"precomplaining" or, when can I "ghost"?

I’ve been successfully hosting for over a year. I recently took advantage of the free airbnb photography service and the new photos are amazing. I’ve definitely had an uptick in bookings since they went up. I’m also doing instant book, which has been good so far. Only one bad guest (who, not surprisingly, was local), but I would have allowed her to book even without instant book…she looked fine “on paper”.
Interestingly, my conversion rate for guests who make an inquiry instead of just booking is exactly zero. So now I respond briefly but politely, much as I want to respond, "Stop wasting my time. Book or don’t book but don’t ask stupid questions like, ‘Is the flat available’. Of course the flat is available, you nitwit, or it wouldn’t show up for your dates."
Anyway, I’m slowly getting to the point. I recently had a conversation against my better judgement, since not only was it an inquiry, but she was also asking for a discount. I’m totally fine with people asking for discounts, although I use smart pricing and adjust my prices if I want to fill a gap, so I almost never give discounts. But I will consider it. Anyway, she told me she’ll be 6 months pregnant when she’s visiting, and I told her the upstairs neighbors are expecting imminently, thinking she’d be up for some baby bonding with them, and she said her friends wanted to know if there would be baby noise! This is what I call “precomplaining”, and it’s a big red flag. If somebody “precomplains” about anything, they will always complain about that thing, or something else, when they’re staying. So I politely suggested she find some other place to stay. My place will probably book for those dates anyway, and if not, high-maintenance guests are not worth it!
Finally, my question: when is it appropriate to “ghost” a guest? She wants to know why. What can I say, other than that I already know she and her friends are going to be a huge pain in my rear? Explaining or “ghosting”: kind of rude either way.

1 Like

Hahahah, that takes the cake!!! I guess she wants a break from kid noise before her own starts up. :laughing:

2 Likes

I don’t understand what ghosting is. I’ve never heard it before.

@wjquigs, your instincts are always worthy of following. You want to ghost em, that’s your right. :slight_smile:

I personally have a high tolerance for stupid guest questions and generally give them the benefit of the doubt.

2 Likes

The believe it means ignoring the question

Ghosting is when you vanish on a girl or guy you’re dating. At one point everything is hunky dory, you go for amazing dates and then… nothing and no explanation as to what happened. Your guy/ girl has vanished. Congrats you’ve been ghosted.

If you don’t know what it is- good! Feel pity for those of us familiar with the term :triumph:

3 Likes

And there are amazing memes about Ghosting!!

My husband (who has no idea of what the term really means) likes to accuse me of Ghosting him when I dont reply to his texts :sob::sob::sob::sob:

2 Likes

Lol he really has no idea. Cute!

2 Likes

The only reason I know the term is bc of all the salacious stories on RF29, HuffPo, etc, and because I use this thing called ‘social media’ than my husband shuns. LOL

I think we have all been ghosted but the term just became popular in the last few years.

I had a woman ask how far the nearest Costco is. That’s somewhat legitimate since they don’t know our exact address (though I easily determined the addresses of two Dallas area airbnb’s last week.) But if you want to know a distance it’s not hard to figure it out. Then she asked if I knew the location/street of the Costco. Now I’m annoyed because she can definitely look that up. At $39 a night I’m not providing concierge service. The room became booked for that night shortly after her second inquiry.

Last night a local woman asked if I have a cleaning fee. It really makes you feel that if they can’t even read the pricing part they aren’t reading anything else. But they did find the “contact host” button so what do I know?

2 Likes

Yup I’d ignore it. No further explanation needed, you already issued your decision.

Dumb or lazy questions are a good reason to decline.

1 Like