So I got a REQUEST TO BOOK from a potential guest last night for ONE PERSON in a 3/2 house that sleeps 8. Since I charge extra $10 per night over 2 people I wanted him to correct the number of guests. I sent a message asking him to correct the number of guests on the site and he sent an response back saying it was for 4 adults and 4 children.
I responded by asking him again to please change the number of guests on AirBNB site and he said he could not do it from the APP.
I responded by telling him how to change it.
I don’t really want to ACCEPT the booking for 1 person when there are 8 people coming but I don’t want to affect my RESPONSE RATE or my standing with AirBNB.
What should I do? If I accept the booking as is with the 1 guest, can I then require him to change it and if he does not I can cancel later?
That’s quite a big difference, even at only 10$ each pp pn. I have successfully gotten guests to cancel if, when they see the new price, (mine is 75$ each pp pn) , they don’t like it, usually they are partiers anyway. Not being able to do it is a lame excuse for not wanting to pay in full. I would involve Air today, before 24 hours, and they can look at the thread and help you.
I have already called Air twice. They said to tell him that he could either cancel the existing reservation and rebook or he could change the reservation to the correct number of guests. I relayed that message to him but haven’t heard anything back yet.
Will it go against me if I Decline the booking?
When similar happened with us, and the guest was unresponsive we made it Air’s problem. As it should be - they are the booking platform. It is their job and part of their percentage.
They will need to reach out to the guest and get them to fix it. Otherwise, too bad so sad.
You can decline if they don’t change it or cancel. Or try to get in touch with Airbnb again to say the guest is ignoring doing either, so to please void the request so you don’t have to damage your acceptance rate. That’s all that will happen- declines lower your acceptance rate. Not really a big deal.
You keep asking this question when the guest count is wrong. It’s been suggested that you just put up your prices reflecting the ability for the house to hold 8 people or to a higher rate that includes additional fees after say, 4 guests.
Raise your rates.
That is one option I will consider for the future, but not really applicable in this situation where the guest has already REQUESTED TO BOOK under my current set-up where I do charge for extra people.
Can’t you send a special offer with the right number of people and the price you want?
Sorry, I haven’t had bookings in so long I’m forgetting how the platform works. LOL.
Here is the Official Answer from AirBNB: I hope this helps everyone with this issue.
A host has 24 hours to officially respond to a reservation request by choosing to “Accept” or “Decline” before it expires. Responding with only a message is not an official response to the request, since it doesn’t tell our system whether to release funds or charge the guest, who has already entered their financial information.
You’ll see all the reservation requests you haven’t either accepted or declined in the “Requests” section of your Dashboard. You can click on the request in order to read the message from the guest, provide an answer, or ask for more information.
I encourage you to get in touch with your potential guest at your earliest convenience. If you’re not sure if you’ll be able to accept the request within the time frame, feel free to decline it for now and continue messaging with the guest. You can always send a pre-approval later if you’re able to accept the reservation.
We have a Help Center article with more details on reservation requests here:
We typically accept the request and let them know we will be sending a change request to reflect the correct number of guests, and pricing. If they do not accept the change request, then you can cancel. However, if they don’t like the new pricing we have found that they typically cancel the reservation on their own. In fact, we’ve never had to cancel due to this.
That is very helpful. So if I accept the REQUEST TO BOOK then the CHANGE REQUEST option will be available? And I can add in the additional charges?
I am pretty sure that on a REQUEST TO BOOK that SPECIAL OFFER button is not available, However on an INQUIRY the SPECIAL OFFER is available so that you can offer a discount and such.
At least that is what I have noticed.
Yes. It’s generally easier to just accept the booking and then you are able to send a change request with their other guests added. If they would rather decline the change, then they can cancel. I tell them this in my response, that they can accept or decline the change (and new price) and that they have 48 hours to cancel penalty free if they don’t want to pay the extra charge.
I’ve never had anyone cancel but I did have one guy say that he “already had a reservation with me” and “didn’t have to accept any changes” and “didn’t have to cancel either”. I told him that it was fine but that he was the only person who would be allowed onto the property, as that is all he had a reservation for. That worked too 
Can you accept it and then send him a request for the additional fee?
Yes. I always let the guest know that i will be sending them a change request before I finalize the booking - which gives them a chance to do it on their own or back out at that point if they want to. For some reason, we seem to do a lot of change requests and to date (after 600+ trips) we haven’t had it become a problem for us.
I believe that is correct.
Well, you’ve talked about it before…
Send them a special offer. If they don’t accept, make it Air’s problem.
She has. Frequently. From another topic you started:
If every other booking request gets it wrong, is it not time to think that maybe you are doing something wrong?
Just saying like…
JF
Wow - you are a rock star, not a host!
Yup. Thanks for finding that one. Honestly, I’m so over the definition of insanity… 