Non-communicating prospective guest

Hello everyone. Some advice would be appreciated, as we have a situation which is new to us, but I’m sure, not uncommon.

Our Airbnb (in the UK), is an annexe connected to our main house, and we started letting in 2021. Our policy has been not to allow instant booking; we like to do a little checking before accepting visitors, as we don’t accept pets or children, and we like to try and build a bit of a connection with the guests beforehand. The policy has worked well so far; we have Superhost status, and guests seem really to appreciate the effort we put in to make their stay comfortable, and the place spotless. And we have had some really nice people, and very few we wouldn’t welcome back.

This time, a lady sought to book, for herself and three others, for a two night stay in September. On checking, I found she had joined Airbnb in 2020, but had no reviews from hosts, and she had not offered any information, at all, about herself or her guests.

I immediately wrote back to her, acknowledging the request, and asked if she could give a liitle information about herself and friends, but received no response (which is unusual - most people seem quite happy to tell us a bit about themselves). The 24 hour period for me to accept or decline expired (another first), but I sent her a message saying I was prepared to accept her (at a slightly reduced rate) - and the ‘slot’ duly booked.

I then wrote back to her, asking again for more information - but again, have received no reply.

This makes me nervous. As things stand, I don’t know anything at all about them; whether it is a single-sex group, or couples; whether they have read our house rules and understand them; that there must be no pets or children (we are over-18 only and one can’t rely on AirBnB to check things thoroughly), etc…

What would be your advice? Should I cancel this booking, or just cross my fingers? If we contacted AirBnb about our concerns, would they help, do you think?

You now have their contact details- ring or text them!

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Where would I find these details - I have only contacted her through Airbnb, and can’t see any information about her?

She probably hasn’t checked her messages. I agree with Debthecat, send her a text.

In the app there should be a call guest option

Go to reservations , then upcoming , then click on the booking - there should be a message and call button as well as the number displayed below

Many thanks - the number was very small, and I wasn’t sure it was actually the guest’s number.

Have now texted her, and just received a helpful and pleasant reply, so all good!

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As I read it you don’t have a booking. You don’t have IB, she requested, but you didn’t accept. As a request you don’t have a number to call because Airbnb doesn’t want people to book offline.

Given the pandemic it’s not surprising that she has no reviews. She may not have even stayed. But some hosts don’t bother to review even if the stays were fine.

Why? She’s not responding so you want to reward her? You’re desperate for a booking?

I have the kind of listing that doesn’t require that I have all that information. The longer I do this the less communicative guests have become. I don’t worry about it. Since you require it and she’s not providing it simply decline the request with the message that she hasn’t provided the required information.

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I just had a similar request and the only response was: We are two women coming to the university. I guarantee that you will have no problem with us. She also wanted me to hold the dates and not book right away so I didn’t even bother getting into further conversation about he info. I just said that I didn’t do that and haven’t heard from her since. Airbnb would probably be of no help with this.

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I don’t know how you worded that, but I would find that a strange request if it is stated like that. What kind of information? I would be more specific about what info I was seeking.

And like KKC, I don’t understand how they “booked” if you don’t use Instant Book and didn’t accept within 24 hours. That isn’t possible. Did you get a booking confirmation? Does the guest show up on the calendar? If not, and you are just seeing the dates blocked, that isn’t a booking. They are blocked because you let a request expire, which you should never do.

You have to get the info from the guest that you need before the 24 hrs runs out. If you can’t, you need to decline.

When the 24 hours expired without response ( we were away from home, and out of contact), Airbnb left a message saying we could re-offer at a slightly reduced rate. So we did that (not because we were ‘desperate’ for a booking!)

The lady immediately booked, but what perplexed us was we still didn’t hear from her.

Turns out she had given Airbnb her work email, and its prompts were switched off), so as several of you surmised, she wasn’t aware of our messages.

The reason for my thread was that we didn’t know how to contact her, so the advice re. texting helped greatly.

All is well, now contact has been made.

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I don’t understand the relevance of knowing that.

Now THAT is relevant.

You could easily write: We’d like to make sure that you’ve read our house rules that include no pets [or is it animals?] and no one age 18 or under may be a guest (or visitor) . . . and [fill in blank]. Do you have any questions about any of this? Also, can we answer any questions about the property, how to get here or the area? Please let us know as we’d like you to have a wonderful stay here.

??? You need to learn to ignore Airbnb’s suggestions. You can reoffer at whatever rate you want. Or just ask the guest to put in a new booking request if the original has expired. There’s no reason to reduce the rate because the guest didn’t respond in time.

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Thanks for clarifying.

There’s no reason to do that since she was willing to book at the prior rate. Now she’s been rewarded for not communicating. I understand that it wasn’t on purpose.

What I just learned it to request to book, ignore any message from the host and hope they take the bait from Airbnb to reduce my rates. Travel is booming and inflation is up so I hope most of us aren’t lowering our rates.

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Many thanks for those thoughts.

The reason for wanting to know the makeup of the group is, we have one king size and two single beds. Some single-sex groups don’t like the idea of bed-sharing, but we can offer a camp-bed as an extra if they’re squeamish! If we know.

We find getting to know a little about them, and their plans for their holiday, helps form a little bit of a bond, and enables us to tweak the product to suit.

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You have no idea how many beds a group would need based on the sex of the group. As far as you know, an all female group of 4 guests may consist of 2 lesbian couples, each of whom normally share a bed.

Even a heterosexual couple may not normally share a bed, because one of them snores like a locomotive, or thrashes around in their sleep.

You are asking the wrong question and making false assumptions. You need to ask them how many beds they need made up, not the sex of their group.

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No false assumptions, no heavy- footed questions - that’s not our style. We just need to ensure they know what we offer and are happy with the sleeping arrangements - and if not, whether we can improve matters, as with the extra campbed (which isn’t mentioned in our property description).

Also, we sometimes find, on enquiry, that not all the beds need to be made up, which saves work.

So far, no-one has found our queries impertinent, or taken umbrage, and most seem happy we take an interest in them.

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You missed my point entirely.

This is what you said in your original post, which presumes that single sex groups couldn’t consist of couples.

Whether they are singles who don’t want to share a bed or couples who do, is relevant, the gender composition of the group is not.

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Don’t give a toss who sleeps with whom - not interested!

Frankly not prepared to continue with this line of hectoring conversation.

Think what you like.

Everyone else, many thanks.

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Every host is different. But for 2 nights, I would be inclined not to bother. Sounds dodgy.

hahaha it’s SO refreshing to be able to +1 this on a forum outside of ABB!
everything they suggest is purely about profit for ABB, and nothing more. they are the new modern capitalists, who pretend to be liberals, progressives, whatever, but still worship at the altar of the $$$$$$$

look at the Insight Tab as proof. It should be a place where we see our income and all sorts of useful info about our guests and other stats, but instead we are constantly being told what more amentities we should offering, and how we need to turn on Instant Book, and offer month long stays.

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