Opening the page from somewhere else should also get rid of the clock. It’s strange that didn’t work.
That’s what I thought. Oh well. I still can’t find where everyone is seeing the page that rates you for inquiries and requests. I get inquiries, but not sure if I’ve had requests, so I’ll have to re-look at all of the messages. I’m not sure I even get requests though, since they can just Instant Book. I’ll figure it out eventually.
I don’t think there’s a page that rates and breaks down inquiries. Under progress and basic requirements there is a percentage of accepted requests. If you have IB those still count as accepted.
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That’s an interesting strategy. But if the guest has already made a booking request, doesn’t it require a response, regardless. Or, to put it differently, isn’t the booking request already “in play”? Does making a special offer somehow invalidate or obsolete the booking request? If so, that seems… surprising.
To be precise, it’s
Progress → Opportunities → Basic requirements → Accepted reservations
Why Opportunities? Who knows.
Target is listed as 88%. I’m at 92%. I think I’m going to start asking people who I don’t want to host to cancel their booking request. If there are any other options, I’m all ears. I don’t cancel a whole lot, but some of the time, it’s unavoidable.
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@faheem Do you use instant book?
No, I don’t use Instant Book.
So you have situations where you accept and then change your mind? Oh wait I see it says booking request
No, that’s not really an option unless you want an ugly “cancelled booking n days before arrival” among your reviews.
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OK, found it. I’m at 94%. I’ve never declined anyone to my knowledge, but I’ve had a couple people cancel…one for the feather allergy. LOL. I’m not going to stress. Thanks all.
i remembered i asked airbnb if it counted statistically as a positive respond and they told me yes.its worth checking again with them.i never decline any enquiry and have 100pc stats for 4 years now
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Hi @viznou,
So, just to be clear, if you get a booking request you don’t want to accept you
a) neither accept nor decline the booking request
and
b) Send a Special Offer at an inflated price, so the guest is guaranteed not to accept it?
And this is then not counted as a decline?
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yes correct. if you dont want to accept it, nor decline it, just send an inflated special offer. this is considered a positive “reply” for airbnb as now its up to the guest to book and make a decision.
ps.at the same time that you send the special offer or even just before, IF you are using instant booking, put an inflated price in your calendar for a few hours or days as well so the guest wont book bcoz too pricey.
i sometimes do this because i dont have a good feeling about a particular guest and that way i dont have to give a reason why i dont want to host that guest which is i believe not acceptable from airbnb as this is my house and i should be able to host who i want without having to justify myself and/or being penalized by airbnb for declining…!
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Thanks for the clarification/confirmation, @viznou. I must say, this approach would never have occurred to me. Lateral thinking, indeed.
Oh, and I don’t use Instant Booking. Wild horses couldn’t drag me to Instant Booking. So I suppose your second paragraph does not apply to me. Though I’m unclear how this would be useful, assuming that I were using Instant Booking?
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One of my house rules is NO parties. I had a lady inquire about a weekend stay. When I asked about the purpose of her trip and how many, she responded that it was a high school graduation party for her daughter and it would be about 16 teens! I heard that declining a request would hurt me as a host, so I got creative. I went to my calendar and block one of the days in the time frame she was interested in. I waited a bit and then responded to her message. I was polite and suggested she rent space at a venue in my town that is affordable. I did not hit the decline button. I’m assuming she continued her search or was unable to book because one of the days was blocked. Like I want 16 teens trashing my house!
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Too bad we didn’t know about these new metrics - and ways of avoiding declines - earlier. My declines are awful on my cheap and cheerful unit.
Can they decline a single unit due to high declines?
Bitten by declines——I have three units. I appears declines are tallied for all 3 units for my statistics and possible “blocked listings” by Airbnb.
I rarely need to decline bookings. In the past week, I’ve had an extraordinary number.
- 2 different requests to bring more guests than allowed in the unit.
- Person A. made original booking request. Then Person B (partner) made booking request for same dates so it would bill to his credit card. Person A is declined due to unavailable dates. Would not remove booking request; stated did not know how.
- Dad used adult daughter’s Airbnb account to do booking request. He then established his own account & did booking. Daughter would not remove booking request & stated did not know how. I asked Airbnb to call her & help (THEY DID!!! Good CS!).
CS told me that they look at 3 declines in a row or 5 in a short period as concerning. The reasons DO NOT matter. At 5 your listing will be suspended for a few days.
Declines due to instant book are not considered up to some number in a short time (maybe 5).
Without this forum & thread, I wouldn’t have known about the decline suspension penalty and would not have contacted customer service.
Thank you for this thread.
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@AJmartin1 that is brilliant.
Maybe you could add blocking the dates on another platform if the person os really worrisome.
I suppose you mean that you just give a negative response then a few hours later actually accept the reservation? I’m surprised in fact that they don’t sometimes react since they will get a message you accepted?
What would stop them from cancelling the special offer then making an instant booking or another booking with someone else account?
I can see how it’s effective tho people just hate if you increase the price.
why no locals? I’m curious, i never get any maybe it’s for one night stands?