Details on Airbnb's update to Instant Book settings

[Airbnb]

Updated - 12.12.2022

Hi everyone,

As part of Airbnb’s latest release, we announced that we are expanding identity verification to all booking guests traveling to the top 35 countries and regions on Airbnb*, and that we will plan to expand guest identity verification worldwide in Spring 2023.

With this update, Airbnb has made some adjustments to Instant Book settings. 

• In the top 35 countries/regions on Airbnb, the “government-ID required” option has been automatically replaced with the new multi-step identity verification process, and removed as an Instant Book setting. Learn more about Airbnb’s verification process here
• Hosts outside of the top 35 countries who previously selected the “government-ID required” option can now require Airbnb’s multi-step verification process. Learn more about Airbnb’s verification process here
• The “Host recommendation required” option has been updated to “good track record,” which only allows guests to book a stay if they’ve had no incidents or negative reviews. Learn more

If your building or community requires proof of a government ID, you can ask your guest to provide it by sending them a message through Airbnb. If you have any questions or need more information, check out our Help Center article. 

Thanks, 

Airbnb Community Team

*Top 35 countries = Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, United States (including Puerto Rico), Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa

[Connie480]

That is terrible that people are showing up at the wrong time. The model is flawed because it’s unreasonable to pay thousands of dollars and given a fake address of a parking garage. VRBO gives the address when you pay. Business people who need to plan meeting cannot be left in the dark because others don’t follow the rules. Good luck to you. I appreciate you answering my question.

thanks,

connie 

[Huma0]

@Connie479 my guests usually get the full address a while before their stay, but not until 48 hours after booking (not sure if yours was a last minute reservation?) because they could cancel penalty free during that time frame. So, it's a good opportunity for scammers/criminals to get the address details for the listing. That is why Airbnb does not give out the address until after that penalty free cancellation period is over.

As for your host, as @Mariann4 says, guests could turn up unexpectedly before the previous guests have checked out (has happened to me), so maybe this particular host has had problems with that in the past and that is why they don't give the address in advance.

If there are other things about the listing, the host's behaviour/correspondence etc. that concern you, then maybe you are right to feel wary, but if it's this alone, that doesn't imply that the host is a scammer.

[Huma0]

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@Milena334 wrote:

now i have already 3  bookings by people with no review whatsoever 

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Ok, that's interesting. I am sure @Emilie said either in this thread or another on the same topic that the 'good track record' meant guests must have at least one review, not just no 'negative' ones. 

So, how is it that guests with no reviews were able to instant book with you?

@Emilie Please could you clarify this point with some official and documented information from Airbnb because it's causing a lot of confusion.

I don't think anyone really knows what 'good track record' means. The wording about it is extremely brief and extremely vague.

[Emilie]

@Huma0 I was away until today, apologies for the late reply here!

The “Good track record” requirement only allows guests who have stayed on Airbnb without incidents or negative reviews, so they need to have a review already.New guests or guests with 0 reviews will not be able to book when you have the “good track record “ requirement on. Guests that have recently broken Airbnb policies—or house rules set by Hosts—don't qualify as having a good track record. 

We did note those cases where it seemed this didn’t work as intended and are investigating. 

Hope this helps!

Emilie

[Milena334]

@Emilie I have checked and double checked my settings and have the ( good track record on) for both listing, 

I have a instant booking next week with someone with 0 reviews made 3 weeks ago.

I wouldn't have accepted her , but at the same time I don't want to put my listings on request only. 

Upon contacting customer service they told me I can cancel if that made me feel uncomfortable (3 bookings per year max ) without my score being penalized.

[Mckell0]

I had this same issue happen to me this month. I've had three guests be able to instant book our space without reviews with the good track record setting activated. I was told that the only way to prevent someone without reviews from staying with us is to turn off the Instantbook capability for all guests when I reached out to support. 

I told the support representative that I was able to prevent guests that did not have reviews from booking our space in the past, but the support representative told me that it has always been the case that instant book settings allowed guests without reviews to book. I believe the support representative was mistaken. 

I really appreciated that feature before. I feel uncomfortable allowing anyone that doesn't have reviews to be able to book my space instantly.  I do not believe that turning off the Instant book settings for all guests is an adequate replacement either. 

@Emilie, could you clarify that the good track record setting should prevent guests without a ratings from booking? That is not what I heard from CS. 

[Huma0]

@Milena334 See @Emilie 's response below.

Did you definitely have the 'good track record' filter turned on when those three guests without reviews instant booked with you? According to @Emilie , they shouldn't have been able to.

[Milena334]

Yes indeed  @Huma0 i made sure i had the good track record filter on , and i keep having people with no reviews on their first booking able to book directly.

i am so no happy about it 😞 

[Huma0]

@Milena334 

Have you tried to contact Airbnb about this? I know it can be painful to deal with CS and I am not convinced that this is actually a glitch, but just in case...

[Ryo3]

I just turned my instant booking off.   Mostly anyone can book with the new standards.

[Emilie]

Hi all, 

Thank you for all your feedback on these recent changes!

After reading, collecting and passing on all your comments with the product team, I'm happy to share that the pre-booking message feature will be returned to Instant Booking settings starting today, December 12th. If you'd like to read more about it and share any thoughts or questions you have, please head over to this topic:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-updates/The-Instant-Book-pre-booking-message-feature-is-r...

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Warren10]

This is a backward step for Airbnb in my opinion. I have been a huge advocate to people with concerns in our neighborhood about Airbnb, in terms of educating them about how we as hosts have control over who our gusts are. I have just now received an instant booking from a guest with no prior reviews, and have been told by support I am allowed to cancel a booking like this up to 3 times per year without penalty. Let’s see how that goes, but again; I believe this will negatively impact not just hosts, but the brand in general by taking us back to the dark days of Airbnb horror parties etc…

[Aline761]

I lost my superhost status because I cancelled a booking ( within 1 min of their booking ) 😞