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It seems there are two categories of initial contact by guests to hosts.
a) A booking inquiry. Possible responses include pre-approve and decline.
b) A reservation request. Possible responses include accept and decline.
In the case of a reservation request, Airbnb clearly says that I will be penalized if I don’t accept or reject within 24 hours. (I’m unclear what form this penalty would take.)
In the case of a booking inquiry it is not clear if I’m actually required to do anything other than respond. Specifically, if the inquiry is clearly unsuitable, do I actually decline, or just let it lapse? Does it matter which of these alternatives I choose, and if so, why?
That’s usually not an issue. The person who is referenced in the link is clearly not going to be contacting me again. And in my very limited experience of booking inquiries, the other person drops the conversation first. Usually without saying what they are planning to do.
What a great question. I noticed recently that it’s better to let it lapse. Whenever it’s an inquiry from someone with no reviews and very little information, I send a standard message like ‘Looks like you are new to Air BnB. We like to know a little about our guests. Have you been to L.A. before? What are your plans while you are in town?’ 99% of the time I never hear from the person again. I figure in the case of inquiries, they are usually sending a cut-and-paste message to a whole bunch of places and seeing who bites.
Don’t really understand the point of inquiries myself. It’s usually people asking ‘is your place available these nights’ Uh…yes…that’s why it came up in your search. Am I willing to accept a booking request from you? Well, that’s another question altogether, isn’t it?
(Hehe…I don’t actually say that. i just think it.)
I think I have received a message before (with an inquiry) asking me to pre-approval or decline so that the traveler can move on to other properties or something like that.
I think Air might suggest other properties once you hit decline. I think a rep. told me that once. But it could be my imagination too. I can’t keep up with all the sites and all their changes! I just let it the inquiry lapse.
Yeah. Declining serves no purpose, unless it’s someone so freakish you don’t want to hear from him or her again. If it’s just an inquiry, your calendar stays open for others to book. Whoever books first (and passes my sniff test) wins.
I don’t yet have a standard message, but I suspect that I will probably create one soon. What is your complete message? Can you include it verbatim? I would derive inspiration from it.
Yes, to date I don’t have a single person who made an inquiry who actually booked afterwards. The two bookings I have so far (one of which is currently resident as I speak) were both made directly as reservation requests. One of the two I almost didn’t accept because the lady in question, for reasons best known to herself (and I was too tactful to inquire further) didn’t actually include a message with her reservation request. That’s right - no message at all. But I replied and she did then answer, albeit briefly. I’ve had several people who seemed interested, and then disappeared.
Yes, it does suggest they aren’t serious. Otherwise why not send a reservation request directly? In any case, I’m now opting for brevity “Sounds good. Pre-approved”, if the person sounds Ok. And most of them do.
LOL.
Just curious, and this question is addressed generally - what percentage of pre-approvals translates into bookings? Should this be a separate question, perhaps?
I probably shouldn’t have said standard. I tailor the message depending on the situation. For instance, I had a young student from China write recently with the name ‘B1.’ Well, there is something odd about about being named ‘B1’ so one of my questions was ‘do you have a name besides B1?’
I let all inquiries lapse. I used to pre-approve until I found out that the guest can then instant book within so many hours. I cannot do that because I am listed on many sites.
For example, if I pre-approve a guest for Labor Day weekend, and then receive an inquiry from VRBO - I might be in the middle of waiting for payment from the VRBO guest and then the Airbnb guest books those dates.
OR I could get an instant booking from Booking.com and then 10 seconds later the Air guests decides to book (before I can block the Air calendar). Now I have a double booking on my hands. So I tell all guests who I am interested in booking, to just go ahead and submit a reservation request.
Ah, that makes sense. Then you have control about when the booking happens. And if you are not interested in booking the query you don’t do anything? I think I might do the same - ask people who seem reasonable to just submit a reservation request.
Not really on topic for this thread, but what percentage of bookings are you currently getting from Airbnb?
Yes, like Jackulas…unless I really didn’t want that person booking then I would decline the inquiry.
My bookings are really spread all around between Flipkey, Airbnb, VRBO, and my own website. I had given up on Booking.com for a long time because I was so frustrated with them. But I did open up last weekend on there and got a booking.
I used to get lots and lots of bookings through Air when I first started out - but my rates were much lower since I was trying to build reviews. I don’t lower my rates on Air in order to compensate for the traveler fee. So let’s say my rate is $200 a night on my website and on VRBO (my listing on VRBO does not have a service fee) then I still list at $200 a night on FK and Air. But on booking.com I jack my rate up by 15% to cover the commission they charge me.
So basically my bookings these days through Air, FK, and Booking.com are people who have money to burn. These are my reservations currently on the calendar:
For May so far it is VRBO, booking.com, and my own site. For June it is VRBO and FK. For July it is VRBO. And for August it is Air and my own site. I tend to get many last minute bookings so not sure how it will play out.
Also, this season is a bit trickier. VRBO/HA started pulling in a larger radius along with Air. And then Air was hiding my listing and only showing instant book properties if reservation was within 7 days. VRBO also hides my listing if someone clicks on “show book it now properties” - and their new “best match” policy is purposely pushing certain properties in front of the traveler. I think the results would be different if VRBO wasn’t playing so many games. Some people went from fully booked calendars for years - solely with VRBO and now they are barely receiving any inquiries at all.
It looks like you have it all figured out. I agree with you, it’s clearly not a good idea to have all ones eggs in one basket. But I suspect it will take me a while to reach that level of organization.
Well I thought I had it figured out until all the sites started manipulating searches more and more. So it may be that if June and July don’t start filling up, that I may have to compensate a bit on Air and FK. Last year I do recall getting so many last minute bookings though, and that is how I filled my calendar.
I am actively working on my site though to learn about SEO and that will take a lot of effort. I am dedicating at least one hour today to learning how to drive traffic directly to me. Screw the sites and all of their games! But I will use them for now because I still need them…ugh!
IMHO the Inquiry seems to be the place where potential guests try to see what they can get away with. Example: We specifically say No Pets, No Children. We get an Inquiry “would like to stay with you…bla…blah… is there an additional cost for our two year old son if we bring an air mattress for him to sleep on; and can we bring our 3 year old Schnauzer, he’s really good and well trained.” My response to the inquiry was “What part of No Pets No Children did you not understand??” DECLINE!
AIr does "nag’ you if you don’t respond to an Inquiry, but only if the inquiring guest does not book.
If it’s only an inquiry and not a request to book, you can just send a reply and then click Dismiss. This keeps your response time low and avoids taking a hit for declining.
I don’t see a “dismiss” button, though I do see an “archive” option on the inbox page. Clicking that makes it disappear from the inbox page. Can you give more details?
I sometimes make enquiries as people’s bookings are not clear, eg parking, bathrooms, security etc do I want to send these questions for specific dates rather than commit to booking if it’s not suitable.
What is your complete message? Can you include it verbatim? I would derive inspiration from it.
I agree with you, it’s clearly not a good idea to have all ones eggs in one basket. But I suspect it will take me a while to reach that level of organization.