Is this true? Reservation requests can expire with no host penalty?

A potential guest requested a reservation (reservation request) and I messaged them 5 times, airbnb emailed them, and now they are being called (did you know airbnb will phone potential guests but only between business hours?).

Airbnb says that with a reservation request, if the guests do not answer my messages, the request will expire in 24 hours, and the day(s) will be freed up, with no penalty to the host.

Is this true?

Did Air tell you that on a message thread?
I have had non communicative guests and called Air to call them, which they did. Maybe once or twice when Air did that, the guest offered to cancel. But I don’t think that that solves the problem of the hosts 24 hours to accept policy.

That sounds very suspect, like a CS rep who is confusing requests with inquiries. I would just decline before the 24 hrs is up to be on the safe side.
I have also heard that if a request expires, it counts as a decline anyway.

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I don’t know if it’s true but I suggest you writing to thank Airbnb for their help, summarize the situation, what both you and Airbnb have done, and that you appreciate their guidance that if at the end of the 24 hours the guest has still not answered your messages that the request will expire, the calendar will open and no host penalty will apply.

That should cover you in case Airbnb later disavows their CS rep.

No, that won’t cover anyone. Once the system registers a decline, and a lowered acceptance rate, it won’t get changed.

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What the CS told you directly contradicted the policy. don’t trust them. Whether it expires or you decline it, it is still considered a declination

I read somewhere Airbnb isn’t as tough on declinations as they used to be until you do 3 or 4 in a row. It is a response & Response rate is the key metric

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Reading your message it’s not clear if they sent in a request to book and you approved or if you just sent a message. (Big difference between replying and accepting a reservations.)

Additionally, an inquiry can look a lot like a request to book. (Again, (Big difference between replying and accepting a reservations.)

So, I would say unless you can clarify your question, it’s hard to give you a definitive answer.

"A potential guest requested a reservation (reservation request) ". “I messaged them 5 times, airbnb emailed them, and now they are being called”

A reservation request is a request to book. And I never said that I approved.

Hi Rolf,

I know that you are an experience Host and when I replied I hadn’t realized that you were the one posting or I wouldn’t have made the distinction but there are so many newbies that just don’t understand the difference.
Lynn

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Ugh. They had better never call me, they will get an earful.

Not really. I’ve never been confused about it. It says Inquiry or Request right on it. And if there’s any confusion, an inquiry has the options of Pre-approve and Decline, but a Request has the options Accept or Decline.

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I disagree. Many new hosts don’t understand the difference. Obvious, it’s clear to us but I do think it can be confusing and I think it’s been designed that way.

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Well, sure, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean an inquiry looks a lot like a request and that it’s hard to tell the difference. Although because Airbnb sends prodding messages to pre-approve inquiries, it can make it seem like pre-approving or declining an inquiry is necessary.

New hosts don’t understand a lot of stuff because many don’t seem to have bothered to read almost anything in the Help articles for hosts, nor read the policies, before throwing up a listing.

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You might be right; I don’t know. I hope not though!

I don’t need to remind you, unless I do, how much goes into being a Host. I’m a co-Host for six years and still learning. Just this week you sent me back to school.

My primary (not exclusive) focus is on the hospitality aspect:

  • cleanliness,
  • safety,
  • the House Manual,
  • making it easy for guests to understand how things work (this is a big one),
  • messaging,
  • property maintenance,
  • systematizing the various processes (cleaning, messaging , house maintenance, gardening), tweaking things to improve and problem for what adds value,
  • tweaking the listing’s wordings, the pictures,
  • curating and promoting restaurants and things to do,
  • and it goes on.

So what I’m saying is that while I hope you’re mistaken that new Hosts haven’t read ‘anything’ I wouldn’t presume that they ‘haven’t bothered’ to. There’s a lot to do!

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For sure it’s a big learning curve, and even when you inform yourself, Airbnb is constantly changing things, which requires paying attention and keeping up.

But it isn’t a matter of opinion that new hosts sometimes put up a listing without bothering to inform themselves of the most basic things. I have read many posts from new hosts asking how they’ll get paid, do they have to ask guests to send them a check or deposit the money in their bank account.

Or they say “Help- somehow guests are able to book without me getting the opportunity to approve them!” (They don’t know about IB, and obviously haven’t gone through all the settings to make sure things are set up the way they want)

Yep, and even as a 19-year host when you consider all that and multiply it by all the other platforms we book on (VRBO, Booking.com, Expedia Partners, OwnerDirect, TripAdvisor, direct bookings, etc.) who also change rules and protocol and interface options periodically, it can be a real chore and require a constant vigil to stay updated.

I have seen dates blocked on my calendar after letting a request expire. What I have done is declined because I’m uncomfortable with the request . with the reason being the guest has stopped messaging. So I declined and send a guest message that says, " I will decline this for now since you aren’t responding but if you still want this in the future let me know. "

Otherwise you have to set a reminder or alarm in your phone to decline before countdown timer ends.

After doing the decline, guests often reappear sometime in the next 24 hours and request or book listing.
Sometimes people just get distracted or busy and that’s the way it goes. But at least you protect your response rate and decline rate with this tactic.

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