guest trying to trick me with a reservation request

[Ryan114]

I recently had a guest request to stay in Jan. and then asked me to stay in December on dates that I had open but not enought dates to qualify for a stay (3).  I took the day I needed off the schedule because of a christmas party.  The guest asked if I would make an exception to the (3) day rule.  I said no I have plans plus time to prepare.  Then, after I pre-approved his Jan. request he sends back a message saying that he will not be staying in Jan. because he only requested Jan. to try to talk me into letting him stay the day I have blocked off my schedule.

Is there any Airbnb policy that allows me to blackball that jerk?

[Carol90]

I had one guest complain or indicate the same that they have to choose dates in order to communicate, I have not traveled with ABB so cannot confirm. Someone else may know.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Not true, thay can scroll down bellow your reviews to your profile. There they have a "contact host " button. It would be much better if that button is on the top of your listing. (i think it was before)

[Marit-Anne0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0

Please read the last posts on page 2.

[Robin4]

@Branka-and-Silvia0   Yes I am afraid it is true! You still have to put in dates! There has already been a few posts on this!

Cheers.....Rob

[Dede0]

@Ryan114 I don't quite understand what you're describing. More details and better timeline in a rewrite, perhaps? The guest does seem the be messing with you, but I can't quite understand.

[Robin4]

@Dede0   @Ryan114. Yeah a frequent scenario and it surprises me you have not come across it @Dede0. The proposed guest wants to open up a message stream with the host, and the only way he can do it is by requesting a pre-approval.....and it's a good way of establishing contact. The host grants the pre-approval, messages get passed back and forth and after 24 hours the pre-approval drops off the system! Everyone comes out on top, the host has responded to the pre-approval so does not get pinged for response time! The 'guest' gets to ask all the questions they like and in 24 hours it all disappears!

Ryan, don't be too hard on the 'guest' enquiry....he is not being a 'jerk' as you put it....he is just trying to set up a conversation stream with you without penalising you. This is the only way he can do it because ABB are not going to volunteer any other contact details until he books.....and that then does pose problems.

Cut him a bit of slack @Ryan114, he's not a bad guy!

Cheers.....Rob 

[Dede0]

@Robin4 and @Ryan114 You're right, Robin. I just didn't click to that when I originally read the post. That does happen all the time and there's nothing nefarious or jerky about it. For us, it happens most often when people want to ask about dates way off in the future, in months we haven't opened up yet. Or it happens when a current month is 100% booked, thus looking like it just hasn't been opened. We've never had any problems with the people inquiring this way, and we've even sometimes gone ahead and made a bookinf far off in the future, as long as we were fairly certain we'd be in town at the time.

[Karen-and-Will0]

@Ryan114:  Interesting you should post this since I just had something similar happen to me late last Saturday night. The young man (high schooler) requested the only 3 days I have open in December and sent me a verrrrry long explanation about how he had 7 “cousins” and they wanted to stay in June after graduating from high school. My house is at the beach and the month of June is notorious for having requests from recent high school graduates who then destroy the property. I messaged him explaining the house wasn’t available most of the summer since family uses it. I then declined him and when I had to select a reason from the drop down box the reason “guest requested different dates” was there so I chose it. Not going to blackball him but I wasn’t thrilled to get the request at midnight Saturday night.

Perhaps others can shed better light on whether you should flag him, but for me I just moved on.

[Jiw0]

This happens to me all the time.

I don't think the guest is trying to trick you, I don't think he's blackmailing you, and I definitely don't think he's a jerk.

It's just that many guests arent' super experienced on the AirBnB site, have trouble booking the dates they want and keep fiddling around until they get to where they can send you a message. (happens to be an inquiry for different dates).

This happens really a lot for me, and I just explain it to the guests.

BTW I've raised this time and again with AirBnB that 'Entered wrong dates' should be a reason for declining a stay, because it happens so often and it's the only reason why I ever decline guests.  (EDIT: Wow! Just read above that “guest requested different dates” is now available!!!  Excellent! )

However with all the recent changes in policy for AirBnB I'm now very worried about declining anyone for any reason. I prefer to ask guests to cancel their booking inquiry, or if it's just an inquiry and not a booking request then I prefer to just let it sit there without declining:  I'm not confident enough that AirBnB won't at some point punish hosts for declining, even based on past declining of months or years ago.

Anyway I digress: in this case all you need to do is say "sorry, we have an X day minimum stay.  Please consider me again for any longer future stay."

And then don't decline, just in case.

[Sandra126]

Happens to me all the time too. Because they can't contact you any other way than with an enquiry they use that to say what it is they want, such as ''If you get a cancellation on Sat, can you let me know?'' Decline. I wish there was a way to ''ask host a question'' before booking anything button.

Edited: With a very reasonable price to 7 guests I am not surprised you ahve a three night min. You could let him stay for the two nights, but he has to pay for three as that is the absolute min payment you will accept.

[Jiw0]

> Happens to me all the time too. Because they can't

> contact you any other way than with an enquiry

> they use that to say what it is they want

They can actually, but it's way down the listing page, not in the much more prominent box on the right with the Book button.   

[Marit-Anne0]

@Jiw0

Even using the "contact host" button, I still believe you need to enter your dates.

When I try contacting you using said button without entering dates, I get a pop-up message: Sorry, you cannot contact this host as the dates you have selected are unavailable.  So whatever you try, you would have to enter available dates in tune with the minimum stay for said host/property.  Bad news for spammers.

[Jiw0]

@Marit-Anne0

> Even using the "contact host" button, I still

> believe you need to enter your dates.

I tried and it turns out you're completely correct.

AirBnB must be the only community in the world that actively discourages their members talking to each other..   "Just click that InstantBook button, give us money and move along please."

What are they thinking, I'm sometimes thinking..