Newbie Question regarding responses

I get an email from a potential guest asking a question. I answered the email but the little clock keeps ticking saying I have 23 hrs to answer. I mean, he was asking a question not asking to book so I should not be hitting the “pre-approve” button, right?

It normally only does that when you have a booking request. You can then correspond with the guest for up to 24 hours so that you can see if there is a good fit. You must then either accept or decline the booking.

Right. An inquiry (as opposed to a booking request) should not be accompanied by a ticking clock. But Airbnb’s site and software is buggy, and this has occasionally happened to me too. Try refreshing the page and see if the clock goes away.

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There is a clock, because there is a countdown for the response time.

However, the actual countdown stops when you send a response. The countdown stays, because Airbnb wants to “convince” (or coerce) hosts into engaging more with guests, and quick (until they pre-approve).

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So are you saying we can ignore the request to pre-approve ? Like before when all you needed todo was answer the message ?

Yes.

The system’s countdown is tied to the existence of a “sign of life” by the host (response, pre-approval, decline). The displayed countdown is a countdown to pre-approval or decline, but this has no effect per itself on the system.

However, if you want to stop focusing on gaming Airbnb and get bookings instead, I recommend thinking and pre-approving quick, but that’s because humans don’t want to wait when it comes to throwing money. :dollar:

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@smartbnb.io Very true. People don’t want to wait… and so when I have an inquiry from someone who gives me the willies for any reason, I don’t pre-approve unless they respond to my response. I am leaving some money on the table, possibly, but the health of my business and my own personal sanity actually depends on the right people for this house staying with us.

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There is no clock normally displayed for inquiries, unless something has changed recently. Though (I think) there is a requirement that you respond to an inquiry within 24 hours. I’m fuzzy about that, though. I usually respond to inquiries as soon as I see them, which is much less than 24 hours later.

But next time I get an inquiry, I’ll pay attention whether a clock is displayed and how it behaves. I.e. does it stop counting once I respond? Or does it only stop counting once I send a pre-approval? Which I rarely do. For one reason or the other, inquiries here don’t work out that often. And sometimes people choose to just go ahead and send a booking request.

There is a clock for inquiries Faheem and Airbnb also makes it look like you must either pre-approve or decline immediately.