How to maintain a great response rate

Your response rate is the percentage of new guest messages you’ve answered within 24 hours in the past 30 days.

• This includes either replying to a new inquiry from a guest, accepting or declining a reservation request, or sending a pre-approval
• Responding after 24 hours will decrease your overall response rate and increase your response time
• Your response rate can impact your position in search results

Following a few simple guidelines can make it easy to respond to guests within 24 hours.

One easy tip from Superhost Omar of Mexico City: “Double check that your Airbnb app, SMS, and email notification alerts are always active, so they’re visible on your mobile when a new message is received.” Some other tips:

• Once you download the Airbnb app, you can choose whether you want email, text, or in-app notifications—or all three, like Omar suggests
• Set up quick replies (formerly known as saved messages) to respond without writing a word
• After you’ve connected with guests, try our scheduled messages tool to give guests important details at crucial times—like at check-in and checkout
• Remember some guests are in different time zones, which is another reason scheduled messages are such a good idea

A key part of hosting is staying connected to your Airbnb account and responding to messages quickly. Doing so helps raise your response rate, helps your listing appear higher in search results—and helps you build toward becoming a Superhost.