I received a reservation request with virtually no information. I asked for more information from the guest and all they did was provide a photo. I asked several times. Finally I declined the request. The guest wrote me and said I still want to stay with you and I responded that I had already declined the request and they needed to look elsewhere. They requested the room for a second time. I wrote to Airbnb and said why should I have to decline this a second time and have it affect my ratings? The support person suggested that I just ignore the request instead of declining it a second time. How can that be right? Won’t it still affect my ratings?
Was it a Request to Book in both cases? Or an Inquiry?
We don’t advise “writing” to Air Customer Service unless it’s on the Air Twitter or FB account. Calling them is almost always the best thing to do.
A request both times.
I simp!y go into the calendar and block the days the guests requested instead of declining. I do respond to them with a generic statement “Thank you for your inquiry.” This way I will not get penalize for declining and my respond rate remains 100%.
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After you declined the first time and they request again you can report them. After you click report you may get an option to block them from further contact. That option used to be under the “something else” option but some people have said that it’s no longer available.
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I’m interested to know how you ended up handling @Cozy2018 Please share the final outcome when you are finished. Thanks.
@Ritz3 Thank you but I don’t understand your advice. I don’t want those days blocked because I would like to rent them just not to them. Does Airbnb not penalize you if you block the days after you get the request? And then simply unblock them? Also it wasn’t an inquiry. I would not have a problem if it was an inquiry. When I wrote to Airbnb they told me to simply ignore it and I wrote back and said “that can’t be right because I only have a certain amount of time to respond before it affects my standing.” I suggested they talk to their supervisor. He wrote back and said that they have no control over the requests that guests put in but that he would reach out to that guest to encourage them to cancel. I’m still waiting to hear how that goes.
No. I have instant book and rarely cancel a booking or decline a request. (maybe 10 of 500 guests). I sometimes block the day requested or one of the days within the requested period to direct the guest to look at other listings. After a few days I unblock the dates again. This might not work for others who have a different kind of listing or guests than I have.