The attention to quick responses to requests from homeowners with the Automatic Declines is a positive development. However, a cousin to that issue is the failure of the homeowners to update their calendars. We join the many requesters who have sent 7, 10, and 15 requests only to find out that the homeownerâs home is unavailable EVEN THOUGH THEY SHOW IT AS AVAILABLE. If they truly donât have availability for a date then they are wasting their time and the requesterâs time. We just went through that in the UK and Ireland. Why do people show availability and then routinely decline requests? We note many of the responses show a lack of attention or caring for other members: a common response is that the kids are in school and we canât make it available. What??? You do a great job showing that the homeowners donât respond timely, but why not another statistic next to that showing the percentage time they have availability in their calendars but decline the requests? As this forum and other FB posts relate, it is very frustrating to the members requesting. when they see availability on the calendar. Such a statistic would show requesters that they may be wasting their time asking for a date that the lazy owner fails to update.
@Juancho, this is not Airbnb. In HE, having availability does not mean that you have to accept any family that contacts you. As hosts, every family have the right to choose who are they hosting in their homes. So they can have their calendar open and still decline requests.
I share @Juanchoâs frustration. What you say is certainly true @illopart, but the issue is people directly responding that their home is not available â even when the calendar says it is.
HE is not an Airbnb or a hotel. A calendar showing âavailableâ usually means that the host is open to CONSIDERING an exchange. But their acceptance is contingent on many factors including whether the member is interested in going to the home or area of the requestor, whether the member trusts and has confidence in the requestor, whether the member is able to find another exchange location (in the case of a GP request).
That being said, I too wish that members took their calendars more seriously and kept them up-to-date.
The responses are interesting but somewhat off-point. If they say available, then it should be available. If it is a conditional availability (
âI may not like your requestâ âI want to possibly make this a reciprocal tradeâ, etc. those notes should be in the listing. Regardless of the reason for not accepting, it would be quite helpful to the requester that there is a statistic/report that this person denies availability time and again although they show availability. That will show trends and outliers like people who do it (make homes unavailable although showing availability) repeatedly.
@Juancho, I think itâs obvious that when we talk about home exchanges, the fact that acceptances are conditional and not mandatory is intrinsic â itâs a given. And it would be outrageous if members were penalised for that! If anything, what someone could add (although personally I find it pointless) would be the opposite statement, saying something like: âI accept every request I receive.â Which I would be surprised that anyone really did 100% of the time.
I understand that more and more people on the site have an Airbnb host mentality â used to filling up their calendars without even knowing whoâs staying in their paid apartments, and not caring in the least who they are. I just hope that spirit doesnât end up spreading to all HE hosts.
For example, in my case, I receive many requests. To filter travellers and see their genuine interest in my home and my family, I include a sentence at the end of my listing asking that, if theyâve read the entire description, they mention it in their request, as a way to increase the chances of a positive response from me. Iâd say fewer than 10% of the people who contact me actually mention it â which means they didnât even read the full listing before reaching out!
If someone doesnât bother to read my info, why should I host them in my home? In those cases, I tend to decline them. And other families will have a thousand different criteria for deciding who they open the doors of their homes to â and who they donât.
Perhaps they simply donât feel comfortable explaining the reason for rejecting your application and prefer to use a neutral excuse instead.
Please read this : â Did you know? A green calendar doesn't mean an automatic yes!
Please read this article the staff made some months ago : â Did you know? A green calendar doesn't mean an automatic yes!
I am not sure how you tease out people who reply like this vs those who just donât find your proposal a fit. It is annoying when people say it is rented but then donât block it after you contact them. I do think refuse and block calendar would be a quick cure, not for your request but the one after you if it truely is not available to anyone. Sometimes you just arenât a fit and that is ok. I have turned down a number of people but usually when my calender isnât open.
Of course a green calendar isnât an automatic âyesâ. But, if it is a repeated action of showing available and then saying itâs unavailable upon inquiry, then it would help requesters to know that it is a habit of this owner to continuously show green and then to state itâs not available and to pass on requesting from them.
Welcome to the Forum and thank you for taking the time to make this suggestion to improve our community. I think you have detailed a few different issues here.
- Ensure people keep their calendars up to date
- Why do members decline requests when they calendar says they have availability
Some declines will be because they have not kept their calendars up to date - which indeed is very frustrating. One would hope that perhaps they hadnât realised and when your request came though they they updated it straight away (I know this has happened to me before!).
However other declines will be nothing to do with whether they have availability or not. They may simply not want to host you. It is unlikely to be for a personal reason (so do try not to take offense). But perhaps your home is not where they wish to travel to, or they are waiting for a âbetterâ offer.
Both issues are tricky to enforse as they cannot easily be separated. I see that @Etienne has also shared a great article that explains this better than I probably just have 