I should know better but a ‘Trip Requested’ was received from a 0 reviewed, potential guest.
My question is, what are the circumstances where a Trip Request would occur? I have IB set.
Thanks.
You mean a Booking Request? If the guest doesn’t meet your IB criteria settings, they have to send a request.
If you require that they have been recommended by other hosts, and they are new to the platform with no reviews, they have to send a request.
Never heard of “Trip Requested”.
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Sounds like it could be a Reservation from a new guest who has not be ID Verified and/or Payment verified?
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Or … maybe this could be a “Frontline stay” or “Airbnb.Org stay” request?
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This guest has two verifications, Federal ID and Phone Number.
Request came through AirBnB.Com I’m not familiar with Airbnb.org and it does not show in my LISTING page. I apparently Opted Out of Frontline Stay at some point in the past.
muddy,
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My understanding is Airbnb.org requests still come THROUGH airbnb.com, but they may or may not “look different”. We are opted in but have not gotten one yet.
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Ok so it sounds like MAYBE this is a booking request for someone who does not qualify for IB, but it is odd that it is “Trip Requested”, not booking request. I would just start communicating with the guest to know more about their trip, and take it from there.
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And maybe in parallel to it, call Air superhost support and ask WTF is “trip requested”. Maybe it’s just a new thing?
I replied within five minutes, asking the potential guest why the IB wasn’t used.
No response at this point. Thank you for the inputs!
That is odd. But I also think it’s interesting that Air refers to booking requests as “trip requests” all the time.
When a guest puts in a request it now says, “Trip Requested” (where “Reservation Request” use to be) and it also references “so-so’s Trip Request”. They started that new term about a year ago, so now it’s Inquiries, Trip Requests and Instant Bookings. I think it’s to delineate from reservation requests for Experiences but not sure.
It’s usually because someone doesn’t meet one of your IB requirements but it’s also an option and some people request because they want to check dates with the host or get a feel for the host or ask about something they need or want and ask if it is available.
It kind of makes sense. If you have questions or want to make sure it’s a good fit or something then a request will block the dates while you’re waiting for the host to respond (whereas an Inquiry doesn’t) but there is no hassle to withdraw a request so it’s easier than canceling a reservation.
I hear other hosts say that it’s worrisome they have requested instead of IB because it might mean they have a negative review (if you have the “no negative reviews” requirement set). I don’t think I totally understand because you can see if they have a negative review before accepting their request, maybe I’m missing something.
Adding,
@skai, the other reason could be because you’ve used a free cancelation and canceled someone who IB’ed. Have you done that in the last few months?
Even though they tell you it’s a free cancelation, you get punished for awhile by getting requests instead of IBs, a type of shadow-ban for lack of a better term. It has happened to me twice, both times that I’ve used a free cancelation and others have reported the same. I know we’ve talked about on here. @riverrock figured out how to fix it. Go and turn off IB in your settings for a couple of days and then go turn it back on. It worked for me too. The first time I didn’t know about it and it took weeks before my listing showed as IB again when doing an incognito search and before I got an IB again. But the second time I tried riverrocks trick and it worked.
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You nailed it. The potential guest has no reviews and I had ‘Host recommendation required’ set in the IB settings.
Thanks all.
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It’s probably because the guest has zero reviews so she/he can’t use IB.
You might also have checked off positive reviews required too to use IB.
I have IB and I hate it when I get a trip request, if I accept it then I cannot cancel as uncomfortable.
For example, I had a person request to book and inform me they were bringing a service dog to my no pet listing. I felt like I had to accept it so I did. Once accepted I saw the person’s picture and it was her and her pit bull sitting on the sofa. Had I been able to cancel as uncomfortable I would have seeing the dog on the furniture.
Thankfully she cancelled day of reservation and I got paid
I will be VERY careful about accepting these going forward, I think my answer next time will be “ok, you can withdraw your request and instant book”. Then I still have some control.
RR
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I don’t see either AirBnB.org stays or Frontline stays on my laptop. I’d be open to those.
I have been seeing this lately when potential guests don’t meet my IB criteria or they haven’t completed their profile. It’s odd language, but it’s basically a Request to Book.
Thx for that info. I still haven’t opened up my home share to bookings since I closed in March 2020 for Covid (need to get second vax first), so I didn’t know they had changed the wording.
Look under your Policies and Rules and scroll down a bit. Under security deposit.
Nope not there
20220
It’s not odd if you consider that you could also have a request to book for an Experience if you were hosting one. I don’t host an experience but I am guessing that as accommodation hosts we get Trip Requests and experience hosts get Experience Requests. And if you were doing both, the wording would make sense.
The guest likely won’t understand what you mean by that question about IB @Skai
Why not just ask the guest your usual vetting questions to see if they might be a good fit for your place .
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I don’t have any ‘vetting questions’ as I use Instant Booking.
I approved their request a day ago.
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I think even most hosts who use IB ask guests some questions, or engage in some kind of dialogue, after the guest books, if the guest hasn’t offered anything informative. Especially because guests are notorious for not reading through the listing description or house rules.
Have you really never gotten a Request before?
You need to learn how to vet guests, regardless of whether you use IB or not.
And asking a guest why they didn’t IB, as if there’s something wrong with that, is pretty strange.