By Ben McCarthy, a UK host with over 25 properties who has been hosting for 5 years and also co hosts for other hosts.
An Airbnb booking request is not a warning by itself. On a listing with Instant Book and “good track record” switched on, a request made well ahead comes from a guest with no completed stay, or with a bad review or incident. The records of a UK host with over 25 properties show what that means in practice, and what to look at instead.
Why does a guest send a request instead of booking instantly?
Something in your settings stopped the guest booking instantly. In this data, about four in ten of 9,195 bookings and requests arrived as a request rather than an instant booking.
One setting says something about the guest. It is “good track record”, which you can use with Instant Book. The others say nothing about the person. So before you read anything into a request, check how your listing is set up.
Ben uses Instant Book with good track record switched on.
“We do that because we don’t want anyone that’s got a bad track record.” Ben McCarthy
Whichever way it arrives, an Airbnb request or instant booking lands in one inbox in Zugrow, beside your Booking.com bookings.
What does Airbnb’s “good track record” rule mean?
For Instant Book, a good track record means the guest has at least one completed stay and no bad review or incident.
So on a listing that uses it, a request made well ahead comes from a guest with no completed stay, or with a bad review or incident. That is a useful hint. It is not proof of anything about the person, and a guest with no completed stay is simply new.
Does a late request tell you anything about the guest?
Very little on its own. The data shows no clear link between trouble at a stay and last minute bookings, or between trouble and a request rather than an instant booking. Judge a late request on the guest’s message, as you would an instant booking.
How did hosts treat late and early requests?
Of 3,472 requests with a final outcome, 10% were declined and 7% expired. Splitting them at 3 days before arrival shows a difference.
Hosts declined a few more of the early requests and took longer to say yes. For more on how quickly to reply, see how fast hosts answer requests.
Can I decline an Airbnb booking request?
Yes. In this data, hosts declined 10% of the requests with a final outcome. Decide on the trip, never the person. For the legal side, read our article on guest screening.
What can you see about the guest on a request?
On an Airbnb request the host sees the guest’s join date, whether they are “New to Airbnb”, where they live and their identity check. Check the guest’s profile on Airbnb before you reply.
Use these details to understand the trip, never to judge the person. Where a guest lives is context for their plans, not a sign of risk. A join date is context too: every guest was new once.
Ben starts with the guest’s reviews:
“We normally look at their reviews, if they’ve got any. If they haven’t got any, then we normally treat them with a clear mindset. However, we do look at the negative reviews. For us, we’re not bothered if someone is messy. … We’re bothered about damage, and we’re bothered about noise and breaking rules like parties or being loud or having unapproved guests. That for us is a huge red flag, and we won’t accommodate anyone like that.” Ben McCarthy
If something is unclear, ask about that one thing rather than sending a list of questions. Hosts asked “who is staying” 578 times and “what brings you here” 504 times. About one in seven of those questions could have changed the decision. The data on whether pre booking questions work goes into this in full.
What did the data show about problem stays?
The only pattern that held was group size, counted from the number booked. Nothing clear linked trouble to one night stays, weekend nights, last minute bookings, or a request rather than an instant booking. So a request on its own is not a reason to worry. For the full picture, read what predicts a bad stay.
Because group size is counted from the number booked, it is also worth reading about guests who bring extra people.
What to do with this
- Know how your listing treats guests. Check whether you use Instant Book and “good track record”. Without this, a request tells you little.
- Do not treat a late request as a warning. Read the message and judge the trip.
- For an early request on a listing with a good track record rule, read the profile with care. The guest may simply have no completed stay yet. Welcome a new guest whose trip makes sense.
- Treat the join date as context. Every experienced guest was once new.
- Ask about the one gap, not everything. A single clear question is enough when something does not add up.
- Reply promptly, then give the guest time to answer. Of the 3,472 requests with a final outcome, 7% expired, and nobody wins when that happens.
- Decide on the trip, never the person. Age, family, nationality, language and other personal traits are never a reason to decline.
Tempted to make your rules stricter instead? See what happened when we replayed past requests against stricter rules.
Limits of this data
- Reading the 3 day split as a track record signal is an inference. The data does not prove why a guest sent a request.
- Where we refer to problems at a stay, the numbers are small, so one stay moves a share by several points.
- The team’s chats record what was noticed, not everything that happened.
- Any judgement of a “best first reply” is made from the conversation alone. The hosts could also see the guest’s profile.
- Group size is counted from the number booked. Guests often book for fewer people than they bring, so the true link between group size and trouble is likely stronger than the figures show.
Where Zugrow fits
A request on its own tells you little. What settles it is the trip and the guest’s answers. Zugrow is a channel manager for Airbnb and Booking.com hosts, with a Guest Vetting agent built in. It politely checks the reason for the stay and confirms the number of guests, then recommends what to do. Declining a guest always waits for you. Join the waitlist.