Inquiry blocked

Has anyone seen an Inquiry blocked before by Airbnb? I got a booking in query which is still giving me the option to approve or decline the person and the count down timer is ticking for me to respond.

I’m a bit nervous to approve the person but in their message they mention they are just a total of 4 people and looking to stay for a relaxing weekend. I attached the image from Airbnb and it says they look for patterns associated with them. Is this someone I should avoid as maybe they have tried to book other homes for a party but denied but now adjusted their headcount or message to hide that they want to have a huge party in our home?

Yes, you should ignore this inquiry. And if it says it’s blocked, I don’t see how you could approve it anyway. If you get something like this from Airbnb, and you accept the guest anyway, Airbnb may suspend your listing.

Some perfectly okay inquiries get bot-blocked like this, but better safe than sorry.

Do you really think people with the intention of throwing a big party tell hosts that? “Hi, we saw your listing and think it’ll be the perfect place to have our party, advertised on Instagram, and you have so many lovely furnishings for us to trash.”

It’s always a quiet little get together for Grandma’s birthday.

Airbnb uses an algorithm- under 25 years old, locals, last minute booking for 1 or 2 nights, entire house listing. That’s why it got blocked.

It says they are from NY, NY and my home is in California. The booking isn’t until April 13th which isn’t really last minute which is why it feels legitimate but obviously I’m scared now to accept it even though it appears it’s allowing me to.

You could contact customer service to see if it’s maybe some kind of glitch. If the guests have been flagged for trashing houses or something like that, they won’t share that info with you, though.

As far as where a guest’s profile says they are from, that doesn’t really mean anything. Even guests with no ill intentions often forget to update their profiles when they move.

Do these guests have any reviews?

Do they have previous reviews @

Well, they’re not exactly going to say "Hi, we’re coming for a party and the invites will go live on social media after we’ve checked in", now are they?

The “anti party algorithm” doesn’t affect us, and to be honest I haven’t paid a lot of attention to it. However, if you accepted this booking I suspect that it’d be promptly cancelled by Airbnb, so why have dates blocked that are likely to be cancelled.

Message CS and explain the situation, as it sounds like a Request to Book, which if left unanswered I believe affects your Response Rate. Or use one of your free declines, whichever feels best for you.

JF

Your location as a guest on airbnb does not ‘track you’ when, for example, you move. They might live in your town nowadays…

So you have time to re-book. Next guest, please.

Air blocked it. It could be a fake account with a fake card. You don’t have time for that.

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Agree with the other comments. Ignore or decline. This is a rare instance in which Airbnb is looking out for you (actually they are looking out to make sure they get paid, but whatever).

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0 reviews and joined back in 2016. That’s the main red flag for me.

Yeah, like others have said, you can definitely ignore that message…

For whatever reason I am not able to post my own thread by itself. I am hoping to partner or on my own, manage an airbnb property for free. I am a new and younger investor (21) and am looking for experience any way I can get it. I am familiar with a multitude of services that make it easier to manage a property. If you know of any way I could get involved in managing a property, the only price I require is experience!
Thank you.

Only way to learn is hands on! Approach a host in a local to you Facebook group would be best.

I could have sworn new members get a pop up message that explains this, but maybe not. Anyway it’s because new members often join to promote one thing or another. Like looking to advertise a product or service. That’s not really what this forum does. It’s hosts looking to help one another or vent.

You are welcome to hang around and learn.

A long standing profile and no reviews is definitely something to note, but I don’t consider it a major red flag based on my own experience. I’ve accepted several guests who had that, and in all cases it was quite innocent. But most were middle-aged, sent articulate, informative messages with their request, and all turned out to be great guests.

But I home share and only host one guest at a time, so I don’t have to be nearly as cautious as hosts with entire home listings.

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Got it! Thanks for the email. Is there a way to fast track all of the requirements that I would need to post my own forum? I have nothing to promote and am hoping to learn and ask questions!