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I received an inquiry with a discount request and the guest was extremely persistent in asking for a discount. I had to deny the request a few times before she gave up.
Now she has made a booking request. She has no reviews and I want to decline the reservation.
I have four choices. Which one do I select so that I will not be penalized and so that the dates will remain available?
I’m not as expert as some here but in that situation, I would probably choose #2 Not fitting needs as they ‘need a discount’ it seems…I don’t believe that will be a negative for you…I have used that option most often.
This is starting to get crazy. I said no to her 4 times for a discount. Then I declined the request, then she sent another message, and then sent another request!
As others have said. Block one day, write the last message: this doesn’t work for my schedule and don’t decline or accept the booking.
As I understand it, it’s the response and not the rejection or acceptance of the booking that influences your rate but perhaps that has changed?
Be honest; I’m uncomfortable with the reso. Hosts need to understand they are NOT penalized, even as SH, for denying a BI. This is why you have your listing set to BI and not IB. Hosts have that in their heads daily but it’s just not true. Keep in mind, you’re not being penalized but after a certain number of denials, the system will send up a flag for us to review why you’re being too picky lately. Just keep a good balance of under 5 ish per every 100 you accept. I know it’s steep, but that gives you some wiggle room and will also keep you under the radar.
correct ish - but you are never dinged for denying requests either unless you deny more than you accept and end up hitting a certain percentage of denials over accepts when using BI/RTB. Air wants hosts to accept resos, but they understand some hosts want more control than just allowing IB so they created RTB feature. It’s fairly misleading but as a host, you will NOT get penalized for denying a request.
also true, no longer possible can be a hosts best friend but you can also lose thousands of dollars if you block that date for one guest you don’t want to host and then a long term reso was attempted to be made on the date as well by a different guest, you just lost a guaranteed (no matter what) 30 days of income. Just my opinion… deny the request to book originally.
But if someone isn’t going to take no for an answer then you could get to your 5 out of 100 quickly. Blocking a day or two would send the message to stop contacting me because it’s literally not possible for you to book now as well as blocking those requests coming through. If you are like me and don’t like longer bookings anyway it’s a low risk strategy.
I would also have taken the approach of directly telling the guest to stop requesting because I wouldn’t be accepting under any circumstance. I’m not sure how I would word it so as to seem professional while also letting them know this was entirely their fault for being a PITA but I’d do it.
Very true, which is why I qualified my suggestion by saying only if they were ok with it
Blocking a day in the middle also protects the hosts against the guest getting her friend/cousin/partner/brother etc to make a fresh request. There’s been a couple of topics on here when potential guests simply wont take no for an answer and try booking under a different account.
In my case, I had an existing cottage colony (inherited) that I’d been running for some years before Airbnb existed so i thus have a HIGH number of existing customers and ones who find me via other means (other web sites, referrals, wlak-ins, etc) and I’m relying on Airbnb to just fill the ‘leftovers’ from those 85-90% regular customers which means I can usually only accept 1-2 bookings per unit (I have 5) per year. I keep getting RTB’s for dates that aren’t possible (I rent only weekly Fri-Fri from June-Aug) or other things that won’t fit. I specify in my Profile that I want Inquiry FIRST but some guests don’t read it or care.
I’ve been quite happy with the 4-6 bookings per year that I’ve gotten from here but when people ask for impossible things, I have no choice but to decline them though I ask them to cancel Request first so it’s their choice to back out.
I hope I don’t run afoul of any criteria because I’m not really being that picky but i get RTB that i can’t handle.
Thanks for any feedback on my situation! (I also REALLY wish there was a third status for a given date other than Avail or Block, such as Pending so i could flag those weeks that MIGHT be open but may be taken by another off-line guest).
The guest ended up sending me 3 booking requests before I blocked her.
The first problem was that there was no valid category for blocking her, she was not being inappropriate in a racist or sexual nature nor was she spamming me or any of the other choices Air gave me. But I blocked her anyway.
The second problem is, my acceptance rating went down for 2 or 3 declines even though it was the same guest for the same dates. In theory, a malicious actor could bring my rating down below the 88% target. I consider this a bug in their system.
