Responding to Inquiries

[Dailahn0]

Greetings Fellow Hosts,

I'm a new host and want to know how you guys feel about responding to inquires with a pre-approval.  I've been using airbnb for a few years as a guest and never noticed this before but as a host it feels awkward.  As a guest I would not want a pre-approval response to an inquiry. If I'm inquiring I'm looking around and making up my mind and feel that a pre-approval is presumptuous on the part of the host.  As a host I feel like I'm putting pressure on the guest to book with me and I don't like that either.  The emails from airbnb reminding me to take an action makes me feel like if I don't do something it will reflect badly on my ratings as a host. This happened when I was having a continuing conversation with a prospective guest when the time limit expired and consequenty gave me a black mark with airbnb.

I'd like to know how more experienced hosts feel about this.

[Ed-and-Hugh0]

I think you are confusing different issues. For an inquiry (which is what you mentioned) you merely have to respond promptly. There is no pressure on you to preapprove. If you decide to preapprove your guest is under no obligation to accept. If you don't want to preapprove then don't.

[Dailahn0]

But, Ed & Hugh, I was getting e-mails (and I meant to make it plural) from airbnb requesting I do something; either preapprove or refuse, and that felt like pressure to me.  If it was only a matter of a response, I did respond to the prospective guests with an e-mail addressing their particular question. The airbnb request that I do more felt like pressure.

[Lindsey9]

What did you learn about this? I feel the same as a new host. I'd prefer to let the Guest make a request to book, but I don't want to be "dinged" by AirBnB for not issuing a pre-approval. In fact, the very reason a guest is making an Inquiry is sometimes an indicator that it might not be a good fit. So I respond immediately, answer their question, and then do nothing. 

If I don't pre-approve or decline, and the Inquiry with my response sits on my Dashboard, am I penalized by AirBnB for a slower response rate?

Many thanks.

[Ana7]

@Dailahn0 I feel the same way. If you just answer the inquiry with a text, airbnb still pushes you to either preapprove or decline. I'm also feeling uncomfortable to do either of the two sometimes. 

Or maybe you got reservation request instead of inquiry? 

[Andrea9]

@Dailahn0

Hosts are held to high standards by the Airbnb algorithms. Pre-approving apparently is registered and positive and favors visiblility. So if I get an inquiry that I don't really need more information from and feel I can accept a booking from, I'll pre-approve.

If I still need an answer or clarification to help me decide, I won't.

I've heard  and read that guests like pre-approvals because their booking is one single click away, and they like having a choice  of pre-approvals.

I've had a number of guests who inquired and actually wanted to book with me and appreciated my pre-approval as sign of confidence.

Go figure... there's no wrong or right way...

[Ange2]

@Dailahn0  The preapproval works like IB,  if you preapprove the guest can go ahead and book without sending a  reservation request. It does not presume your guest will book, it just takes one step out of the booking process.  You can choose to keep the days open as well so if another guest decides to book,  the preapproval for the other guest  is voided.  You can also just write a message to them and ignore all the buttons and you won't get any reminders and you won't be penalized for not clicking a button either. I do that all the time, especially if I need more information. Sometimes there is a glitch and my response rate has been penalized but usually it works.

[Grace455]

I’ve reveived a pre-approval request to book my house for 2 months for a guest brand new to Airbnb with no profile picture and no reviews. I messaged them that before I approve their request I needed to ask some questions to make sure they would follow my house rules

of no parties, etc. Besides their first initial message, I have not received a response back from them in almost 24 hours. I do not feel comfortable approving them without them answering my questions, yet I don’t want to deny their request until they respond. The ball is in their court to respond to my questions now. Will this hurt my score as a host because they have not replied to my questions in the 24 hour time limit for reservation approval?

[Sarah977]

@Grace455  There is no such thing as a pre-approval request.

There are Inquiries, which you are given the option to pre-approve or decline. As long as you respond to the guest's message within 24 hours, that is all you need to do. You will get messages from Airbnb prodding you to pre-approve, but you can safely ignore those- if you clear your cache, they will disappear. Neither pre-approving or declining a request, as long as you respond by answering the guest's message within 24 hours, will not affect your stats at all.

Then there are Booking Requests, which you are given the option to either Accept or Decline. Those you do have to do one or the other within 24 hours (but you can message with the guest before doing either) or it will affect your Response rate.