My listing has been deactivated

[Irina222]

I am quite new to airbnb and I have a listing for a flat.  I also recently contacted a few people in various locations that I plan to travel to.  I did not want to book yet, but only sent them a message!  I then immediately recevied an invite to book their place and as I was not ready, I did not reply.  I did not know I had to decline?  I thought I could only book so I did nothing especially since I only contacted the host with questions and did not ask to book yet.  

Accidently couple days later I discovered my own listing has been "deactivated" and it seems it is because I let the invite to book expire!  I now activated it again but seems eventhough my calendar shows up to date, when I checked from another pc my listing, it keeps on telling me "something went wrong with the dates"  Is this a penalty of some sort?  Or is it because I need to wait a few hours until my listing is active again?  I had no idea I had to either accept or decline the invites eventhough I never asked to book but only sent a message to the people!

Thanks in advance for support!

[Sarah977]

@Irina222   I can't imagine that Airbnb deactivated your account because you didn't follow through on an Inquiry. 

I assume you understand the difference between sending an Inquiry and sending a Booking Request? If you just want to ask questions, send an Inquiry, if you want to Book, send a Booking Request. 

The only thing I can think of is that you sent a booking request, the host approved it, and when Airbnb went to take money from your account for the booking (which will happen if you sent a Request rather than an Inquiry and the host accepted it), the transaction failed. That would cause them to deactivate your account, as your form of payment didn't work.

You need to contact Airbnb directly to find out exactly what is going on.

[Sarah977]

@Irina222   Actually, your post is confusing. The deactivation could have something to do with your listing as a host, or your messages to hosts as a guest.

If you haven't been Accepting or Declining Booking Requests from your potential guests within the 24 hours alloted for that, that could be why they deactivated your account.

[Irina222]

Hi Sarah,  unfortunately that was not the case...  It was because I have not replied to 4 or more of my inquiries about places. I find it strange that they would do it. Now seems to work again... So also keep it in mind for future... 

I googled and finally found it as some kind of explanation on Airbnb.

Nice day!