corner until I have totally woken up. They are our guests and we want them to have the most pleasant stay posible. Of course I do not want to lose any income. So as long as it doesn’t interfere with other guests, we allow for early check-in or late check-out as for there room. I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t do this. The possible cost of extra water and/or electricity is offset by other people staying less hours.
Of course if there are other guests, the official check-out is noon and official check-in is 2:00PM. But people can use our communal spaces earlier than the room check-in (7:00AM) and later than the room check-out (10:00PM). It doesn’t cost us anything, it doesn’t inconvenience us and it makes our guests happy. We are in the business to make money with happy guests 
. And I guess I am a happy being very liberal.
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Yes, sometimes I get bookings, where I want to double check if they have read the listing properly.
I ask them if they have read this or that, and if they are still sure they want to book.
Here’s my two cents:
If a guest sends an inquiry and then you write back with a lot of questions, you risk turning them off. Chances are they are looking for alternatives, which is why you aren’t hearing from them. My advice would be to put the questions you want to know clearly in your add, so they include it the first time around.
Also, I learned the hard way that it’s important to put check in hours and a requirement that they provide an estimated time of arrival in your house rules. That way if they don’t, they are violation of your rules, which theoretically protects you should any nonsense go on like they show up at some completely unreasonable hour.
RE: freeing the calendar, others are correct. When you get a booking request, you have to accept or decline within 24 hours. Most of the time I accept right away, unless there are any red flags (like no profile pictures, or basic information or something just feels ‘off’ in which case I will politely say something like ‘Hmmm…it looks like you are new to Air BnB … can you tell me a little more about yourself and your travel plans? i want to make sure I am a good fit for your needs.’ Or, can you include a face photo? I like to be able to see who’s staying with me so i am ready to greet you properly!’
If they fail to respond with something satisfactory, then you just decline. As I have said many times before, no amount of money is worth having someone you are not comfortable with in your house. People who are non-communicative or non-committal just need to stick to hotels.
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My guests sometimes don’t even read until the 4th line where we wrote that the bathroom is shared. So they ask me if it is a private bathroom. I always feel like telling them: “Just read the listing” but until know I restrained myself and just answered in a polite way.
This sounds great, I am gonna try this. I hate it when people don’t tell me why they want to stay for two weeks. And I hate no pictures, blurry pictures or sunglasses 
.
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Faheem, I’m sorry about not quoting anything. I’m on my phone, fairly new to this forum (and hosting), and can’t seem to get that feature to work, so sorry.
The feature of not blocking the calendar must have to do with instant booking, which I’ve had since we started. People either book instantly, or they send an inquiry to which I reply and either pre-approve or decline. If I pre-approve, it asks if I want to block the dates. I always say no.
@Arlene_Larsson the feature doesn’t work on phones and is the reason I never quote anything … because I can’t!
Ah. That’s what I was asking about. I haven’t pre-approved in a while. I haven’t been getting many inquiries, and mostly they don’t go anywhere. Typically I respond and then hear nothing more. But the last time I did pre-approve, I wasn’t asked whether I wanted to block the dates. Which strikes me as (yet another) insane “guest-friendly” Airbnb “feature”. Does anyone know when they came up with this brainwave?
Yes, that’s what I was asking about. See my previous reply to @GutHend . When I had previously pre-approved, it didn’t ask me whether I wanted to block the calendar. I mean, why would anyone want to block their calendar if they didn’t have to? It’s a mental idea.
That happened to me too. Now I have to tell every guest to make sure to check the door is clicked shut and locked when they leave and check out.
Airbnb used to have “need more information” as one of their reasons for declining. They have taken that away. I declined someone recently because they did not get back to me. I can’t remember what I picked as reason, but eventually the person got back to me with everything and she rebooked.