Another newbie question… I had an inquiry for my property. I sent back a question as are you traveling with any children or pets… and no response. The guest has no reviews, just joined this month… just says Heading down with some friends in January. Can’t wait to stay at your place…
Can I ask ages of people? How do I get more info on them? Are their no pics with an inquiry? Also, how do I put in my listing that all adult guests must have an AirBnb profile. I believe I was asked this when booking myself.
This is common. Since it’s just an inquiry simply answer and wait. They probably sent the same message to a dozen hosts. You can ask whatever you want but you may get frustrated by the lack of response and will probably lose out on a few bookings as the prospective guest will just move on to an instant book place. The guest may even think they have a reservation and haven’t bothered to check their messages.
Airbnb used to make it quite clear on a listing which places were instant book and which were not.
Thanks for your response… it does happen quite a lot!
If you are a new host in a tourist destination (heading down in Jan sounds like that or you are in the southern hemisphere) with an entire house you are going to get more of that than some. And when potential guests get questions instead of acceptance or preapproval many will just move on to the next host, possibly to the instant book host. As you get experience and reviews I think you will see less of that and more bookings. Are you using the saved messages on Airbnb? Have a couple of standard replies you can send back to the folks who might not really be serious and save yourself some time.
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We are in Florida… I don’t use the standard replies… I will have to look into that. Do I create my own or are there ones already there to use. I just never know what to do when they don’t respond… I did approve this guest but they still never answered my questions…Do I contact AirBnB about this?
You create your own. In the message thread you will see a place that says “use saved message” and that’s where you go to create them. When they don’t respond, just let it go. After 24 hours the pre-approval expires and that’s the end of that 99% of the time.
No.
Better than half of my guests have been brand new to Airbnb. They have all been great so far.
You won’t get pictures until after they have booked, Airbnb does this to prevent discrimination.
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any suggestions of what to say??
Don’t treat inquiries too seriously. I reply with any questions, or just a pre-approve. They’re often contacting several hosts with the same message.
You’d add it to your house rules. “All adult guests must have Airbnb profiles added to the reservation”.
However, I’d strongly suggest you reconsider this rule.
My Mom is nearly 80 and not tech savvy. I’d back out of your listing and find another that isn’t going to add an hour-long chore of sitting down with my mom to register for an account she’ll never actually use herself. What if a group organizer gets 4 of the 6 guests to register. Are you going to cancel the reservation? Tell them half their group can’t come?
What’s your motivation for having it?
Even if you require they’re ID verified, the name on the account can be changed after the fact. Essentially all it does is give you a (blinded) e-mail address. If you want to know who is in your home, require ID check at the door.
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Did you mean to reply to me? I don’t understand.
There’s nothing to say. Let it go. This person isn’t going to reserve your listing.
I meant what to put in an automated response for an inquiry… perhaps I responded to wrong message
Oh. Well put whatever it is that you are finding you have to keep saying over and over. You said you are getting a lot of inquiries with no response after you message them.
Something like “Thanks for your interest in our home. In order to approve your request I need the full names, ages, social security numbers and blood types of the members of your group.” (just kidding about the details of course).
Serious potential guests will respond. They may even say “never mind, I’m not going to provide all that information.” I know you are in a party location but with all the competition now you may have a hard time with such stringent requirements. There are tons of other hosts who have instant booking and guests don’t have to jump through multiple hoops to book.
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LOL! I get what you are saying… we are getting booked very frequently… I just want to be assured they are reading the house rules really … so maybe I will put something like that in the auto response.
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I always ask my potential guests to tell me where they are from and what are they doing in town. I dont accept local people.
With the new guests with 0 reviews I engage in a bit of conversation before approving them to kind of figure out who they are and what they are doing in the city. If they seem articulate yes, I’ll approve them.
It is overkill to ask everyone in a group to have airbnb profiles. There might be children and old people, or people who have no internet presence, or people who dont travel that much or who never stayed in airbnbs before but it’s there because his cousin or girlfriend is doing the booking. If you ask this the group leader will look elsewhere. I know I would.
but what do you do when they don’t answer your simple questions??
If it’s only an Inquiry, I just let it go if I don’t hear back from them and assume they booked elsewhere or changed plans. @KKC explained it perfectly:
However, if they are wanting to book or already booked and you want answers to certain questions then you can make it a requirement to answer your questions in your “Pre-Booking Message”. You can set that requirement under Booking Settings → Guest Requirements → Pre-Booking Message.
And if they just ignore the questions (some do), then you can send a message saying something like this (BTW, I think I stole some of this from someone, maybe on here but can’t remember for sure so can’t give credit);
Thank you for your reservation request. I am delighted that you like my apartment! We are available for these dates and seem like a great fit for your trip. My previous travelers did not hesitate to give more details about themselves and the reason for their stay. And I have to admit I like it a lot because it reassures me. May I ask…
I think I used this one time and got a great response. However, after putting the questions in the Pre Booking Message, I tend to get the information I need upfront. I’ve also gotten more comfortable with not having as much information as well. But I have also sent this to someone once or twice and received a great response as well:
I’ll just follow-up with our booking questions, as they really help us to be best prepared and provide the best experience (they are cued at time of booking but I understand you may have been a rush, no problem).
When I do find the need to pester someone for information, I generally lean on the idea that it is so we can provide you the best experience, which is ultimately true but also doesn’t come off as pestering ,)
ignore or deny. well, if they just inquired but no attempt to reserve, and you reply with a question and they don’t answer it means they looked elsewhere, don;t sweat it. I do this. Once I make up my mind which place to book, I don’t bother to inform other previous host whom I asked a question (like how far from x) that I made up my mind. Too much time consuming to get back to them. They’ll figure out. This happens to me a lot as a host, so I really don’t care.
If they are trying to make a reservation and you asked a question in order to accept or deny, you will have to hit decline (for lack of response) otherwise the dates will remain blocked on your calendar.