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I’ve had my third request in 2 weeks to rent to a group larger than my maximum occupancy. I declined the first 2. They would not remove their “Request to Book”. Now I’m getting a little anxious about the 3rd declination on a “Request to book”.
It has been a recurring topic that hosts with too many declinations are punished by Airbnb by Airbnb pausing their ability to make new bookings for a week or two.
Of course the very pleasant but clueless Airbnb customer service rep says I should decline the reservation to meet my response times and there is not a penalty for excessive declinations.
What would you do? Cancel & risk the hit? Try another CSR? Not reply and affect response time?
History: 1 BR 1BA condo was 90% booked for summer. Had 3 cancellations. Freed weekends immediately rebooked. Now have 3 weeks of M-Th, or T-F, or S-Th available so I put them out at 15% discount since no weekends & short stay. Listing discloses queen bed & queen sofa sleeper if 2 adults want to rent & desire separate beds.
Disclosed in listing summary description, full description & house rules 2 guest maximum includes adults, children & infants staying.
Yes, the condo can accommodate 4 people but I don’t want to. In the past 18 months, I’ve updated kitchen appliances, granite countertops, sink, faucet, bathroom sink & faucet, painted all cabinets, had the condo repainted & replaced the sofa bed.
I’m sure you’ve seen my laments on the same subject. When you decline someone does it give you a place to put a reason? Declining someone who is violating house rules in their request shouldn’t count against you.
Have you tried the technique of making the 3 and 4th person fee outrageously high? Would it be worth it to host 4 if you could make hundreds extra if some nitwit booked it at double rate? How about the special offer at double rate?
I’ve changed my wording to reinforce the idea that I don’t accept more than 2 and am hoping my extra iterations of the warning and penalty deter future requests.
At least if it’s something clearly in violation of terms or house rules you can penalty free cancel or decline. It’s annoying to answer queries that are answered in the listing but doesn’t every business have to field such queries? Like the the one asking for business hours? Chances are they got the phone number off the same spot in the interweb where they found your phone number.
BTW, I have a third party booking here now. A woman with 5 reviews instant booked for two. In her very informative message she told me that she lives here in town (profile says lives elsewhere so don’t count on that) and that the booking is for a friend coming to town for a visit. She brought the friend, let her in the room, went home. Came back today to pick up friend. Came back to room with friend and is here now. I just don’t see having a problem with this.
I don’t see a problem with it either. I’ve read here from other hosts that Airbnb don’t really have a problem with it either. We have booked a local Airbnb on a few occasions for my elderly in-laws. - never a problem.
I don’t have a problem with third party bookings and like most hosts, I don’t even consider the Airbnb guarantees and whatnot. That’s what STR insurance is for.
When you get a repeat guest or a guest via your own website or any other non-Airbnb source, the Airbnb malarkey wouldn’t kick in anyway.
