Hi
I have a guest who has requested to stay in my apartment in Jhb, but he lives in Jhb.
I have asked him who is going to stay and he says, himself, his girlfriend and her friend.
My gut is telling me to decline, but what is my reason?
Always follow your gut.
A short response thanking him for his interest in your apartment but stating you canāt facilitate a check in that date due to personal commitments should sufice.
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In actuality, you donāt have to write any reason or response at all when you click Decline.
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I had that dilemma once, my husband was in intensive care and I had my 18 year old daughter and host son, 17 years old, at home most of the time I was at the hospital. The guest had verification but no photo.
I had a very bad feeling and nightmare about him and decided that the only times in my life that Iāve come a cropper have been when I didnāt listen to my intuition. I didnāt feel safe leaving them in the house with him on theyāre own and felt that they would be at risk. So I declined and then he put his photo on and I could see, as much as you can from a photo, that I was right to decline him. I felt much better when Iād declined.
Listen to your internal wisdom 
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Just say sorry, itās unavailable and decline. They wonāt even answer. They will just move on.
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Donāt say anything. Just click DECLINE and get on with things.
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DECLINE. No reason given
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My gut many times tell me I must decline, but my needs forces me to accept, specially in low season.
I wish to have more inquiries to decide who is able to book with (or not) but it is no longer my case.
Today I got a reservation request that my gut told me to say no. My finger denied to hit the Accept button but I ended up doing it because I donĀ“t have anyone June is almost empty in my calendar and I need the money. He has great reviews but he left not so great ones which is the first thing I look after to screen my requests.
The reviews guests write talked a lot about them, more than their profile, their communication with you, or the reviews they have. It is the place where you will need to look to see if they are demmanding, if they are hard to pleased, if they are intolerant, etc, I rather prefer to spend 30 minutes checking every review they have written than to click Accept at the fisrt glance by the reviews left on him. However, this time my needs overcame my gut
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Confess I have never done this but should. I think youād be able to spot a nit picker right away. Someone once jokingly suggested we start a nit picker bad guest blacklistā¦So their names and profiles can be broadcast far and wide for hosts to peruse. I like that idea!
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I think thatās a great ideaā¦
Is that something than can actually be done?
I agree that you owe this person no explanation for declining their request. I usually do give people an explanation of why Iām declining their request though, even if itās to say āI donāt feel comfortable with your request because ________ā. Iāve told people many things such asāno profile photo or profile photo that was not clear, their communication was thus far not clear, they had nothing written about themselves on their profile. If they take it offensively, well, there is nothing I can do about that.
When I decline there is a drop down box that states āI am not comfortable with this guestā which I think is for Airbnb benefit alone. I usually if I feel bad I state really why I donāt think we are a good fit. (remember folks they are scouting for other places as well) I usually state the following which I have told in the past:
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I am sorry but since we are nowhere near to south beach and most of your questions were directed towards places more northern then my place I donāt think that you would be a good fit for our location.
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This part of town is more like old florida and with very few options of the active nightlife, club venues that you might like in close distance so I donāt think we would be a good fit for each other.
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I am sorry but the studio can only accommodate two adults and perhaps at best a toddler since it is a ācozyā studio apartment.
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We are a peaceful retreat in a very quiet area, we suggest looking for listing in the following areas.
and finally this one that I was caught unaware of and then fixed those weekends.
- So sorry but holiday weekends are a min of 3 nights.
Of all of the above most were inquiries so I just left that message and then dismissed the inquiry. For out right declines 2I trusted my gut and rather have forgone the money then a bad review.
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Hello. Am I missing something? I am assuming JhB is Johannesburg which is quite a big city so canāt see why your gut feeling is to decline. If I live in a part of Sydney and have a function on the other side of the city, then quite a reasonable need.
Is it his girlfriend and his friend that alarms you?
Perhaps you can ask for more information - obviously you are not on instant booking so perhaps a message just asking for a little more information. You can then judge more according to his response which my be something like, attending wedding nearby.
Is he verified? Does he have other reviews? These are the other pieces of information I would need prior to accepting or declining.
A bit hard for us to offer advice here without this additional information. I do understand āgo by your gut feelingā but sometimes with a little extra information, you tummy ache may disappear.
Local guests donāt usually worry me. A couple of years ago our building was being painted. So we booked into an Airbnb place on our street. There are all sorts of reasons why locals might book.
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The only reason why I donāt care for locals as couple of them came to my house just to have sex. All of them came early in the evening, did it and left not even staying the night. Itās was very awkward for us to listen to noices
they made. Here we are making dinner and it sounds like a porn is being played.
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Hereās why you should trust your gut. Got a request the other day for a two week stay in June, which is low season in Sydney. However, no photo and a one-letter Chinese symbol for a name. I declined. She wrote back and demanded to know why I had ācancelledā her booking. I explained that I hadnāt cancelled, merely declined and said I would be happy to review if she had an actual photo, stated her reasons for travel and why she would like to stay in my place. She tried to book again, this time with a photo but still - radio silence. I declined and blocked the dates on my calendar so she couldnāt keep doing this. I got a lovely message from her saying āif you donāt want me to stay, just fing tell me. No reason to be a f*ing liarā.
And that is why you should trust your gut.
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Just had a guest come and goā¦with no profile pic and a āvariationā of his real name. Sweet individual but cluelessly didnāt read and disregarded most house rules and left a complete mess. Said heād traveled extensively on Air but presently had no reviews??? Probably got slammed in the past and opened new accountā¦??? Possibleā¦ I liked him personally but will not leave a good review.
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Hmmm that does seem really suspicious. I think itās fine not to give a reason. Itās your home, so you shouldnāt have to justify it!!
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I think I posted this somewhere else here but itās relevant to this discussion. My guests who left yesterday should have given me that āgut feelingā but I took them anyway. They were incredibly young, with no reviews and were here for a music festival. So I was slightly nervous.
They were delightful and left the apartment in brilliant condition.
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